“I enjoy working here a lot. I always have,” she replies happily.
As I pull out my credit card to pay for the flowers, Brian snatches one of my business cards out of my wallet and hands it to her.
“If you are ever interested, my buddy Andrew and I have a fun way for you to make good money,” Brian suggests with a wink.
I’m being put on the spot, so I smile at her.
“It’s more his idea,” is all I can think of to say.
Sheila looks offended at what Brian said. I wish he knew when to keep his big mouth fucking shut!
“No thanks, I make good money and I’m very happy working here,” she replies, while rather roughly handing me my credit card and flowers. “So, I’m not interested. Not at all.”
Her friendly demeanor has changed to one of annoyance, which I can understand. I’m disappointed to see that she is no longer smiling, though.
I decide to jump in to try to smooth things over.
“Perhaps just for fun then,” I say with a wink. “Might be interesting to hang out when we don’t have to worry about work.”
“I like worrying about work,” she says, shrugging. “I find that interesting.”
Well, I have to hand it to her. She sure knows how to put up a challenge. If there’s anything I like more than curvy a woman, it’s a feisty woman. And Sheila seems to have both areas covered.
Is she my dream woman? I wonder, and then I tell myself to knock off that line of thinking.
I don’t do commitment, other than to my businesses.
That keeps me busy enough.
Brian pats the business card on the counter. He’s already gone and pissed her off – why can’t he leave well enough alone?
“We’ll leave this here in case you change your mind,” he says, clearly still trying to convince her.
She frowns at us and then looks away, saying loudly, “I can help the next customer,” even though there’s no one else waiting other than a lone browser of the balloon and teddy bear section close to the register, but clearly that person isn’t ready to buy anything yet.
We turn and walk out of the store. I think about telling Brian he went and ruined my chances with Sheila by pressing his auction idea so hard, but I know I didn’t really have much of a chance with her to begin with. For whatever reason, she really wasn’t interested.
I like a good challenge, but she probably has a boyfriend, or girlfriend, so I wasn’t planning to push the issue too much more once she gave me the hint that she wasn’t receptive. Still, he shouldn’t go around being so obvious, if he wants his auction idea to work out.
People in a small town talk and word will spread.
While we’re walking back towards the office, Brian turns to me and says, “Thanks for all your help in there,” in a very sarcastic and impatient tone.
I look at him, shocked.
“What are you talking about?” I ask.
“Come on,” he scoffs. “You obviously like her. I was trying to get her to join our auction so that maybe you can have some fun with her and all you can say is, ‘I’m Andrew. This isn’t really my idea.’”
He huffs out the way I said my name, mocking me.
“Me?” I explode. “You were the one being so obvious and getting me involved with your perverted auction idea. What were you even thinking? Handing out my business card and saying we can help her make money? People are going to think we’re soliciting prostitutes!”
I’m annoyed because I wasn’t even going to bring it up to him and yet he has the gall to bring it up to me.
That takes some fucking nerve.
We’re back inside the office building now so I hand the flowers to my receptionist, asking her to have the roses delivered to my mother and to give the carnations to the employee.
Brian then rides the elevator with me up to my office and we finish our conversation here, where we have privacy.
“Look, I know you worry about everything to the point of paranoia, but I just thought it would be a good opportunity for you to cut loose,” Brian says, shrugging.
“I know, and I appreciate it, but I think you upset her instead,” I reply.
“Yeah, she looked ready to throw us out,” Brian laughs. “But you never know…”
He sighs.
“I guess you’re right that I should try to be less obvious about it,” he says. “I’m just getting kind of desperate trying to find a place and recruit some women. Things like that in a small town are so hard compared to in a bigger city, and I’m out of my element here.”
“I understand,” I tell him. “We’ll think of something.”
We get out of the elevator and stand in silence for a few seconds before he pats me on the back.