Джанет Кантрелл - Fat Cat At Large

After Doris calmed down and left, Chase went back to the kitchen.

“Doris was being a drama queen again?” Anna asked. She drew out the word drama with an unattractive sneer.

“Anna, I wish you’d tell me what’s going on.”

The older woman walked to the storage shelves and ran her fingers along the bins, examining them, probably not for anything except an excuse to ignore Chase.

“Doris was . . . well, Torvald Iversen was . . . He had her cornered.”

“Good.” She kept her face away from Chase. “She’s probably sleeping with him.”

“She didn’t seem to mind it until after he’d left. Anna, I love you. You’re like my grandmother and my mother. I couldn’t make it without you. It hurts when you shut me out.”

Chase’s grandparents had passed away before her parents’ deaths. She had one dim memory of watching her grandfather fill his pipe, but didn’t even remember her grandmother at all.

Anna turned from the shelves slowly, dropping her hands to her sides.

“I suppose I’m overreacting. But Doris is . . .”

“Yes?”

Anna slumped onto a stool and propped her elbows on the counter. “She’s always been like this. I should be used to it.”

Chase sat beside her business partner–cum–beloved substitute grandmother and waited for her to continue. Chase lifted a hand to pat Anna’s back, then hesitated. Maybe she’d wait for Anna to get whatever it was off her chest first.

“We went to high school together. I did date Gabe a couple of times. Nothing serious. But Doris, for some reason, has always been jealous of me. She lured Gabe away, then dropped him. Years later, I found out they were getting married. I actually went to Gabe and told him I didn’t think it was a good idea. He laughed, so that was the end of that.”

Now Chase patted Anna’s shoulder. Anna put her own warm hand over Chase’s. “I can’t ever complain about the man I ended up with. My goodness, that man could dance. We went out almost every weekend when we started dating, not very long after high school.”

Anna’s face softened and the haggard look of the past few days fell away. She tilted her head upward, remembering her young romance. Chase didn’t have a hard time picturing Anna dancing the night away with Allan. She was in her seventies now and still looked capable of it. In fact, Chase was sure Anna would be able to outdance her.

Anna smiled, then a couple of tears ran down her weathered cheeks. “I still miss that man.”

Vi pushed the double doors open. “Almost out of Cherry Almond.”

“There’s a batch ready in”—Anna checked the oven timer—“two minutes.” Anna jumped up the get the oven mitts.

Chase didn’t get another chance to find out more about the history between Doris and Anna that morning.

The long Sunday morning bustled on until it was time for the sales clerks to take lunch breaks.

Chase rubbed her back. If she got a chance, she’d run upstairs for another pain pill. She stuck her head into the store. “Who’s first today for lunch?”

Vi waved her hand. “I need to run out. Can I have the first break?”

Laci assumed a put-upon pout that said she disapproved, but she didn’t say anything. Vi grabbed her big tote bag from under the counter and dashed out the front door, almost knocking over a pair of gangly freshman women.

Seeing her flee, apparently in no better shape than she’d been in the past few days, Chase was reminded that she still needed to talk to Vi about her troubles. She hadn’t gotten far talking about Anna’s with her yet. Laci was another matter. The poor girl’s heart was on her frilly, lace-trimmed sleeve. Anna probably hadn’t talked to Ted either.

Ted Naughtly chose that moment to enter the shop. With only Laci to tend to sales and customers, Chase decided to stay out front. She whipped off her apron and stowed it beneath the counter when Laci minced her way to the front of the store to greet Ted.

As the two of them spoke, heads together and nearly touching, a gang of college students swarmed in. It seemed like a whole fraternity, at least a dozen good-size potential football tackles.

They scattered, browsing the tables, the shelves, and some perusing the glass case.

“Hey, lady, could you tell me what these are?” One curly-headed giant beckoned from the front of the store, on the opposite side from where Laci and Ted communed. Laci wore a frown instead of her usual besotted look in Ted’s presence.

Chase sighed and left her post of guarding the cash drawer from Ted and went up front to tell the young man what the contents of a box labeled Cherry Almond Oatmeal Bars contained. She assured him there was no coconut and he gathered up three boxes. For the next ten or fifteen minutes she was kept busy reciting contents for the others. She would never get upstairs for a pain pill at this rate.

When she returned to the cash register to ring up their purchases, Ted and Laci were there. At least the cash drawer wasn’t open.

Chase drew a deep breath. She didn’t want to lose her temper in front of these very good customers. She yanked Laci’s arm and drew her close. “Miss Laci Carlson,” she hissed under her breath, directly into Laci’s ear. “Have I or have I not told you that Ted does not belong here behind the counter?”

Laci’s eyes opened wide. “Well . . .”

“Have I or have I not?” Chase repeated through gritted teeth. “Tell him to leave the store right now.”

She shooed both of them from behind the counter. Ted gave Chase a glum stare as he slid past her. Laci looked near to tears. The burly guy customers didn’t seem to notice the scene, talking loudly among themselves and occasionally punching each other’s arm.

After they left with a considerable number of purchases, Chase and Laci were alone in the salesroom. What would Anna say? Chase wondered. She tried to summon up the older woman’s wisdom and experience. She also needed to make sure Anna didn’t fire Laci.

Laci shrank as Chase faced her. “That will not happen again. Do you understand me?”

“What do you have against poor Ted?”

“Poor Ted is stealing from us! I’ve told you that. I’m about to ban him from the store. You will tell me if he comes in here again.” Was she going overboard? If only her back didn’t ache so. It was making her extra grouchy.

Laci started sobbing.

“Go into the kitchen until you can straighten up and do your job.”

Chase felt like Cinderella’s evil stepmother as Laci slunk through the double doors with her hands to her teary face. It occurred to Chase that this was perfect passive-aggressive behavior on Laci’s part. Chase disliked being manipulated. She heaved a sigh. What next?

One more rush day, Chase told herself that night as she brushed her teeth for bed. She just needed to get through Monday.

ELEVEN

Monday was humming along and Chase was feeling that she would make it through the day. She watched the clock in the afternoon. The hour hand crept toward six. At seven thirty they would close up and the rush time would be over.

She had brought plenty of aspirin and Tylenol downstairs to the shop today and alternating them was helping her back pain. Her mood was better because of that, she was sure.

Anna and Chase had stocked the shelves for the last time at five and were both working the front of the store. Many last-minute freshmen were moving in and finding they needed something sweet to tide them over until dinnertime. Vi had asked to take an extra break at five, an inconvenient time given the number of customers in the shop right then. Chase wondered if Anna would try to replace both of their sales clerks.

At five forty-five, Vi was returning when Ted Naughtly showed up. Chase’s good mood was fast evaporating. It was time to be direct.