Page 62 of Outside The Wire

“Exactly.”

“I’ll order the food.”

“I’ll pay.”

I grabbed my card for her and got to work entering everything into inventory while she ordered the food. Time flew past us in a flurry of pecking on our dinner, her listing off items to enter into the system, and adding the details while she wandered around the shop and scouted out a good place for each item.

I saw Noelle checking her watch, gnawing on her lip. She had plans. I remembered her talking about them earlier in the week and I’d completely forgotten about them. It was seven o’clock. If I let her go now, she might still be able to enjoy some of her night.

“You know what? I think we should knock off for the night,” I said, standing up and stretching.

“Really?” Her face brightened and she practically jumped up. Crap, I was the worst employer ever.

“Yeah, this will take forever. Let’s chip away at it throughout the week.”

“That sounds like a good plan.”

“I’ll lock up. Why don’t you head out?”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I’m just going to feed Mr. Fluffington before I leave and change his litter box.”

She grimaced and grabbed her coat. “Yeah, I’ll leave you to it.”

I chuckled as she ran out the door, letting it slam behind her. Sighing, I glanced around at all the work that still needed to be done. We could chip away at it throughout the week like I told her, but the mess around the shop would be unbearable and drive me insane. If I stayed just a few more hours, I could get a lot done.

So, I sat down and got back to work, doing the work twice as slowly, but still getting a little accomplished with every hour that passed. My eyes grew gritty and the numbers started to look likeletters and vice versa. It was insanity. I needed to stop. I glanced at the clock and nearly started crying. It was almost midnight.

I thunked my head on the desk and groaned, thinking about how right now I could be with Asher. I hadn’t even told him I would be working late tonight. I’d completely forgotten, in fact, because I’d gotten so wrapped up in this order. And I desperately wanted to see him. After our little adventure shopping for that picture for his house, nothing else happened. By the time we got home and hung the picture, it was already getting pretty late. Too late to start anything for the night when both of us had to be at work early in the morning.

I sat at the desk for a few minutes, contemplating my life choices and the sanity of running this shop. On days like this, I seriously thought of selling it all off and letting someone else do all the heavy lifting. Running a shop was hard work, and it wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy it, but with only one employee, there was just so much to do. I hadn’t even finished closing out the books for the night. I had to at least finish that before I went home, or I would never catch up tomorrow.

I looked at the disaster around me and sighed. Luckily, garbage day was in two days, so I wouldn’t have to deal with this mess for too much longer. I stumbled through the mess to grab another Coke from the fridge when I heard the weather alert go off. I knew we were supposed to be getting a system moving in, but that wasn’t for another day.

I turned up the speaker as they announced the storm approaching. Shit, it was going to be a big storm. Why hadn’t they announced this sooner? I hurried to the kitchen and turned on the TV on the counter, flipping to the news. I slumped in my seat when I saw the system wasn’t approaching, but was already on top of us. How had I missed this? Had I been so engrossed in my work that I hadn’t heard the weather alerts going off?

I hurried over to the window and looked outside. “Shit.” The ground was covered with snow, but it was the drifting that was the problem. The steps to the porch were half covered with large drifts and the other half was nearly covered. The roads would be worse. I could hardly see anything without lights out there, but then again, it was after midnight.

“It’s okay. I’ll just stay here for the night,” I muttered to myself.

There was a couch in the other room I could snuggle up on. It was better than driving home in this. I just needed to be prepared for whatever happened. Okay, food, water…my phone. I rushed over to my purse and grabbed my phone, finding about ten missed calls from Asher and just as many text messages.

“Shit. He’s going to be so pissed at me.”

I grabbed the charger from the drawer in the kitchen and plugged my phone in. If the storm got bad, I needed my phone to be charged. I had bottled water in the pantry and snacks. It would at least hold me over for a while. I had never been snowed in at the shop before, but I’d always known it was a possibility.

Now, I just had to call Asher and face his wrath for not answering his calls. Or I could be a chicken and just text him. That sounded much better.

Hey, got busy at the shop with inventory.

Where are you?

Still at the shop.

Did you happen to see that there’s a massive snowstorm outside?

Is there? Huh.

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