"Good morning, Mr Saint"
"Good morning, Carole, lovely weather we're having" replied Jeremy Saint as he arrived at the offices of Dewey, Cheathem and Howe. Carole nodded and walked on by; not wanting to be late for her meeting. As for Jeremy, he had to negotiate three obstacles: First, was the attention of his boss but that was fine because he was busy dealing with Jeremy's second obstacle: Bianca. Since joining the firm as J.J. Gotcha's secretary she would occasionally give him the eye and he felt uncomfortable. If he caught sight of her in the distance, he'd make sure he never made eye contact and would take a circuitous route to his office just to avoid her. His third obstacle was the "wit" of the man he shared an office with: Fanshawe.
"Good morning, Saint!" said Fanshawe, enthusiastically, the moment Jeremy walked into their office.
"You seem in a good mood, Fanshawe" replied Jeremy.
"More than just good...absolutely top of the world, for you see I have obtained TWO tickets to see Mr Burt Bacharach with FRIENDS in concert this Friday evening"
"Two tickets? So who's the other person going to be?"
"Ah, that's what I wanted to ask you about..." said Fanshawe, dropping his voice and looking serious for a moment.
"Fanshawe, I'm flattered but..." said Jeremy.
"Not you! I meant that superb specimen who is J.J.'s secretary"
"You mean...Bianca?" said Jeremy, sounding shocked.
"Yes, isn't she wonderful?" said Fanshawe, dreamily. "The reason I'm telling you about my interest in her is that I understand you and her have a bit of...history?"
"Phht! It was one date" said Jeremy, shrugging his shoulders.
"Still, wanted to give you the old heads up, buddy. Are you OK with me asking her out?"
"I'm more than OK!" said Jeremy, enthusiastically. "In fact, I couldn't be happier for you. By all means take her to the concert and I'd add treat her to dinner as well: She likes Italian." added Jeremy, slapping his colleague on the back.
"I mean, if there are any residual feelings..." said Fanshawe.
"Trust me, there aren't" Jeremy wanted to give Fanshawe an unequivocal blessing. If Bianca liked Fanshawe then she'd stop trying to flirt with and distract him. Jeremy could finally get complete, 100% closure. There was only one true love for Jeremy, and right about now she was probably deluged with customers over at the boutique.
There was only one person in Pack's Clothing at that time and that was the owner herself. To say it was a slow morning would be an understatement: It was a dead morning as far as customers were concerned but Barbara consoled herself with the knowledge that she'd only been open for an hour...still 7 hours left in the working day. The last couple of days' saw brisk trading as she had to hire a temporary staff member who normally worked over at JF&S's but who helped out on his day off as a favour. There were two awkward customers...one seemed to have had a panic attack...but her temp handled the situation well. But he wasn't available today and probably for the better: He'd have been wasting his time here.
Barbara thought a little mood music might make people, especially that vital teenage and youth crowd, want to come into the store.
"Ahh, that's better" she said. Barbara walked over to one of the mannequins and checked out the outfit that was on it. It was brand new and inspired by Pierre Cardin...although getting an original Cardin outfit was way beyond Packs' budget. Barbara adjusted the pose and shifted the dummy so that it could be seen better by anyone coming through the door.
No sooner as she had made those changes than her first customer of the day arrived. However, they were not quite the type Barbara had in mind. A tall, older lady who was a little on the large side had entered and was casting a suspicious eye over the premises.
"Harumph...this place used to be a hardware store. Where's Herman Pack?" replied the lady.
"That store closed down 10 years ago and Mr Pack retired. I own the store now and, well, it's a fashion boutique."
"It's bright in here" said the lady.
"Can I help you find something you might like?"
"I'll look for myself, thank you" said the lady, brusquely.
Another customer entered the boutique and this time it was a much younger lady. Barbara greeted her and asked if she could help in any way.
"I've just had my hair done and now I'm looking for a new outfit" said the young lady.
"You've come to the right place" replied Barbara. "I love your hair and that blouse is sensational. Now are you looking for something everyday or for a special occasion?"
"Something to impress when I'm out and about" replied the young woman.
"Huh! You'll need to lose a few pounds before you can manage that!" said the old woman, grumpily. The younger woman looked shocked when she heard such a brutal and blunt remark and Barbara could tell things could go rapidly south.
"Let me show you our European inspired line...." said Barbara, trying to whisk the younger woman away from the older one before the two customers came to blows.
"Who does that lady think she is?" said the younger woman.
"I know, I know...how about this? It's inspired by Pierre Cardin" said Barbara. She looked over to another area of the shop and noticed a bald, middle aged man standing too close to a shop dummy and who was rubbing his thighs and licking his lips. "Oh no, a weirdo!" thought Barbara.
"Sir, can I ask you not to do that to the mannequin" said Barbara, trying to escort the man away from it.
"How much for it and the swimsuit?" said the man.
"The mannequin is not for sale, only the swimsuit" replied Barbara.
"Hngh!" said the man, indignantly and he walked off.
Barbara sighed...she had some awkward customers and no sales at the moment! More people streamed in and with any luck some of them would want to buy something. One teenage girl, dressed in the height of fashion, approached Barbara.
"Wow, how long has this shop been here? It's fab!" she said.
"Oh, not long...coming up to one week now" replied Barbara.
"I love it! Have you got anything by Mary Quant?"
"I have something a lot like it, come this way" said Barbara, her mood suddenly picking up. This young lady was just the type of customer she was hoping to attract.
The young woman practically tried on every dress in the shop but Barbara made sure she dealt with other shoppers...and, all of a sudden, with an hour to go before closing time she was deluged with keen and eager customers.
It was all starting to be more than one person running a shop could handle. However, the cavalry arrived in the form of Jeremy.
"Hey, sweetheart, how's business?" he asked Barbara.
"BUSY! Now I need you to ring up some customers while I restock the shelves!"
"OK...Chief!" he said, sarcastically.
Between the two of them they managed to deal with all the customers and keep things stocked by closing time. Exhausted, both of them headed back home for dinner.
"You should look into getting some permanent help" said Jeremy. "You're rushed off of your feet as it is"
Barbara shook her head. "I can't do that until we start making more of a profit. These are early days and extra budget is going into publicity right now. Once we start doing a healthy business, I'll hire a shop assistant"
"And how was your day?" she asked him.
"Oh it was very good, very satisfying" said Jeremy, his eyes lighting up. "Fanshawe has asked....erm....one of the senior secretaries out to that upcoming Burt Bacharach concert". He had to stop himself from saying "Bianca" because he didn't want Barbara to know that she was still on the horizon at work.
"I would love to go to that show!" said an enthusiastic Barbara. "I wonder if there are any tickets left?"
"Oh I wouldn't have thought so" said Jeremy, defensively.
"Oh I wouldn't have thought so" said Jeremy, defensively.
"Let's phone the theatre and find out. You never know unless you ask!"
"I don't want to set you up for disappointment"
"There's no harm in asking"
"Aren't we busy this weekend? Aren't we seeing my folks or your folks or my brother-in-law?"
"Nope...nothing in the diary. I'll phone the theatre tomorrow...maybe we can go to dinner at that Italian restaurant near there"
"NO! I mean, I've heard there's an excellent French one nearby...supposed to be terrific. Or Chinese! Plenty of Chinese restaurants near there. Or do you fancy steak?"
"I'll book the tickets, you book the restaurant...how does that sound?"
"Cosmic..." said a less than enthusiastic Jeremy.
Eventually Jeremy went to bed and Barbara tidied up in the kitchen when she was disturbed by a knock at the door. "Who could it be at this time?" she muttered.
Answering the door she saw a stocky young man on the porch. "Hello?" she said, checking her watch. "It's very late"
"Is it?" said the man. "We met back at the Llama Man convention. I'm head of the Llama Man fan club and you signed a form indicating that you were interested in membership"
"Really? I forgot about that...listen it's real late..." said a frustrated Barbara.
"Well you shouldn't have signed the form!" said the man.
"Well I didn't know you were going to show up a month later at 11 o'clock at night!"
"Is that late?"
"YES! Now please, I just want to go to bed...goodbye"
"YES! Now please, I just want to go to bed...goodbye"
"I'll put you down as a maybe?" said the man as the door shut in his face.
