Friend-Zoned (Friend-Zoned 1)

I love my job.

Safira has three workers; myself, Mimi, and Lola. I work full time, 9 to 5. Mimi and Lola get three to four shifts a week depending on how busy we are. We’ll soon add a fourth to our trio.

My BFF Natalie is coming to live in New York!

Excited, you ask?!

Who, me?

Noooooo… I’m freaking ecstatic!

Although born and raised in California, I moved to New York two years ago. Natalie has been my best friend pretty much all my life. So when I moved away, it broke both our hearts. I had my reasons for moving. She understood why I left Cali but declared she couldn’t live without me because she says “Cali sucks without you”.

So, this week I’ll have a moving truck arrive at my apartment. I’ll pack the second bedroom full of her stuff and next week my BFF will not only be living with me but also working with me.

Totally awesome, if you ask me.

Mimi interrupts my thought by nudging me. “There he is again. Damn, that boy is fine. And I mean fine with a capital F. ”

I look through the shop window, past the mannequins and my heart stutters. This is not the first time I’ve noticed him. And Mimi is right.

He is fine.

Super fine.

So fine he should be on a billboard or a book cover somewhere. But something about him bothers me.

***

Two weeks earlier…

Great. Just great.

A traffic jam and I have approximately six minutes to open the store. No way am I going to get there on time and this ticks me off. I open the store at nine a. m. and pretty often there are already customers waiting for me.

Ten minutes later I have my car parked at a public parking spot because I can never get a space by my store and I don’t have parking spaces under or behind the building. I’ve tried taking the bus a few times but found I value my sleep too much to get up an hour earlier than I have to if I take my car.

Four customers are waiting on me. Three of them are smiling when they see me running towards them. One of them is scowling at me and it makes her pretty face oh-so ugly.

“I am so sorry. There is a traffic jam down the street and I was stuck. I hope you haven’t been waiting long. ” I unlock the door and they follow me inside.

I open the staff room door, literally throw my bag onto the kitchenette counter, and run back to the register to log on.

The scowling woman is waiting for me.

I smile and say, “Good Morning. My name is Tina. How can I help you today?”

She flicks her nails at a garment on the counter and replies, “This dress is awful. ”

She has a great Jersey accent.

My smile falters and I respond, “I’m so sorry you don’t like it. ” I’m trying to be sympathetic but it’s kind of hard when she’s looking at me like I forced her to buy it.

Her elbow is resting on the counter, she looks closely at her nails and says, “Yeah, well, I wanna refund. ”

I look closely over the fabulous dress, smile and say, “Okay, let me see what I can do. ” The tags have been removed and there are stains on the hem.

Uh oh. Great.