Chapter 5 #2
She’d made her way to the main drag by foot, given that she didn’t have a car.
She was sure that someone would’ve driven her if she’d asked, but she’d been quite content to just tramp along the edge of the road back into town, her boots sinking down into the snow with every step, and simply enjoy the still, wintry silence.
The crunching of the crisp, white snow beneath her feet and the occasional flutter of wings had been the only interruption to the tranquility, and she had simply felt serene, just concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other, feeling the warm exhalations of her breath against the cold tip of her nose.
When was the last time I simply went for a walk in nature? she thought now, as she peered in the window of an old-fashioned toy store, looking at the wooden trains and hand-sewn dolls.
She honestly couldn’t answer that. It had been a long, long time. Even just going for a walk around her boring suburban area with no purpose other than to go for a walk was something that she hadn’t done for longer than she cared to admit.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket, and she pulled it out to see a message from her brother, Brett: a photo of Geri sitting on top of the toaster, nose held imperiously in the air, tail wrapped around the toaster’s base with impeccable neatness.
So everything’s absolutely normal, then, she thought with a smile, as she texted him back.
She did miss Geri, that was for sure, but it was nice to not have to worry about having any responsibilities for a few days.
If she wanted to spend the whole day wandering around the town and not come home until late in the evening, she could do it without being haunted by images of Geri’s wide eyes imploring her: Why would you forsake me? !
She was sure that Geri was being spoiled absolutely rotten by Brett and Mateo…
and, she thought, maybe she would have to bring her back some sort of treat to say thank you for booking her this trip to Girdwood Springs, no matter how frustrating it had been at first. Because she was really, really enjoying herself in a way that she had never expected.
I told you so, a smug little voice in her head said – the same one that had told her to go on the damn trip in the first place. Really, she couldn’t argue with it.
Her stomach gave a little twinge as she wandered along the street – it was hard to believe that she was hungry again already, but she supposed that she had been hiking uphill in the snow.
I’ll go find something to eat soon, she thought. But first…
The little gift shop in front of her was just too cute to resist. It looked more like a gingerbread house than an actual building, with its big windows and lacy curtains, its deep red walls and white scrollwork, all framed by the most picturesque drifts of snow that Poppy had ever seen.
If she’d licked one of the posts on the verandah and tasted candy cane instead, she wouldn’t have even been surprised.
Poppy could just imagine how excited she would’ve been to see the shop if she’d been a kid – even as an adult, it had a magical quality that practically pulled her inside.
Stomping the snow off her boots, she stepped through the door and looked around, inhaling the warm, comforting scent of cinnamon and vanilla.
Clearly everyone else in town had had the same idea as she had, if the line at the cash register was anything to go by. Presumably if the place was this popular, then they had to have some nice gifts.
Checking out the shelves, she quickly came to see that the things for sale were just as lovely as the shop itself. Everything appeared to be handmade and plastic-free, even the kitschy stuff that would normally be mass-produced elsewhere.
She had no idea who it was that made their living handcrafting snow globes featuring the various buildings and landscapes of Girdwood Springs, and it certainly wasn’t something that she had ever thought she would need in her life, but she found herself reaching for a snow globe containing a tiny replica of the B&B and surrounding forest before she’d even really thought about it.
Poppy happily whiled away her time just wandering about and browsing all the gorgeous gifts – she could’ve happily bought just about everything in the shop, but she had to show some restraint.
Still, she ended up grabbing a basket for her snow globe, and then the fridge magnets she’d picked up for her family, and then several jars of jam that were clearly made by the same person who’d made the jam at the B&B, and then a little crocheted trout for Geri – she probably would use it as a pillow or drop it in her water bowl before actually using it as a toy, but as long as she got some sort of enjoyment out of it, Poppy would be happy.
Okay! Enough! she told herself, as she examined a gorgeous knitted cardigan. You can always come back tomorrow if you want to, but for now, you have to show some restraint.
She wandered over to the end of the line, which was now snaking through the confines of the store.
Well, since I’m stuck here, I’m allowed to keep browsing from where I’m standing. But I absolutely cannot buy anything else.
The line crept forward at an infinitesimal pace, and Poppy found herself… well, daydreaming, if she was honest, about Max.
He really did seem like the whole package. Not only was he hot as all get-out, but he’d been her knight in shining armor when she’d almost faceplanted the floor, and he hadn’t even complained when she drank his milk.
His smile, fleeting though it had been, had somehow elevated him to another level again – she had a feeling that not many people got to see it very often, which was an absolute shame, but which also made her shiver a little at the idea that she had gotten to see a part of him that other people hadn’t.
And the fact that he was writing his mystery notes by hand wouldn’t leave her alone! She really was an analog person at heart, and there was just something about seeing him scribbling away that scratched an itch she hadn’t even realized was there.
An image came to her of the two of them curled up in front of the fireplace together in some little house they called their own, legs intertwined, him frowning slightly at his notebook as he tried to find just the right word, her happily engrossed in her book…
She jerked herself back to reality.
Stop planning a future with the poor guy! He has a whole other life somewhere out there. You’re both just passing through… and you made an idiot of yourself in front of him last night.
But then, the opposing thought came out of nowhere: You’re in a gift shop. What’s an appropriate ‘sorry I was staring at your nipples’ present?
Well, she wouldn’t call it that, of course. But maybe a little something to say Thank you for saving my face from the floor would be nice? She could just leave it on the kitchen table for him with a note, no need to even bother him.
Still, she wasn’t sure it was quite the right thing to do. She had no idea what he liked – besides chicken drumsticks and salami sandwiches, anyway, both of which were available in abundance at the B&B.
Forget about it, she told herself. You’d just be making it weird.
At that moment, as if in a sign from the universe itself, the line moved forward a couple more steps – and her breath caught as she saw it.
That’s it. That’s the present for him.
It was a gorgeous fountain pen, its wooden body aswirl with deep, lustrous shades of brown.
A quick read of the description showed that it was made by a local craftsperson who used offcuts and fallen branches to make their wares, only ever using wood that would go to waste anyway.
It was a little expensive, and certainly more than Poppy would have ever thought about spending on a near-stranger before. She hesitated – but then the line moved forward again.
Do or die. Now or never. No guts, no glory!
She snatched the pen up before she could think twice, putting it decisively into her basket.
The line moved forward once more, and she let out a long breath. Too late now to put it back on the shelf. She supposed that if she ended up chickening out, she could always keep it for herself or give it to someone else.
Either way, that definitely has to be my last big spend for the day… never mind that it’s not even lunchtime.
“Oh, come on, lady!”
Poppy was jerked from her reverie by the sound of an angry voice. It was especially jarring within the warm, comforting atmosphere of the shop, and she looked around, confused.
“I’m sorry,” came an older woman’s voice, sounding harried. “I’m going as fast as I can.”
“You could’ve fooled me!” said the first voice – a middle-aged man, from the sound of it. “I’ve been waiting for at least an hour!”
Poppy was pretty sure he hadn’t been waiting that long, but that was neither here nor there – there was no excuse for the man’s tone in any case.
“Excuse me,” she said, squeezing between the line of people and the shelves. “Sorry, coming through. I’m not cutting in, don’t worry.”
She made her way to the front of the line, to see a large man looming over the older woman who was standing behind the counter.
“I’m so sorry,” the woman said again. “One of my part-timers is out with the flu, and the other one quit last week, so we’re a bit short-staffed. But I’ll get to you just as soon as I possibly can.”
The woman looked a little flustered, and Poppy couldn’t blame her.
The man rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Always some excuse.”
“Hey,” said Poppy sharply, and the man’s head snapped around. “Leave her alone. The more you talk, the longer you’ll have to wait.”
“Keep out of this, girlie,” he sneered. “What would you know about anything?”
Poppy bit her tongue to keep from answering with a sharp retort. As much as she wanted to give him a piece of her mind, she knew it wouldn’t help anything.
But there was something she could do.
“I used to work in retail,” she said to the woman. “Would you mind if I helped out?”
The woman’s eyes widened. “Oh, no, I couldn’t possibly ask you to do that!”
“I don’t mind,” Poppy insisted. “Truly.”
The woman looked at her for a moment longer, apparently trying to work out if she was trustworthy. Apparently she was satisfied, because she nodded after a moment, though she still looked uncertain.
“Are you absolutely sure, sweetheart?”
Poppy nodded firmly. “Positive.”
She moved behind the counter, putting her basket aside, and went up to the second cash register, wondering briefly if she’d gotten herself in over her head. It had been the better part of ten years since she’d worked in retail, after all, and technology had moved on since then.
Unsurprisingly, though, the registers in this shop were hardly what could be called cutting edge, and she found that there was nothing here that was too confusing.
Swallowing, she called out, “Next, please.”
The next fifteen minutes were a blur, muscle memory kicking in – she made a couple of mistakes early on as she got her bearings, but she got into the groove of it quickly enough. The time flew by, as she remembered it always doing when she was a teen and work was busy.
It was almost comforting, the repetitiveness of the work, the friendly greetings… though not quite so friendly when dealing with Mr. Rude and his horrible attitude, and she definitely was glad to see the back of him when he finally left the store.
I could even get used to this… maybe….
Perhaps it was just her current state of unemployment – and with no real prospect of another job in sight – talking, but Poppy almost found herself feeling wistful as the line of people got shorter and shorter.
It was a foolish dream, of course – throwing over her old life and moving to an idyllic mountain town to work in a gift shop.
And she knew running her own business would hardly be a picnic.
But who could blame her for indulging in a few moments of harmless daydreaming that this was really her life?
Greeting smiling customers, ringing up gorgeous gifts, watching the gentle snowfall outside the window?
At last, the line of customers had been whittled away until there was no one left. Poppy smiled in satisfaction. “It’s been a long time since I last did that!”
The woman beamed at her, gratitude in her eyes. “Thank you so much, ah…?”
“Poppy,” Poppy said.
“Poppy,” the woman echoed. “Thank you, Poppy. I’m Sadie.”
“Nice to meet you,” Poppy said, shaking Sadie’s proffered hand gently. She could see that her finger joints looked stiff and swollen – no wonder she’d been having trouble getting the customers’ purchases through quickly.
“Likewise,” Sadie said. “You really were a lifesaver today. Here, let me bag up your purchases – they’re on the house.”
“Oh, no, I could never,” said Poppy, holding up her hands in protest. “That’s worth way more than fifteen minutes’ work.”
“It really is no trouble,” said Sadie, but Poppy shook her head firmly.
“No, I’ll pay for them. But, if you really want to do something for me… could I get the pen giftwrapped? I’m terrible at wrapping.”
“Of course,” Sadie said – and her fingers, though obviously no longer at their best, wrapped the present so nimbly and perfectly that it was done before Poppy even realized it.
“Here,” said Sadie, slipping some extra things into the bag before Poppy could protest. “You’re not allowed to say no.”
“Okay, okay,” Poppy laughed. “I’ll take them. Whatever they are.”
Sadie handed the bag over. “Good,” she said. “Thank you again, Poppy – please drop in any time. Though if you pull a stunt like that again, I will be putting you on the payroll.”
“Noted,” Poppy said, with a mock-serious look on her face.
She said her goodbyes and headed outside, wondering what to do next. But first of all, her curiosity got the better of her, and she looked inside the bag, wondering what Sadie had added in.
There were some beeswax candles and a few little knick-knacks, as well as a notebook made of gorgeously thick, textured paper – ‘Lovingly crafted in Gunter’s Gulch,’ she read with a wry smile – and a whole pile of discount coupons for local businesses.
Well, she was in dire need of lunch at this point, and there appeared to be several food places amongst the listed businesses, so that settled it – lunch it was.