Page 10 of Outside The Wire

“See? You’ll have a Valentine!”

She shrugged. “I’m not getting my hopes up. Besides, he already told me that his hours are super crazy.”

“Hey, it’s still a date.”

I could tell she was excited, but was trying not to show it. She’d been burned a lot in the past year, and putting herself out there was hard. I got it. After my last boyfriend, I wasn’t exactly keen to get out there either. But hey, we all had stories that sucked. I wasn’t going to let that get me down.

Two hours later, the shop was ready to open and the shop was decorated with pink and red, my two least favorite colors. Well, when put together. If it was for Christmas, that was perfectly fine. The music suddenly cut off and a hopelessly romantic love song filled the space. I grimaced, stomping to the back room.

I glowered at Noelle, crossing my arms over my chest. “What are you doing?”

“Hey, Valentine’s Day requires the appropriate music. You can’t play Christmas music while trying to sell hearts and flowers. It just doesn’t work.”

“It could work,” I argued.

“It really doesn’t. Now, take your butt out there and sell love. That’s what we’re here for,” she said, getting up to shove me back out into the main part of the shop as if she owned the place and I was her employee.

“We don’t sell love. We sell furniture and accents.”

“Same difference.”

“It’s not at all.”

“Whatever. I’ll handle the atmosphere because we all know what will happen if you’re in charge.”

She gave me a light shove into the main room where I stumbled into the counter. I would have gone back to fight her,but one of my regular customers walked through the door to see what was new for the season and I got wrapped up talking to her. The day rushed past me until the sun was setting and it was time to close the shop. Days flew past me like that a lot. I found myself wrapped up in work a lot, lost in having fun in my shop and talking with customers more times than not, leaving bookwork for at night instead of downtime at the shop when I should be doing it.

I flipped the sign on the door and went around shutting off lights as Noelle finished locking up for the night and turning off the music. When we were done, I pulled on my pea coat and wrapped my scarf around my neck, then pulled on my hat with the pom pom on top, then my thick knit gloves. After slipping out of my shoes and into my snow boots, I was ready to go.

It was always such a chore to go anywhere in the winter in Colorado, but I’d lived here my whole life. I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. Although, some days when storms were really bad, I wished I lived someplace really warm where they never saw snow.

“Ready?” Noelle asked, peeking her head around the corner.

“Yep, just grabbing my bag.”

“I can’t wait to get home and eat some soup.”

“I’m probably just picking up something on the way home,” I sighed. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d made something homemade. I was always too tired at the end of the night. But I always had time at Christmas to make cookies.

“You could always come over for dinner,” she suggested. “I have butternut squash soup.”

“As delicious as that sounds, I’m stopping by the outlet store tonight.”

“Finally getting that rug, huh?” she grinned.

“I’ve thought about it for a good two months now, designed it twenty times in my mind, and I think it’s the rug for me.”

“I can’t believe you’re finally biting the bullet,” she laughed. “It takes you ages to decide on anything.”

“I know, but that’s because I’d buy everything in sight if I didn’t really mull things over.”

I walked outside with her, careful on the steps as the temperatures dropped. I’d have to remember to salt the steps in the morning. Actually, I’d have to remember to pick up more salt on my way in tomorrow.

“Do you want me to come with you?”

“No, that’s okay. I’ve got this.”

“How are you going to get it home?”

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