Chapter 8
Eight
I’m having trouble finding the yee to my haw. I’m stuck on the hell to the naw.
—Bernice to Hux
Bernice
Week Twelve
The day was bittersweet.
I would no longer be working at The Mercantile.
I would also no longer see Huxley Nelson Hosea around.
However, no longer seeing Hux also meant that I would no longer be tempted by him. Which I saw as a great bonus.
Maybe it was because I was so hyper-fixated on the man that I couldn’t help but notice every little thing about him.
Including his type—stacked blondes that probably really did have fun.
“Are you working or what?”
I gritted my teeth and turned to Hux’s mother.
Another bonus about leaving my job was that I would no longer have to deal with Vera.
Hux’s entire family was great, except for his mother.
She was the devil disguised as a sweet older woman.
The moment I started working at The Mercantile, I realized that this job was going to be incredibly hard.
Most of the “incredibly hard” had to do with Vera.
She was a killer taskmaster and saw no reason for error.
“Yes, ma’am, I am,” I said softly.
Everything I said was softly.
I did not have a “loud” voice.
I wasn’t a loud person.
In fact, I was what one would consider the librarian type.
I was quiet, kept to myself, and didn’t stand up for myself at all.
That was why I was still working at The Mercantile despite hating it.
I lucked out that Odin had offered me a job. Otherwise, I probably would still be working here for years to come.
Dismissing Vera for the time being, I looked at the woman who’d come up to the counter to check out.
Probably one of the last stragglers of the day seeing as the snow was picking up by the second.
“That’ll be a dollar fifty, sir.”
The old man smiled and held out two bucks. “Keep the change for the next person that needs it.”
I held out his prescription to him and smiled. “That’s very kind of you, sir.”
Before he was finished gathering his things, I moved to the register a couple of feet away and smiled at the older woman who was digging through her purse for something.
“How can I help you, ma’am?”
She jerked her head up and smiled. “Oh, hi. I’m just wanting some of the Salem Slim Light cigarettes there.”
I turned, grabbed the cigarettes, and scanned them.
She paid with her card and was off moments later.
I looked around The Mercantile and General Store like I always did, hoping for a glance of him, but he was nowhere in sight today.
Though he worked in the butcher shop, he was here quite a bit. Much to Vera’s delight.
Always lurking here or there, keeping an eye on things.
Showing up when I was being forced by Vera to lift thirty-pound bags of cat or dog food over my head onto the highest shelf in the store.
My heart gave a little thump as Odin came in the door.
The man was seriously hot.
As in, overly hot.
I always had trouble talking to hot men, and it seemed the men in this small town were all overly hot. It was embarrassing how flustered I got with them all. Like a lovesick fool.
His fiancée was on his arm, and they were laughing about something that had Odin’s head tilted back and the muscles of his throat working.
They came up to the register and said, “Hey, do you have any hand warmers?”
I pointed to the end cap directly behind them. “Going for a hike again?”
“Nah, poor girl is just freezing.”
“I know the feeling,” I admitted.
Constance shook her head. “I don’t know why I’m so cold. It snows where I’m from. But this place is something else.”
“Agreed,” I said as I rang them up.
They left almost as quickly as they arrived.
The next customer was already waiting in line, tapping her foot impatiently.
“Hi,” the old lady chirped.
I smiled. “How can I help you today, ma’am?”
She pointed at the prescriptions behind me and said, “Name’s Myrtle. Myrtle Davis. I have a prescription.”
I got the prescription for her and rang it up. “That’ll be forty-six cents.”
She started to search through her bag for some change. “Oh, well I guess I’m going to have to come back.”
I remembered the fifty cents from earlier and said, “Oh, I’ll get that. I have fifty cents right here.”
“Oh.” Myrtle smiled. “That’s very kind of you.”
I put the money in the register and moved over to the second register where I started to check out a woman with some baby formula.
When I was done, I glanced over to see Myrtle still standing there. “Uh, can I help you, ma’am?”
“I’m waiting for my change.”
I frowned. “Um, what?”
“My change. You owe me four cents.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “Ma’am, that was my fifty cents. I don’t owe you anything.”
The woman blinked. “But…”
“Myrtle, get your crazy ass out of here,” Vera ordered. “You damn well know that was my fifty cents. You don’t get any change.”
Myrtle rolled her eyes and left. “I don’t know why I even come here.”
Vera waited until she was out the door to announce, “I’m headed out.”
“You’re leaving?” I asked.
I’d never worked the store before on my own. Nor had I closed.
Which I was assuming that was what she wanted me to do, seeing as she’d told me she was leaving.
“Yes,” she said. “It’s snowing more heavily. If I don’t leave now, I’ll never get home. Remember, I arranged for my Huxley to drive you home. There’s no reason you can’t stay until closing at six.”
I didn’t point out that she didn’t have the same worry about her employees.
I opened my mouth to ask if we could just close completely when she dismissed me.
She walked out of the door and never came back.
Instead of dwelling on the fact that she’d just practically left me once again in a new situation, I decided to make the best of it.
I picked up the novel that was underneath the desk for when Vera wasn’t around to reprimand me, and I sat down on the stool behind the counter and started to read.
By the time I’d finished an hour and a half later, there hadn’t been a single customer who came into the store.
“Finishing a book is wild. I mean, I’m just supposed to close it and act like nothing ever happened?” I asked no one in particular. “And carry on with my life?”
The empty store didn’t reply.
It was predicted to snow a good twelve inches by the end of the day, and I imagined crazy Mrs. Myrtle was the last customer of the day.
Finding the quiet of the store a little bit suffocating, I eventually walked over to the book section and picked up the romance novel with the silhouette of a man leaning against a shower stall.
The long line of his body, from where he had his forearm planted on the tile, to the long expanse of his calf, was on full display.
I was honestly quite surprised that they’d even published it seeing as the model was practically nude.
I mean, you couldn’t see anything with the way the man’s leg was cocked forward, blocking out his package.
But you could see the side of his ass.
You could see his Adonis belt until it disappeared behind his strong, muscular thigh.
Thinking that I’d just try it out for a bit and maybe get some other things in the store done before my ride arrived, I took the table that overlooked the street.
Another hour passed as I became engrossed in a book about a motorcycle club member and the woman who tames him.
I shifted on my butt, trying to restore feeling to my left leg. Once again, I wondered why I had to stay until closing.
There wasn’t anyone crazy enough to be out in this anymore.
I looked to the door that led out into the warehouse that connected The Mercantile to the butcher—Hux’s place—and thought…why not?
Maybe I could see if he was almost done.
If he was, then we could go home early.
I’d already read a book, eaten my lunch, started another book, and contemplated cleaning up for the day.
There was nothing else holding me here besides Vera’s annoying voice telling me that I couldn’t leave until Hux was ready to take me home. That I was “needed” at the store.
Plus, if she got mad, what was she going to do? Fire me? I already quit.
This was my last day.
I walked to the front door and looked out through the glass doors.
There wasn’t an inch of road left.
Everything was a winter wonderland.
All I could see out was Hux’s vehicle parked under the awning to my right, and not another vehicle in sight.
There was, however, a large moose making its way down the street toward me.
I pulled out my phone and videoed it, then sent it to Creed.
Me:
Is this legal to shoot?
Creed:
If you had a moose tag. Do you have a moose tag?
Me:
I’m at a store where I could get one…
The Mercantile was a jack-of-all-trades.
They did hunting and fishing as well as bait and tackle. They had a pharmacy. A deli. A small-ish grocery store for when you forgot something at the big brand stores. It also had a small library where you could check out and return books when you were done with them.
Overall, it was a very fun store, despite the person who ran it.
Creed:
Do you even have a gun?
Me:
Will a twenty-two take it down?
Creed:
Do you have a twenty-two?
Me:
No. I think there’s one under the counter, though. I heard Vera threaten a customer once.
Creed:
Jesus Christ. But no, sorry, you can’t take a moose down with a twenty-two. At least not without it suffering.
Me:
Dang. Foiled on all fronts.
Creed:
What would you do with it even if you did?
Me:
Use that winch on the front of the truck that you forced me to get. I’d drag it right up to Hux’s front door. Do you think he’d process it for me?
Creed:
I’m sure that he would think about it.
I barked out a laugh at that.
I wasn’t sure what to think about Huxley Hosea.
He was there, but he wasn’t.
On one hand, he was everywhere. But when he was present, he didn’t talk. He didn’t say hi, didn’t smile, didn’t even seem like he wanted to be there.
I couldn’t tell you how many times over the last three months that he’d stomped out of the side door of his butcher shop into the shared warehouse space and looked steaming mad as he made his way toward me and took over whatever hard job Vera had handed me that day.
When I’d say “thank you” he’d ignore me, get it done, then stomp back inside his cave.