Porcelain

Addison scowled at the group of teenage girls that crowded around the newly released Vera Wang perfume, giggling. She knew that even if they were the daughters of well-off parents there wasn’t a chance in hell that they were going to make a purchase. More than likely they were going to huddle around and spray each other until they stunk, or attempt to nab the tester – which was exactly why she was watching them. Meticulously rearranging a few bottles nearby she continually glanced over. Despite their laughter Addison knew that they were nervously aware of being watched and were simply waiting for the moment that she left them alone.

“Can I help you girls at all?” another voice asked them and Addison rolled her eyes as one of her co-workers approached the group. Like some form of robotic clones the group all shook their heads at once, shuffling away and deeper into the store. Once they had moved off the middle-aged lady turned her attention to Addison, waltzing over. “Addison was there a reason why you didn’t approach them to scare them off?”

“Mostly because if I had to approach everyone who tried to score a free spray every thirty seconds I wouldn’t have time for anything else,” the plum-haired girl replied, finally leaving the bottles she had been fiddling with alone and moving back to the counter.

“You’ve been here long enough to know the procedures you know.”

“And I’ve been here too long to follow them to a tee Rachael. I may not have been up in their faces, but I didn’t take my eye off them. They would’ve figured out soon they wouldn’t get a chance and move on,” Addison said with a shrug. Her eyes were already scanning for the next potential client and trying very hard to ignore the older woman.

“Need I remind you what would happen if I were a manager?” Rachael pointed out, folding her arms across her chest and the other had to stop herself from rolling her eyes.

“I’d be given a warning, or worse. Noted Rachael, I’ll be more upfront next time,” she apologized, hoping to sound as sincere as possible. The lady regarded her for a few seconds before nodding, finally moving away. Addison let out a deep sigh with the movement, smoothing down her skirt. She wanted to groan at the fact that she still had five hours to go until her shift was finished, though held it back knowing that Rachael would hear it. Instead she turned her attention to the customer who had just walked in.

“Good afternoon, can I be of any assistance?” she greeted warmly, and the lady turned to her. Addison guessed that they were roughly the same age and she couldn’t help but sweep her eyes over the woman. The dress she was wearing hugged her every curve and the heels she was tottering around in beat even the ones Addison was clad in.

“Ah yes, I was hoping to find a new fragrance. Something sexy that will send my fiancé into overdrive when he smells it on me at the wedding,” the blonde said, waving her hand in the air and that was when Addison noticed the large rock adorning her left ring finger.

“Well I suppose that depends on what he likes. Any idea if he’s more of a woody person, musky, or fruity?” Addison asked, her smile now hiding the urge to facepalm. The people that she served on a day to day basis fell into a few categories. There were the ones from ‘old money’, whose families were rich and who had been brought up with all the luxuries; they flung money around like it was going out of fashion. There were those who had earned their money through hard work and promotions and wanted the latest perfume to show to their co-workers they could afford it. Then there were those who married into money, who gained the prince or princess syndrome of suddenly having a bunch of wealth to spend to take their place in the family tree. Addison hated all of them.

“Well at the moment I have... oh shoot what is it? Oh, La Petite Robe Noire by Guerlain,” the girl began, absolutely butchering the French. “And he loves that... so I guess whatever that is?”

“Alright, we can work with that,” Addison replied, managing to lose a tiny morsel of her frustration. The only good thing about people who had no clue about scents was that they were more open to suggestions, and less likely to turn their nose up at her and abuse her for being a useless fragrance employee. Which she definitely was not. Taking a step Addison beckoned the woman to follow, leading her towards the first name that popped into her head as a possibility.

It took over half an hour for Addison to successfully match the girl with a perfume that she thought would knock her soon to be husband flat, but eventually she was bringing up a product on the register and the blonde was swiping her credit card. Addison handed the bag over with a smile and bid the girl a good day, watching as she retreated. Once more she asked the question of how she had ended up here at twenty-five, slaving away to a bunch of rich bitches while wanting to tear her own insides out.

“Commendable Addison, it always amuses me when you do a one-eighty like that and pull out the outstanding customer service,” Rachael mentioned as she approached the counter from where she had been dusting the displays. “I hope that time spent on her doesn’t affect your KPI though.”

Addison simply shot the woman a smile, shaking her head. She may have hated her job with a passion, but she was a damn good saleswoman, in fact the sale had just brought her over her daily target. Not that she’d let Rachael know that. It was probably the reason why she was able to get away with certain things like the deep plum colour of her hair, despite the rules stating only natural colours were permitted. She didn’t quite think she could get away with smashing her co-worker’s head into one of the displays though, and so instead she merely visualised it. Only four and a half hours to go.