A Happy Christmas Ceilidh by Zoe Tasia

Author:Zoe Tasia
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zoe Tasia
Published: 2022-12-23T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

Becca

I promised myself every year this year would be different. I’d be organized and get all my Christmas shopping done by November. And yet here it is, December 24th and I am in a mall furiously looking for last-minute gifts—again.

The entire family rode the ferry to the mainland, but once we disembarked, everyone took off in another direction like cats from a ferocious dog. Well, maybe not our cat, Tabby. She’s a brave little girl.

I want this Christmas to be special—magical. It will be the first one we’ll celebrate with Greg. He had been the most difficult to find a gift for.

I found a resale shop tucked in an out of the way spot, which made sense because it wasn’t a big draw for the tourists.

The shop was busy, and the selection poor. All the better for my purpose.

“Can I help you? As you can see, we’re pretty picked over, but if you’ll tell me what you’re looking for, I’ll try to find it,” a harried shop keeper offered.

“I’m not here to buy. I’m here to sell.”

A smile broke out on the shopkeeper’s face. “Follow me.”

She led me to the vacant side of the cash register. The customers in line for purchases frowned until they saw I wasn’t cutting to the front of the queue. She touched her nametag. “I’m Nancy.”

“Becca. Nice to meet you.”

“Let’s see what you’ve got.”

I smothered a sigh, and pulled the blouse out of the bag, the price tags still on it.

She took it, shook it out, and spread it on the countertop. “Oh, my! Are you sure you want to part with this?”

“I’m sure.”

“You should take it back to the store you bought it from and return it. Is it the wrong size?”

“No, it fits, but it’s from a boutique in the States. This is from their going-out-of-business sale.” Earlier, I’d made a point of peeling the sales price off the tag. She didn’t need to know what a good buy I got, and I was hoping to get more than what I paid.

Nancy carefully examined the blouse for flaws and stains. She found none, as I knew she would. She leaned close and whispered a price to me. I nodded.

“Great! The way it works is you get sixty percent of what we can sell it for and we keep forty percent.”

I tried to do the math, but gave up and plugged the numbers in my phone. I smiled when I saw the result. “Wonderful. Do I get cash or a check?”

Nancy’s face fell. “You get the money when we do, sweetie.”

“You mean I have to wait until someone buys it?”

“Afraid so.”

This was my last-ditch effort to get enough money for the gift that, after searching for the last two months, I’d found for Greg. “Okay, I understand. If I can’t get the money now, it’s no good to me.” I picked up the blouse and the sack and turned to leave. As I did so, a hand darted out and grabbed the blouse sleeve.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.