14. Holly
14
HOLLY
“What about this one?”
He stood beside me, arms crossed as he stared at the painting with me. His eyes focused on every single detail. Seriously, the man had very little style, yet he vetoed almost all of my choices. I was beginning to think he was just taking me on a wild goose chase.
“I don’t know. Is it really me?”
“Are any of these really you?”
“It’s too…”
“What?”
His eyes scanned the picture again. “Big.”
“Well, of course it’s big. The wall is big.”
“But this big?”
I rolled my eyes. The man had no sense of style. “The wall is huge with nothing on it. You can’t put up a little picture and call it a day.”
“No, I get that, but this is…”
“Big. I get it.”
“It’s not just that. I’m just not sure I’m a rooster sort of a guy.”
I tore my gaze from his and stared at the proud rooster in the painting. His bright colors and dark green tail really stood out to me. But honestly? No, I didn’t see him as a rooster guy. I was screwing with him for making me drag him around to every single painting, only for him to veto every single picture. This was the biggest, ugliest thing I could find, and I was determined to make him buy it. No matter the cost.
“I think you’re absolutely a rooster kind of a guy.”
“Really?”
“I’m telling you, this picture will be perfect in your bedroom.”
He winced, rubbing the back of his neck. “I don’t know.”
I leaned up and whispered in his ear. “It’s quite the aphrodisiac.”
I nearly burst out laughing when his face paled. If it weren’t for the fact that he had dragged me around for nearly three hours to find just one picture, I would have let this go a long time ago, but now, it was a point of pride.
“You know, I don’t think it’ll fit on the wall.”
“Oh, I know it will. I measured.”
“You did, huh?”
“Yep!” I beamed. I strode over to the picture and held out my arms. See, from the door to the wall, it was three arm widths. If I hold out my arms here, I can easily make it work. See?”
I held out my arms, pretending that there was a wall on either side of the frame and measured outward the way I saw it in my mind.
“What are you doing?”
“Well, if you assume that three of my arm lengths is the length of the wall, then half of me would be half of the picture. So, if I cut myself in half and place myself from my fingertip in the middle of the picture to the left, I can easily see how much space is left on the left side of the picture. The same applies to the other side of the picture.”
He frowned, rubbing his chin. “Can you say that again?”
It really wasn’t that hard. “Three of me from arm to arm,” I said, showing my arms spread out from side to side, “is the length of the wall. So, if the painting is the size of one of me, then if I cut myself in half and place one half of me on the left side, I can tell how much space would be left on the left side and how much would be left on the right side.”
“That’s too many lefts for me. You know we could have brought a tape measure, right?”
I rolled my eyes at his suggestion. “Why do men have to do things the complicated way?”
“You mean the logical way?”
Pursing my lips, I thrust my hand on my hip. “Would you like to drive all the way back to your house, pick up a tape measure, drive all the way back here, measure the picture, only to find out it fit all along?”
“Yes.”
“Too bad,” I smiled. “It’ll fit. Trust me.”
“Yeah, I had a feeling you’d say that,” he muttered under his breath.
“You waste too much time trying to make everything perfect.”
“You mean, correct.”
“Same difference.”
“There’s a big difference.”
“Are we getting this or not?”
I crossed my fingers behind my back as I waited for him to make up his mind. If he said no, I might actually be forced to kill him.
“Yeah, I guess we could get it.”
“Yes!” I thrust my hand in the air and jumped up and down. This was going to be so perfect. Now, I just had to force myself to have sex in the same room as a large rooster. Or never have sex at his house at all. If we ever actually had sex.
“I don’t know how the hell we’re going to get this to my house.”
“A big, strong guy like you? You’ll figure it out.”
He rolled his eyes and sighed. “Come on. Let’s head up front and tell the lady we’ve chosen.”
“I’m sure she’ll be just as thrilled as we are.”
“Yeah,” he croaked out. “Just thrilled.”
I intertwined my arm with his and grinned the entire walk to the front of the store. I couldn’t wait to get this back to his house and see how he reacted when he saw this giant cock in his bedroom every morning. Personally, I found it hilarious. Maybe that would teach him to think about what he did and didn’t like.
“Excuse me,” I said to the woman, grabbing her attention. “We’ve chosen a picture.”
“Sure. Which one can I help you with?”
“The giant rooster,” I grinned.
Her smile faltered as she looked from me to Asher. “The…rooster. How…wonderful. I’ll have an associate grab that for you.”
“Perfect.”
With the way this day was going, by the time this was hanging on the wall, I would have Asher spilling his guts about what he liked. There would be no more hiding behind grays and blacks. He would tell me what he liked if I had to hang a rooster in every damn room in his house.
“You know, maybe we should get a matching one for your house, Holly Bear,” he whispered in my ear.
“What?” My head whipped around to meet his gaze. “Why do you say that?”
“Well, you just seem to love it just as much as I do. I think you should have a matching one.”
Oh shit. I hadn’t seen that coming. “It really doesn’t match anything in my house. See, you don’t have any decorations up.”
He nodded with a smile. “Yeah, I was thinking about that. You know, you really don’t have much on that one wall in your bedroom. You know, the one where your dresser is right now. You could put a smaller version there. And if I remember correctly, they had a smaller portrait back there.”
He turned on his heel to walk back and check, but I grabbed him by the elbow. “No, they didn’t. It was much too big for the space you had in mind.”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“It was. Really.”
“Well, let’s just see, shall we?”
He winked at me, then took my hand and tugged me along after him. I knew I was screwed. There was only one possible way to get out of this and that was by giving in. But my daddy didn’t raise a quitter. If I gave up now, I would have to admit that I hated the rooster to begin with, and then he would hold that over my head forever.
For all eternity, as he put it.
“There,” he said, pointing to a smaller picture as we walked to the back. “See? It’s perfect.”
“No, that’s too big.”
He shook his head. “By your calculations,” he said pointedly. “That dresser comes up to about my stomach. Now, that leaves up to my head, plus another half of my body at the very least—according to your measurements—until you reach the ceiling. At that rate, we could most definitely fit this picture above your dresser.”
“I think we need to measure that.”
“By all means.” He walked over to the picture and stood next to it, showing where the dresser would cut off, then used my own measuring skills against me, proving that the picture would fit above the dresser. I hated him for it. He wasn’t supposed to do that to me. I was supposed to come out the winner today. And instead, he was going to make me get that damn rooster for my own house.
I think I loved him a little for that.
“You know what? I think you’re right. It is perfect.”
I grinned at him and picked up the smaller picture, tucking it under my armpit. “I think it’ll be perfect when you come with me to bed. All I’ll be thinking about is cock.”
I sighed as I unboxed the last of the shipment. I was surrounded by items that still needed to be stocked by tomorrow, and it was only five o’clock. Noelle had been working the front while I dealt with the delivery, and it had basically been chaos all afternoon.
“Hey, Mr. Fluffington,” I smiled as my orange cat purred, rubbing up against me. He was the sweetest cat, but shed so much wherever he went. I was constantly cleaning up after him, but with this delivery keeping me busy, I hadn’t had time to pay him any attention today.
“Do you want some nummy nums?” I stood, wincing as my body protested being unfolded after sitting in a crumpled-up state for such a long time. Mr. Fluffington followed me to the pantry where I kept his Greenies. I shook a few out onto the counter as he jumped up and rubbed his body against my outstretched hand. He was the sweetest thing. I thought about bringing him home many times, but he was the store cat. I couldn’t imagine him not being here every day.
“Holly?”
“Back here!” I called out, scratching him under the chin.
“Ugh!” Noelle cried out dramatically, falling onto the counter after entering. “The last customer is finally gone and I locked up.”
“How did we do?”
“Good. Really good.”
“Thank God. I was beginning to think business was never going to pick up again.”
“I know, right? We finally sold that clock you love so much.”
That made me extremely happy. “One more day here and I would have found a spot for it at my house.”
“You don’t have room for it.”
“I know.”
“And that lamp you love so much found a home.”
I frowned, sad that it went so quickly. “That was the only one.”
“I know. I really liked it, too.”
I couldn’t get upset every time my favorite things sold. I couldn’t afford to buy everything I liked, and I didn’t have enough space in the world to keep everything. “Well, did the person that bought it at least love it?”
“I made them fill out a ten-point questionnaire first.”
“At least I can part with it knowing they passed.”
She nodded. “So, what needs to be done?”
I thought of all the other rooms and internally groaned. “I got through all the unpacking and checking it against the original order. There were a few missing pieces and a few mistakes I had to call about. We still have to enter everything into inventory, price it, and find a place for everything.”
“So, just a few hours,” she grinned, knowing it would take that and so much more. “Not too bad.”
“Exactly.”
“I’ll order the food.”
“I’ll pay.”
I grabbed my card for her and got to work entering everything into inventory while she ordered the food. Time flew past us in a flurry of pecking on our dinner, her listing off items to enter into the system, and adding the details while she wandered around the shop and scouted out a good place for each item.
I saw Noelle checking her watch, gnawing on her lip. She had plans. I remembered her talking about them earlier in the week and I’d completely forgotten about them. It was seven o’clock. If I let her go now, she might still be able to enjoy some of her night.
“You know what? I think we should knock off for the night,” I said, standing up and stretching.
“Really?” Her face brightened and she practically jumped up. Crap, I was the worst employer ever.
“Yeah, this will take forever. Let’s chip away at it throughout the week.”
“That sounds like a good plan.”
“I’ll lock up. Why don’t you head out?”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. I’m just going to feed Mr. Fluffington before I leave and change his litter box.”
She grimaced and grabbed her coat. “Yeah, I’ll leave you to it.”
I chuckled as she ran out the door, letting it slam behind her. Sighing, I glanced around at all the work that still needed to be done. We could chip away at it throughout the week like I told her, but the mess around the shop would be unbearable and drive me insane. If I stayed just a few more hours, I could get a lot done.
So, I sat down and got back to work, doing the work twice as slowly, but still getting a little accomplished with every hour that passed. My eyes grew gritty and the numbers started to look like letters and vice versa. It was insanity. I needed to stop. I glanced at the clock and nearly started crying. It was almost midnight.
I thunked my head on the desk and groaned, thinking about how right now I could be with Asher. I hadn’t even told him I would be working late tonight. I’d completely forgotten, in fact, because I’d gotten so wrapped up in this order. And I desperately wanted to see him. After our little adventure shopping for that picture for his house, nothing else happened. By the time we got home and hung the picture, it was already getting pretty late. Too late to start anything for the night when both of us had to be at work early in the morning.
I sat at the desk for a few minutes, contemplating my life choices and the sanity of running this shop. On days like this, I seriously thought of selling it all off and letting someone else do all the heavy lifting. Running a shop was hard work, and it wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy it, but with only one employee, there was just so much to do. I hadn’t even finished closing out the books for the night. I had to at least finish that before I went home, or I would never catch up tomorrow.
I looked at the disaster around me and sighed. Luckily, garbage day was in two days, so I wouldn’t have to deal with this mess for too much longer. I stumbled through the mess to grab another Coke from the fridge when I heard the weather alert go off. I knew we were supposed to be getting a system moving in, but that wasn’t for another day.
I turned up the speaker as they announced the storm approaching. Shit, it was going to be a big storm. Why hadn’t they announced this sooner? I hurried to the kitchen and turned on the TV on the counter, flipping to the news. I slumped in my seat when I saw the system wasn’t approaching, but was already on top of us. How had I missed this? Had I been so engrossed in my work that I hadn’t heard the weather alerts going off?
I hurried over to the window and looked outside. “Shit.” The ground was covered with snow, but it was the drifting that was the problem. The steps to the porch were half covered with large drifts and the other half was nearly covered. The roads would be worse. I could hardly see anything without lights out there, but then again, it was after midnight.
“It’s okay. I’ll just stay here for the night,” I muttered to myself.
There was a couch in the other room I could snuggle up on. It was better than driving home in this. I just needed to be prepared for whatever happened. Okay, food, water…my phone. I rushed over to my purse and grabbed my phone, finding about ten missed calls from Asher and just as many text messages.
“Shit. He’s going to be so pissed at me.”
I grabbed the charger from the drawer in the kitchen and plugged my phone in. If the storm got bad, I needed my phone to be charged. I had bottled water in the pantry and snacks. It would at least hold me over for a while. I had never been snowed in at the shop before, but I’d always known it was a possibility.
Now, I just had to call Asher and face his wrath for not answering his calls. Or I could be a chicken and just text him. That sounded much better.
Hey, got busy at the shop with inventory.
Where are you?
Still at the shop.
Did you happen to see that there’s a massive snowstorm outside?
Is there? Huh.
I hope you’re not planning on driving in this.
No, I’m not. I was planning to stay here for the night.
And just how do you plan on taking care of yourself if the power goes out?
Wow. Taking care of myself? Maybe it was the fact that I was extremely tired or that I really didn’t want a man telling me that I was incapable, but I got pissed.
I imagine I’ll take care of myself the way I have the previous adult years of my life.
He didn’t respond that time, and that pissed me off even more. I was tired and angry with myself for being so caught up in work that I hadn’t noticed anything else. And what about Noelle? Had she made it home safe? I hadn’t even checked in with her. Was it too late to check on her now?
I chewed on my lip as I paced the kitchen, trying to think of what I should do. Damnit, I hated when I got myself in these kinds of situations. What I really wanted right now was a hug from Asher, but I wasn’t about to admit to him right now that I needed him, especially when it wasn’t feasible for him to actually get here.
I would not cry and fall apart like a sad sack woman. I could handle this. So what if there was a snowstorm raging outside? Did it really matter if I was all alone in this shop? I wasn’t some pathetic woman who couldn’t take care of herself. Besides, I had my cat.
Mr. Fluffington would keep me company. He purred as he rubbed up against my leg, then walked over to his bed, curled up in a ball, and went to sleep.
I snarled at him. “That’s not keeping me company.”
“Perhaps I can do that,” Asher’s deep voice said from behind me.
I gasped as I spun around, pressing a hand to my chest in surprise. “What the hell are you doing here?”