Page 19 of Wanted

I missed talking to him on the phone.

I missed his arms wrapped around me, holding me tight.

I missed his lips on mine.

I even missed arguing with him.

After another hour of talking, we decided to call it a night. Thefact the bottle of wine was empty probably had a little something to do withour persistent yawning. At least I felt better having had the chance to talk tosomeone about what was weighing on my mind.

~13~

Sara

“Hey, watch yourself,” Matt called out as he came up behind me. Hewas carrying a breathtaking bouquet of white and burgundy calla lilies, and mydistractedness almost made him drop them all over the floor.

“Wow, Matt, did you put the arrangement together yourself?”

“Sure did.” He leaned in close and revealed, “I learn from thebest.”

“Well then, you must be talking about Katherine because shetaught me everything I know.”

“Yeah, she’s who I was talking about.” He laughed, making his wayback toward the prep room.

“Very funny,” I yelled over my shoulder.

Inventory kept me busy. There were only a few customers millingaround the store, and I was thankful for the short reprieve to catch up on somebasic data entry.

The bell above the door sounded as someone walked in, pulling myattention from the computer. A young, blonde woman made her way toward me, abright smile lighting up her pretty face.

“How can I help you?” I asked in my usual upbeat, professionaltone. Even if I was in a bad mood, or distracted by something not so pleasant, itall changed as soon as I was dealing with my customers. They were my lifeline,after all.

“Hi. Yes, I wanted to know if you were hiring.”

Her inquiry came at the most unusual time. Matt and I were discussingthe other day how it would be nice to have another pair of hands with the day-to-dayorders and deliveries. But I didn’t even have the chance to place an ad or putup a simple ‘Help Wanted’ sign in the window yet.

“Well, I was contemplating bringing in an additional person tohelp out, but it would only be part-time. Is a part-time position something youwould be interested in?” Truth was, I was still learning the business part ofthe shop and according to my financials, I couldn’t really afford to bringsomeone on full-time. Not yet, at least.

“Part-time would be perfect.” There was something about the womanstanding in front of me I couldn’t put my finger on. She seemed friendly enoughbut she regaled me with real interest, as if she thought she knew me fromsomewhere. Then again, it could’ve simply been nerves. Maybe I was paying toomuch attention to something which was a figment of my imagination.

Looking the girl over fromhead to toe one more time, I dove right in with the necessary questions. “Doyou have any experience working in a flower shop?” I quickly assessed mypotential employee, doing my best to read her during the whole two minutesshe’d been in my shop. She looked to be older than me, maybe in her early tomid-thirties, but in this day and age, I couldn’t really be sure. Herpersonality seemed pleasant, and she had an air of confidence surrounding her.

No outward signs of crazy.

Then again, there was only so much you could tell from an initialinterview.

She smiled brightly as she answered. “I do have experience, closeto ten years’ worth. I used to work in my aunt’s shop back home in NorthCarolina.”

I didn’t need much time to make my decision before I blurted outmy proposal. “I’ll tell you what. I can bring you in on a trial basis. Let’ssay a month. We’ll see how you fit in and what your skills are before a permanentoffer is extended.” Her smile widened which caused me to mirror her enthusiasm.“What do you say?”

“Oh, my God, that would be amazing. Thank you so much.”

“Okay, great. Well, you can come by tomorrow, say around ten?” Aswe were finishing up, Matt strolled in with a different array of flowers in hishands.

Grabbing his attention, I introduced him to our newest addition. “Matt,this is…” I stopped talking because I realized I’d never gotten the poorwoman’s name. “I apologize, but you never told me your name.”

“Oh, yeah, it would be helpful, right?” She gave Matt a onceover, obvious attraction in her stare. “It’s Megan. Megan Smith.”

“Hi, Megan.” Matt looked over at me, a look of confusion cloudinghis face.

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