The Store and Working

“So…., any experience in running a store?”

Raven figured asking about past work experience would be a fair way to begin breaking the ice. Perhaps she could turn that into asking about his boxing. And by centering the question around their current predicament, perhaps it wouldn’t come off too forward. “Or maybe I’m being too careful.” Raven thought to herself.

“Outright running? Not really.” Cole said with a shake of his head and his hand, “My ma worked part time at a local shop when I was young. I suppose you’d call it a general store. Sold food, clothes other goods; but I didn’t have a hand in selling. Most of the time. I helped move inventory though.” He finished before following it up with, "Let's see..., I have done some cashier work, inventory, customer service.., but this is all with working in a small town where most people know each other."

“But you have more understanding than me." Raven replied holding her index finger, "Given I’ve only been a cashier. So when it comes to the day to day running of shop, I'll defer to you."

“I suppose I picked up some things.” Cole admitted with a small grin, "Gonna need to do some research about it though."

Raven was about to ask a different question to put him on the path towards his boxing career, when an unexpected sound reached their ears. A knocking on a heavy object, from down below them. Cole was about to ask what was up when Raven moved over to a computer and started clicking away. Soon she found what she was looking for and a video screen pulled up. It must have been from a security camera from outside. At their front door was a woman with a small child, maybe six years in age. The woman looked at her wrist before knocking again.

“Thoughts?” Raven asked, looking at Cole with her hands on her hips and her head tiled.

“Why are you asking me for?” Cole asked, his brow furrowed. Yeah she just said she would defer to him but he wasn't expecting something to happen on the first day.

“If we have to be together for two weeks at least, I believe we should be on the same page.” Raven said, "I would like to hear your thoughts on what we should do."

Cole thought for a moment before answering. “Cupid’s Wish has been…, extremely prepared for us. Not to mention the building being magic. Who’s to say there’s not some sort of flyer going around talking about a new book store opening? After all who goes to a random book store that just randomly opened up." Of course that would mean Cupid's Wish ended up making the flyers and sending them out... possibly a few days before the two were married. That or time travel was involved; he wasn't sure which one would be more disturbing.

“A fair guess. But the only way to know for sure is ask customers or look into it on our own time.” Raven noted before motioning her head at the screen, "We don't have the time to check right now though."

“If there is some sort of flyer...,” Cole followed up with, “I think it would be weirder to not open on the day it lists it should be open." He cupped his chin in thought, wondering what the worst could happen either way. "Not sure what kind of world this is but I’d rather not draw more attention than we need.” Cole pictured some sort of police attention or supers/magic users. Maybe that was paranoia though but considering everything else, maybe play it safe.

“Agreed." Raven stated as she took a seat at the computer and started pulling up more windows, "Opening the store or at least questioning the guest we have would be the quickest way to get info without drawing attention. Go ahead and let her in.”

“Right I'll... go get on that..." Cole muttered with a slight sigh. He turned away before a hand gripped his jacket and turned him back to face her. Raven's violet eyes staring up at him from her seat.

“Cole...” Raven started, “I want to confirm some things with the computers here. I'll be down to help once I get my answers.” Her eyes never leaving his but lacking the... intensity she had from before. "Understand I'm not going to leave you hanging on your own out there. Trust me."

“Right..., hey. Thanks Raven.” Cole said with a slow smile on his face. That was the first thing she'd said that made him feel..., well pretty good. Warm maybe but he could tell she was trying to be nice about this. He gave a small salute and headed to leave. But he stopped when Raven called for him again.

“Cole. Listen. I don't know what sort of world you're from." Raven explained not looking up from the computer, “But from what I saw from my magic, this world is similar to mine in tech and culture. At least enough for you to talk to them normally, I suggest avoiding current events if you strike up small talk. And Magic is more active though, so be aware they may not be normal.”

“Great something else to worry about.” Cole rolled his eyes but thanked her for the heads up as he left. Heading to the staircase, Cole remembered how he had gotten up to the third floor before. Thinking and or wishing(He really didn't know how it worked) to be on the first floor, he walked down the stairs and found he was on the ground in just 5 steps. "Wonder if that works for guests though...", Cole thought as he headed towards the door.

Cole started to fiddle with the door, making sure everything was unlocked. The sound of someone operating the door caused the woman stop knocking. He braced his body against the door just in case and poked his head out. Now that he got a good look at her, it was a blonde woman in a high cut light blue apron dress and a small toss on coat. Her daughter was wearing a simple bright green dress that looked like some sort of uniform, probably school based given the fancy shoes. "Um sorry for the wait. May I help you?” Cole asked trying to put on his best smile.

"I’m sorry, are you open?" the woman asked as she made sure to keep her daughter back just a bit, "We need a few books… and the store we usually go to is closed due to a an accident and…”

“I’m going to school!” The little tyke from behind her mom. up at Cole. Little cute red haired girl with wide curious eyes and an equally big smile. The kind of adorable you’d see on commercials. Her mom gave an agreeing nod when Cole looked back at her.

“Hmmm, we weren’t going to… open today but…. Agh.” Cole put on a thoughtful look before scratching his head, “I'm a sucker for people in a bind. Come on it. I promise nothing though other than to try.” Cole opened the door all the way, casing a bell to ring. The mom and daughter duo thanked him and walked in with the woman thanking him again as Cole flipped the sign to "Open". He hoped these two would be the only ones to come in today as he took a few hurried steps to catch up as the pair looked around the entry area.

“Alright, so how’d you find us?” Cole asked, trying to get some info without trying to sound like he was TRYING to, "Just curious."

“There’s flyers talking about a new book store opening soon in the neighborhood.” The mother said, shooting him a confused look, “But you didn’t have a location on it, or a name. I only noticed your shop today as it matched the same symbol on the flyer.” She brought out a page and showed it to Cole, pointing out the image of bird sitting on a book. Cole looked out the window and noticed a hanging sign above the doorway that had the same design.

“Sorry about that…, we didn’t notice the print out error till it was too late.” Cole explained, like a liar as he escorted her into the main area. Her little girl going wide eyed at all the books as she ran around in excitement. "It's all very new and probably rushed into things. I mean we haven’t even finalized a name yet." he chuckled but the woman raised an eyebrow as she leaned just a little bit back.

“You haven’t? What sort of store is this..." she started to ask before her daughter ran back to her side, exclaiming they had some sort of flip book series. The mom gave a deflated sigh, "Oh... she seems happy. We'll at least take one of those on the way out. Now could you see about..."

“Look the name is a .... long story. Still feeling things out but that's for me to worry about. Though right now I want to worry about helping you, not some sort of documentation. So.." Cole rolled up his sleeves and stood tall, trying to look confident for the duo, " just what kind of book do you need?”

"Ah we need a School book. Emily is going off to a well-to-do school in two weeks so we’re trying to get her supplies in order.” Woman looked at her young one and patted her head. "Very prestigious, but expensive too..., her clothes alone... OH I won't bore you with the details.”

"Hmm, well we bought a lot in bulk so... maybe? We’re kinda in the middle of setting things up so not entirely sure." Cole offered scratching his head before putting his hand out, palm up "Um do you have a name for the book? It's easier to cross reference book names than school demands."

“Oh right of course....," The woman opened her purse and fished around before giving him a small print out list, "Yes it’s this one at the top.” Woman

“Got it." Cole said taking the list and copying down the book title to a note card before handing it back. He swept his arm over to a small reading nook "You can take a seat down here while I go check, think it might be on the second floor. Or storage. Gimme a minute. Look around if you want, we have plenty of other titles.” With a light bow Cole went off, getting to a storage room on the second floor.

He took awhile in the room, making sure he made plenty of noise to sound like he was searching. In reality, when he was ready Cole found one box filled of non fiction and wished really hard for the listed text book. Cole reached in, moved his arm around and gripped a buried book before pulling it up.

It looked like the book in question, read like a text book, and had the weight of it. Walking to the door back to the main area, he cracked it open and shouted, "Excuse me m'am I think I found it!" He was about leave before her own voice shouted back up to him about 'was it second edition?'.

Cole sheepishly went back inside, waited a bit and thought real hard and shook the book. Checking the tome over, he saw it was '2nd edition' now in all the places that mattered. Hopefully that would work.

"I"m gonna paint you over polka dots if this is wrong, house." Cole muttered before leaving the storage room. As he walked to the railing to shout down to the mom, he saw another issue.

While he was mucking about the storage, a several other people had wondered inside. Not counting children in tow, there were about 15 people inside..., and a growing line at the check out. People were starting to grumble and tap their feet or writs. The mother that had started this whole thing looked up from her paper and waved, causing a few other customers to shift their gaze. Cole gulped a bit, this was going to be a pain.

Making his way down to the ground floor, Cole shouted that he'd be at the cashier in just a second before handing the book over to the mom he was helping. "Listen look it over, take your time. I need to deal with the others and I'm not sure if this is the correct one... think it is..." Cole offered, being really sorry about the whole thing. More awkward about the OTHER customers than taking awhile for the woman.

"Oh no..., go deal with them. Emily is just enjoying some of the wares here... you don't mind if she reads them..." the mother asked, motioning to her little girl who had made herself comfortable in a big comfy chair, surrounded by a lot of children's books. Cole wasn't sure if he should laugh or gasp.

"Look so long as she doesn't read out out of house and home we'll be fine. Just take your time I need to... deal with this." Cole exclaimed as he gave her a bow and ran off to the cashier. Hopefully this wouldn't be too bad.

"Okay sorry for the wait everyone!" He announced, waving the first person in line to come forward, "Kinda wasn't expecting to open but... lemme just take.... care of..."

Cole was distracted by the first customer, another woman with a rather revealing low cut halter top and jeans that just clung to her body just right. She batted her green eyes at him as she put her books on the counter and asked with those kissable lips of hers, "Oh... how much is all of this..?" with a bubbly warm tone. Cole fought to process this...especially with Raven being upstairs.

"Um... well lemme see..." Cole blurted out as he stumbled to get the books scanned and the amount totaled. Wait what kind of money did they use...., wait what about taxes what that already processed in....,

"Mmmm excuse me Mr Cashier...., are you going to be open... later? I'd like to see if I can get some... evening reading if possible." the woman said, making sure to bite her lip and bat her eyes again. "Sucker." the little flirt thought.

Normally she wouldn't stoop to doing this to a bookstore of all things..., but the fact it was new meant they wouldn't know about her. And with the growing angry line behind her, Mr Cashier was going to be in a hurry. Throw on the flirting, and she was sure to get a good discount. And later who knows..., maybe she could lift the keys off him. Of course this flirting attention just made the poor cashier blank out.

This only made the line more frustrated as the poor sod at the counter was getting played like a fiddle. At the back of said line, which by this point was going into the main book area, a pair of men were muttering amongst themselves.

"Geeze if I knew it was going to be this long, I'd go to that store on Cypress Avenue." The older of the two men grumbled as he tapped his foot.

"That one? I heard it was closed for the day. That's why I came HERE but this seems like a waste of time." The other man said, "In fact I'm just going to leave... hmmm?" He stopped as he sensed someone behind him. He half turned, not even really looking at the person. "Oi, you're better off not wasting your time in line."

".....is that so. ....., if you excuse me." came the person's voice as they walked past him. The man was about to shout at them for cutting when he got a good look at them and suddenly had other thoughts in his head.

"Come on come on...., hurry up." The flirting woman thought, bouncing on her feet. She just wanted out of here and the Cashier was consistently flubbing. Maybe she wouldn't even need to try and flirt him into something dumb later.

At the rate it was going, she'd just let the angry mob get his attention while she just helped herself. That was until she started to realize the people behind here were calming down. And the face Mr Cashier made... the hell was going on back there? She turned to see...., well... unexpected.

It was a woman, very pretty in an... other worldly way. Her skin was pale, purple hair done up in a short cut and her violet eyes bore into her. She wore a violet swing coat with a shade similar to her eyes, with a white blouse with puffy sleeves and a black knee-long skirt underneath, accessorized with a violet necktie arranged into a bow with a glossy red brooch. Her lower legs were adorned black leggings and high rise dress shoes.

(AN - https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/3434799?q=angela_%28project_moon%29 She's wearing something close to this)

"....May I... help you? I'm in line so go to the back." The flirty woman said, waving the new presence away. The woman ignored her and simply moved around the counter to the other side. With an air of belonging there.

"Cole, there's a couple on the second floor looking for child raising books. Could you go give them a hand?" the woman asked as she gestured for him to leave.

Mr Cashier, aka Cole, stammered out excuses before the woman just patted his shoulder and waved him off before taking over the cash register. Before the flirty woman could say anything, little Miss Posh had instantly scanned and tallied the total.

"Total is 30 Feya. How would you like to pay." the woman bluntly said as she waited.

Not one to to back down, the flirty woman just put on a large smile and asked to see the male cashier again. "After all, I think you got it wrong.." she said, her word sticky sweet and..., laced with her building anger.

"....." the woman just turned to the register again, input commands once more and turned back. "30 Feya. Pay or let the next one in line buy their items."

".....Listen here.... little miss." The woman growled, starting to lose it, "You run off like a good girl and get that nice man who actually owns the place, cause I have a complaint to file."

"If you have one, let me know. Please, I'll share it with him over lunch." the woman replied without missing a beat. Or having any emotion in her response.

"I'm not going to give my complaint about the help TO the help? Just who do you think you are? You're just replaceable counter girl." The flirty woman mocked. This stupid dim girl, she was gonna get her posh ass fired. Maybe tail her back to her place, get some friends to pay a visit while she was out..., teach her a lesson. But the posh woman just tilted her head in dumb thought.

"Who do I think I am.... oh my....," She said putting a finger to her chin, her eyes unfocused as she thought. The flirty woman had a smug smile before the cashier girl just snapped her fingers in her face. It was then she saw it...., an onyx band around a finger. She looked back at the cashier who had a sly smile and a burning glare to her eyes.

"Why I do believe I am the WIFE." Raven said, her tone raising as she said the final word, "So no, I don't think we want your business. So BEAT. FEET. You little trollop." Raven put the books away and just pointed at the door.

The stupid flirt just mouthed words but nothing came. Probably too stunned or embarrassed but she just turned her head up and left in a huff, slamming the door on the way out. Raven moved over to inspect the door for damage before moving back to the counter and addressed the customers.

"Forgive us for the wait. Please have your books ready and we'll make sure you're taken care off." she announced, turning back to her normal method of speaking before waving the next person up. She quickly and neatly scanned the offered books, charged the proper amount and sent them on their way. She then waved the next one up, as the line of customers started chatting among themselves again.

The two men in the back of the line just exchanged glances. "....She's a real keeper ain't she?" The younger one muttered.

"Aye. Sound lass, kind lad, good selection; I may end up coming here again." The older gentleman replied with a chuckle, "At the very least, they're going to be more interesting to shop with."

And so the day proceeded. Cole doing the heavy lifting on the floor and showing guests around. Raven manning the front in an efficient manner, handing out little book marks to any shopper that had a child with them. The hours started to flow by as the pair settled into their new roles..., all the while their guests thinking they were a cute couple.