Page 127 of Timeless

“What can I do?” she asked.

“Nothing. I’m all right.”

“I can help, Quinn,” she offered, smiling at her. “Can I ring people up so you can work the crowd or something?”

“Work the crowd?” Quinn laughed. “Here you go.” She handed a man his credit card back. “It’ll be delivered to you on Monday.”

“You have a delivery person?” Abby asked after he walked off.

“Yeah, me. I don’t have very many deliveries, so I rent a truck when I do and do it myself.”

“Oh. Can I help somehow?”

“With deliveries?” Quinn asked. “Hello,” she greeted the woman in front of her.

“With this. I can ring people up, Quinn. Just show me how.”

“Okay. So, the item has a number on the tag. You just have to enter it here.” Quinn pointed to her laptop screen. “And it’ll show you the price. It should match what’s on the tag. If it doesn’t have a tag, it’s probably in a bin or a bowl with a tag on it, like with keys and random bits and bobs.”

“Did you just say bits and bobs?” Abby laughed.

“Shut up,” Quinn replied with a smile as she entered the number of the item that the customer was buying into the computer, and it spat out a price. “That’ll be one hundred and twenty dollars.”

The woman handed over her credit card, and Quinn showed Abby how to process the payment. Then, she kissed Abby on the cheek to leave her to it while she went onto the floor to try to sell more stuff or answer questions. For over an hour, Abby managed to keep the line down to two to three people before she got more backed up, and Quinn came to help out. Quinn would wrap things up for her while Abby worked the computer, and she found that the number of people in such a small space didn’t bother her as long as Quinn was there with her. She even made small talk with some of the customers and had actual fun doing it. Finally, when there was a lull, she and Quinn went through the shop, straightening things up a bit before the next rush happened after lunch.

“I brought my computer because I thought it might be cool to write in the back while you worked. Silly me, huh?” she said when she flopped down onto the stool in the back once the front door was locked and the sign on it had been turned to closed.

Quinn chuckled and said, “I told you that I get busy onthe weekends. Today, though, I sold more than I have in a while, which is good.” She walked over to Abby and began massaging her shoulders. “You’re so tense, babe.”

“Yeah, I haven’t worked that hard in years. I carried a table to someone’s car for them voluntarily. That thing was solid wood and heavy.”

“And four hundred dollars,” Quinn added.

“What?” Abby looked up. “Really? It’s just a table.”

“It’s a two-hundred-year-old table with a famous owner. It appraised at three-fifty. She offered three. I told her four, and she didn’t counter again. I bought the thing for three, so I just made a hundred bucks. Did she at least tip you for carrying it to her car for her?”

“No. She was supposed to? What an ass.”

Quinn laughed and pulled her into her body.

“Thank you for your help today. I made more money because of you.”

“How so?”

“If the line’s too long, the people buying little things don’t stay and wait it out. The big purchasers, who are out antiquing, do, but the ones who just came in to look around but found something small that they liked just look at the line, and if it’s too long, they put the thing back down and leave. So, I probably made an extra hundred or two today, thanks to you.”

“Where’s my tip, then?” Abby teased before she tapped her own lips.

Quinn smiled, leaned down, and kissed her sweetly.

“Are you ready to get out of here? I can tip you more at your place.”

Abby leaned forward then and pressed her face into Quinn’s chest.

“I brought everything here,” she mumbled. “I was going to write and thought we could look through it together when you were on a break.”

Quinn took a step back and took both of Abby’s hands.