For Carly, it felt like she had been standing in that corner of the shop for hours, but she was sure that she had heard Jody tell Rachael something about an hour. That would mean she had a lot longer to wait until they let her down.
She began to meditate again it seemed to help.
The second hour of the morning was as busy as the first Jody told Rachael when she came to see how things were going around 11. Rachael could not believe it. This morning thanks to Carly’s idea her little shop had done better than any other morning than most of the week. Well except for Wednesday. Rachael could never figure out why for some reason Wednesday was their busiest day of the week, not that she minded.
She had started her own business 18 months ago with the money her uncle had left she had thought it was a good idea. She had always loved fashion but knew that she had no talent when it came to designing clothes. So, she thought that she would start try selling them instead but that wasn’t going so well now. If things didn’t pick up soon, she may have to close the shop. She hoped that would not happen as that would mean that both Michaela and Jody would lose their jobs.
Rachael had always tried to do the best she could for her friends despite what some people thought. She knew even before the shop was open that she would offer Michaela a job. They had been close friends at school and Michaela had been looking for a job for a while now so she would be the one to give her a job. She would have offered Carly a job as well, but she was away at university. This led to Jody being hired instead. Jody could be a pain sometimes, but she was a hard worker and a good salesperson when she put her mind to it.
When the shop had started to run into trouble at the start of the year, Rachael thought it would only be a temporary blip. That blip was slowly becoming part of her everyday life. She had gone to the bank to take out a loan to help support the business. The bank manager was an old friend of her uncle and wanted to help but now six months on there was only so much he could do.
That was why she jumped at Carly’s silly idea when she came up with it a few weeks ago, even if nothing came from it, she had nothing to lose. If it worked however and when Michaela told her that the local paper had run an article looking for stories about local businesses, she thought the stars had aligned in favor. It had been a typical Carly she had met the Monday lunchtime when she had discussed it with her. She had seemed to have zoned out during their conversation, some things never change she thought.
She was surprised when a few days later Carly had called her to tell that she had someone who could help get her ready to be a mannequin for the day. That turned out to be the lovely woman called Ashleigh whom she had met during the preparations that morning. She wondered and not for the first time that morning how Carly and Ashleigh had become friends as they were very different from each other maybe that’s why they were friends because they were so different.
Rachael took another look around the shop her eyes stopping for a second at the spot where Carly was standing. She wanted to say thank you to her old school friend who no doubt saw this promotion as a sort of acting exercise, for her help this morning but if she went over to say anything to her, she would give the game away to the customers who were walking around the shop at the moment. She would tell Carly how much she appreciated what she was doing after the shop had closed.
Carly had stopped her latest round of mediation exercises. Her old tutor who had taught her the technique had told her not to do it so often otherwise she may lose any benefit that she may gain. She looked in the mirror which allowed her to see around the store well most of it anyway. She could see Jody once again bagging up an item for a woman at the counter. This customer was writing something down on a piece of paper which she then dropped into a box on the counter. I wonder if she spotted me, she thought.
“I am sure she thought you looked lovely sister.” The voice from nowhere said to her.
Yet again Carly could not see how was speaking to her. She thought about answering it. “Thank you.”
“You are welcome sister” Came the reply.
Whoever was speaking could hear her, Carly thought. Wait she was sure she hadn’t said anything out loud she had only thought it hadn’t she.
