Vintage by Susan Gloss

Author:Susan Gloss
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins

After Monica left, April’s nerves were as tight and humming as a violin string. To calm herself, she turned to numbers. Amidst the jumbled uncertainty of her personal life, April longed to lend order to something. She opened her laptop to view the bookkeeping program she’d installed for the store. The sight of tables and cells calmed her breathing, but just barely. By the time Violet came in around lunchtime, April was desperate to talk to someone.

“Thank you for taking care of things around here this morning,” Violet said.

“How was your meeting?” April asked.

“Fine, but I have another one in just a few minutes, with my landlord. Do you mind keeping an eye on things out here for a little while longer?” Violet set down her red bucket purse.

April nodded, afraid to open her mouth for fear that she’d spew out a storm of emotions.

Bells jingled, and April looked toward the shop entrance, where a man with buzz-cut hair and a belly bigger than hers pushed the door open. The space-age shapes on his tie reminded April of the patterns on movie theater carpeting.

“Hi, Ted,” Violet said. She gestured toward April. “Meet my new employee, April. April, this is Ted Mortensen. His company owns our building.”

The man’s cologne constricted April’s throat and made her nauseous, but she managed to force a smile and say, “Nice to meet you.”

Ted didn’t return the smile. “Violet, if you don’t mind, I’d like to sit down and go over a few things with you.”

“Certainly. Let’s go in the back room, where we won’t be disturbed by customers coming in and out,” Violet said, leading the way.

April watched them go, wishing Violet had asked her to join them. After hearing that she hadn’t been invited to Charlie’s graduation party, she wanted nothing more than to be included in something.

Seconds stretched into minutes, and minutes into half an hour. In a daze, April assisted a girl a little older than she was with finding an outfit for a date. She helped a woman who looked like she could have been her mom’s age find a pair of designer jeans. By the time the customers had checked out and left, almost an hour had gone by. April wondered what could possibly be taking Violet and Ted so long.

She decided to find out.

In the back room, Violet stood shuffling through papers on her worktable, looking flustered, while Ted sat in a folding chair with his arms crossed. April hovered in the door frame, trying to figure out what they were talking about.

“I know I’ve got my rent records in here somewhere,” she heard Violet say. “But even without looking at them, I know I’ve never missed a payment.”

“Really, it’s all right,” Ted said. “I believe you, but that doesn’t change anything.”

“I swear it was right here,” Violet said, picking up a stack of papers.

April felt a rush of adrenaline and blurted out, “Maybe if you’d had all this stuff stored electronically from the beginning, you’d be able to find what you’re looking for.

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