Page 31 of Ava
“No, it’s for the entire inventory. This is my father-in-law’s store, and he wants to retire. Unfortunately, none of his children want the store, all their interests lie elsewhere. Was there something I could help you with?”
“Yes, but first could I ask you a few questions?” Ava asked, and by then Justin had rejoined her, and he stood close to her. When the woman kept eyeing him, he put his arm around Ava, and settled his hand on her hip. That brought the woman’s attention back to Ava.
“Sure, what do you need to know?”
“First where is the furniture made?”
“Right here in the USA,” she said, and flipped the covers back on the bed closest to them to point to a tag that said that very thing.
“Is the fabric fire resistant?”
“Yes.” She pointed to the label, and both Ava and Justin leaned in and read it. “It’s on these tags for the bed, but for the dressers, it on the inside of the top drawer. Same as the night stands. For the bed frame, it’s on the backside of the headboard.”
“Thank you, now, if you’re going out of business, how long does the sale last for?”
“Until everything is gone.”
“Are there any guarantees?” Justin asked.
“Unfortunately, no, we won’t be offering you a store warranty, but we can offer you a manufacturer’s warranty.”
“Okay, last question, well, next to last. Do you deliver?”
“We can.”
“Okay, do you have a lot of items in your backroom?”
“We do, may I ask why?”
“Because we have an eight-bedroom house to furnish by Thursday.”
“Wow, that’s big, what are you looking for?”
“Everything.” Both Ava and Justin chuckled.
“Everything, as in?”
“Beds, mattresses, box springs, dressers, night stands, lamps, couches, love seats, dining-room furniture, desks, washers and dryers, and kitchen dishes, along with small appliances.”
“I can help with everything except for the kitchen dishes and appliances. Oh, and if you’re looking for televisions, we don’t do them there. You’ll have to go down the street. It’s your lucky day, because they’re starting an early Fourth of July sale today. It goes until two days after that holiday.”
Ava and Justin grinned at each other, and Ava held out her hand. “Hi, I’m Ava and this is Justin. I think we’ve come to the right place.”
“I’m Maddison, and let me go tell the other sales people to take whatever other customers that come in. I’ll be right back, and I’ll walk through everything with you.” True to her word, Maddison returned in under five minutes, and the three of them discussed what they wanted. Four hours later, they stood at the cash register, and Maddison was going over the final list of items they had purchased. When Ava double checked them off the list, she looked at them, and asked, “Where do I deliver this stuff.”
“Here,” Justin pulled out a business card and handed it to her. “It’s a new house, and the mailbox isn’t at the road yet. I know it takes about forty minutes from there to here. Why don’t you have your driver give me a call as he’s getting ready to pull out? I can have a crew meet him there to help unload.”
“That would be wonderful, thank you,” she looked at the card and smiled. “Mr. Stuart. I’ll attach this to the invoice. Now, we only have to take care of the matter of paying.” She sighed and took the card Ava handed her. When Maddison saw that it was completely black with nothing written on it, she only quirked one brow. Ava crossed her fingers beneath the counter that the card would work. Three minutes later, she was handed the receipt for the purchases of the furniture. Because they had bought so much, Maddison had thrown in three odd chairs with ottomans, and Ava figured she’d take the teal one for her room. She thought it was comfortable when she sat in it. If nothing else, she could toss her clothes on it.
After leaving the store with the receipt, and a promise from Maddison that they would load up their three trucks to arrive early Thursday morning, Justin helped Ava into his truck. She buckled in, then leaned her head back, and sighed heavily.
“Tired?”
“Yes, I better sleep good tonight, that was exhausting.” She rolled her head at him, and grinned. “But, I think we got a bargain.”
“We did, especially at fifty percent off. Did you see that they took the items to the back as soon as we decided on what we wanted. And, look.” He pointed out the windshield at the store, and the employees who had ended up helping them were just now hanging the going out of business sign.
“I wonder if they waited until we got our choices picked out first.”
