Floral

Rue's Point of View

I laid in bed as I contemplated whether or not I wanted to get up today or just stay in bed for the morning and open the store just in time for the girls to get in. I really wanted to stay in bed but today was going to be Jenna's first day and I knew she would be at the shop upon opening.

I groaned and got up out of my bed to make my self look presentable for work, even though no one really cared about what I wore. I dressed up just to make myself feel good about having to be at my store. Today I knew that I would have to fake it to make it through this day.

When I got to the shop, Jenna was waiting for me outside. When she saw me, she smiled happily at me and held out a Starbucks cup to me. I grabbed it form her and said a soft thank you. I unlocked the door and let her inside.

"You have two places where you can put your purse. Under the cash register or locked up in the back." I told her with a yawn. She nodded. "You can have your phone on you. If you see the other girls with their phones, take them away. I will give you the code for the safe."

"Seems fair. But I gave Tyler and Josh the store phone for emergencies." Jenna told me with a smile. I looked at her after taking a sip of my coffee.

"Also, you get an hour long break since you will be here all day. The school girls only get 30 minutes because they will be here for about five or six hours." I said as I got the register ready for the day. "I close the shop at noon for about 30 minutes so that I can take a break."

"Josh was pretty bummed this morning." Jenna said. I looked at her. "He never got your number."

"I put it in the bottom of his bag." I laughed. She joined my laughter and stopped to text Josh to let him know.

"I swear, he can be such an idiot sometimes." She told me. I smiled at her.

"If you want you can spray the store with one of our fragrances. I'm going to turn the music on and the rest of the lights." I left her to tend the front while I took care of some business in the back. We had at least 40 minutes before we had to open the doors and that meant I could do a few things in the back before I had to train Jenna.

"Cut my life into pieces, this is my last resort." My phone went off telling me that I had a next text message. I groaned knowing it was too damn early for texting but I checked my phone regardless.

"Hey. It's Josh." The message read. I quickly saved his number and sent him a quick message.

"I see you found my number." I turned on the music and walked over to the light panel as my phone went off.

"I did thanks to Jenna." He said.

"I was wondering when you were going to find it and text me." I flipped on the lights and went back out front. I set my phone on vibrate and set it on the counter as I sat on my stool behind the counter where Jenna was leaning over.

"I'm actually excited for today." She told me. I smiled at her as my phone vibrated a few times telling me that I had received more then one message.

"It will be a good day." I told her as I picked up my phone.

"What do you want me to do?" Jenna asked me. I unlocked my phone and looked at her.

"The jeans need to be refolded and there are more boxes of jeans in the back that need to come out. You can start on that." She nodded and quickly got to doing what needed to be done. I looked at my phone.

"I thought you didn't give me your number so I was bummed because I didn't ask for it because I was nervous." Josh's text read. I shook my head and smiled.

"I was surprised that you didn't ask for it which is why I took it upon myself to give it to you." I pressed send and went to my other text messages.

"Club tonight?" Cara's text read. She always wanted to go to the club and I wasn't fond of going to the club.

"Sorry Cara, I'm not really in the mood for it today./b]" I replied to her text. The bad thing about Cara was that she was now going to ignore me for a few weeks because I said no to her.

"Hey honey. Your father and I are going to Hawaii for Christmas this year. I hope you don't mind. We need a vacation and we figured Hawaii would be fun. We wanted to take you but we know you can't because you don't have any other managers at your store. But we are paying for you to go to New York for New Years Eve. So that should be a blast for you and your plus one. Love you." I read my stepdad's text message and thought about answering it or just leaving it alone. They never got to have a honeymoon because they were denied a hotel for being a gay newlywed couple.

"Well I'm glad you gave it to me." I shook my head and looked out at my store. This was the only thing I had ever given to myself that I made work. This was my child.

"Otherwise this tour would be boring because I'd have to talk to Tyler the entire time. But now I can talk to this beauty."

I set down my phone and shook my head. This was going to be an interesting few months...