Page 8 of Eye on the Ball
Tess
After placing the bottle out of the way beneath the counter to deal with later—I still didn’t quite believe the enchantment was real, but you never knew, especially in Dead End—I smiled at my new customers and happily rang up sales and took in a couple of pawn items for the next hour. I kept glancing at Spartacus, who’d tired of his morning battles and sat slumped next to the vase shaped like three drunk frogs having a singalong. I hoped my prospective employee was on time. Somebody who didn’t show up on time or even early for an interview wasn’t likely to be a good candidate.
At ten till eleven, my current employee and friend Eleanor Wolf showed up. I needed her to cover the shop while I conducted the interview.
Eleanor was in her early sixties, looked like your favorite neighbor, and could negotiate the bark off a tree and make the tree happy about it. My customers loved her, I loved her, and I knew I’d probably lose her after she got married.
“How’s the wedding planning going?” She and Bill Oliver were soon to be married, an event which would require me to wear a hideous pink-meringue-cake dress.
I held back a sigh.
The things we do for the ones we love.
“Wonderful! But I won’t bore you with the details. Except, we got Zane the cutest little ring-bearer suit!”
Zane was her grandson, and she adored him with the heat of a thousand suns. I’d been forced to … um … beenluckyto see maybe a million pictures of him since Eleanor’s son, Dave, had adopted him.
While she chattered on about wedding stuff, I gave myself a mental smack. I was being uncharacteristically snarky about a friend, if even only in the privacy of my mind. Maybe the confrontation with Ace had left me in a bad mood. I needed to shake it off and not bring a bad mood into the interview.
At exactly eleven o’clock, Tina Probst walked into the store. She was nineteen years old; I knew from her resume. She had long black hair in thin braids, warm brown skin, and gorgeous hazel eyes. She looked nervous, but she was dressed appropriately for an interview in neat jeans and a buttoned white long-sleeved shirt, and she wasn’t wearing a ton of makeup or jewelry, which would have worried me because working in a pawnshop is not a white-collar job. We clean. We deal with dusty inventory.
She was more nervous than the job interview alone would merit, which made sense. I’d first met her when she was helping her boyfriend Jimmy try to shoplift from my store. She’d since dumped Jimmy and moved in with her grandparents, who lived on the outskirts of Dead End. I’d heard from the grapevine that she was a nice kid who was doing well and trying to get her life back on track. When she’d stopped by to ask about myHelp Wantednotice in theGazette, she’d looked like she had no hope I’d even agree to an interview. But I’d appreciated her gutsiness in trying, and I’d surprised both her and myself by saying yes.
Now, we’d talk, and we’d see.
“Hello, honey,” Eleanor said, giving her a warm smile. Eleanor’s sunny personality was one of the many qualities that made her so perfect in the job. People couldn’t help but love her.
Tina waved and bit her lip.
“Tina, I’m so glad to see you. Come on into the back with me,” I said. The girl hesitated, but then followed me back into the kitchen.
“Coffee?”
She shook her head.
“Okay, let’s chat.” We sat at the small table, and I picked up her resume for something to do. I’d already studied it and contacted her references. She’d been completely honest about the six-month gap in job history from when she was following the ex around the country. Other than that, she’d graduated high school with good grades and worked at a couple of convenience stores. The managers at both stores had said she was a hard worker and good with the customers. She’d left the first place because the owner sold it and the new owner only wanted to hire his family members.
The second place she’d left to follow the boyfriend. That manager had asked me to tell her she could come back anytime. To me, that was the highest form of praise, so I was leaning toward hiring her. But the interview would be the true test. Before I could ask her anything, though, she took a deep breath and spoke up.
“First, I want to apologize again for … before. And, in case you’re wondering about my terrible judgment, Jimmy isn’t a bad guy. He just made bad choices after some hard luck. But I broke up with him. I’ll never be involved in stealing anything again,” she offered in a small voice, looking down at the table.
“I’m glad,” I said briskly. “I think jail would be awful. Let’s get started. I talked to your references. Mr. Chopra said to tell you he’ll have you back anytime you want a job.”
Her tense face relaxed into a smile. “He is the nicest man. I hated leaving that job, but … Well. Enough of that. The past is the past. Now, let’s talk pawnshops.”
“One of my favorite subjects!”
We chatted for maybe twenty minutes, but after the first five, I knew I’d give her a chance. She was smart and sounded pretty knowledgeable about customer service. She also expressed what I believed was a sincere interest in learning about antiques.
“I think I have what I need,” I finally said, glancing at the clock. We were busy on Fridays, and I’d left Eleanor alone to handle everything for long enough.
“Oh! But—okay.” Her shoulders slumped, and I realized she’d misunderstood.
“No! I mean, I have what I need to offer you the job.”
Her eyes widened with delight. “Really? I get the job?”
“Really. Again, though, it’s just part-time. You understand that, right? And I can’t offer benefits for the most part, but I will give you paid sick days and vacation days. We’ll get you paperwork on that. I’ll give you some Dead End Pawn shirts to wear to work, too.”