“How nice of him,” I murmured as I gazed at the lineup outside of his shop.
By noon, less than ten people had walked through my door, and less than five made purchases.
“I’m going to grab soup. You girls want anything?”
“Brought my lunch,” Tiffany said as she rearranged the ornaments on the tree by the display window.
“Me too,” Kandi hollered from the back room, unpacking a new shipment of popcorn tins.
“Okay. I’ll be back.” I slipped on my white, down North Face jacket and donned my wool mittens before heading out the door. The line for Spoons was nearly as long as the line had been that morning at What Did You Expect?
“Hey, Elsie. Did you have any trouble getting out of your driveway this morning?” Jan, my neighbor, asked as she sidled up to me. We’d made it to the lucky part of the line—the part that was inside instead of the ten-people-deep part still outside.
“It was touch and go at first. I didn’t think I was ever going to get the snowblower started. And I didn’t.” I laughed. “But Bella helped me shovel it.”
“We have Anderson’s plow ours. Takes them three swipes and they’re done. Twenty bucks.”
“Twenty bucks?” I tugged off my mittens and shoved them into my pockets. “Pfft … this morning I was so frustrated I would have exchanged sexual favors for someone to plow my drive in three swipes.”
She chuckled as did I. Jan didn’t attend my church, or any church, so I could get away with remarks like that.
“Hmm …”
I made a one-eighty-degree turn to see where the deep hmm came from.
Kael stood behind me, grinning from ear to ear. “You know, Elsie, I have a blade on my pickup truck. I’d be happy to make a few swipes for you.”
I loosened my scarf and unzipped my coat several inches. “Oh … for twenty bucks?”
With his hands buried in his front pockets, he lifted his shoulders. “Sure. Or we can barter … per your earlier suggestion.”
“My earlier sug—” It hit me. The turd had been eavesdropping.
Jan laughed as I searched for words, but they were nowhere to be found.
He shot Jan a tiny wink, a reward for her engaging in his inappropriate humor. “Or I can do it for free, a courtesy for my fellow small business owner. We have to stick together, you know?”
Eyes wide, words clogged in my throat, I slowly faced forward again.
Jan leaned over and whispered in my ear, “I can think of worse things than getting stuck to that hunk.”
A few minutes later, we’d crept to third and fourth in line as my stomach churned out hungry noises. “I know they’re really busy around lunch time, but this is crazy even for them.”
Jan nodded. “Right?”
“It’s the coupons. Cross-promotion.”
Again, I eased my head around to Kael and his relentless eavesdropping.
He grinned. “When I opened, they handed out coupons for my business, and in return, I handed out ones for theirs today. Free sourdough roll with the purchase of a large bowl of soup. We could do some cross promoting too if you’d like.”
I rubbed my slightly dry lips together for several seconds before rewarding his offer with more than an eye roll. “We own specialty shops. Competitors of sorts. How and why would we cross promote?”
“The why is simple—because small business owners should support each other. We should never think of the other as competition. And the how … well … I’ll give it some thought. I’m not open on Sundays, but I see that you are, so maybe I’ll check out your store tomorrow and something will spark an idea or two.”
“You’re closed on Sundays?” I couldn’t imagine how a specialty store could be closed on a Sunday, especially during the holiday season. Not that I was disappointed … Sunday shoppers would come to my store.
“Yep. I need a day of rest. Like God. I think I heard He took a day off, right?”
“Oh … you’re closed for church? We used to do that too, but during the holidays, it was hard to close one day a week when so many people in Epperly work Monday through Friday and only have the weekends to shop.” I shrugged.
“Church? No. Just rest. I don’t attend church.”
“Are you an atheist?” Jan asked.
“Shh …” I elbowed her. “You can’t ask people that.”
She narrowed her eyes. “What? I’ve never actually met one before. I have so many questions.”
Kael laughed. “I was raised Catholic. I just don’t go to church, and my beliefs are based on experience and observation more than translated scripture.”
“So you are atheist?” Jan’s eyes remained unblinking as she nodded several times.
“Jan, you don’t attend church.” I eyed her.
“True. But it’s not because I don’t believe. I just don’t like the expectations. The accountability. You miss one Sunday, and the following week, everyone gives you the third degree. You know, inadvertently butting their noses into your business. ‘Hi, Jan. We missed you last week. Hope everything’s okay?’ And you can’t just say that you didn’t want to get your ass out of bed and come. Nope, that’s frowned upon like you were too lazy for God, so you have to lie. Isn’t that fantastic? Christians lying because they don’t want to be judged, which happens to be a rule they are the very best at breaking. And don’t even get me started on the snoopiness and shame that comes with passing on the offering plate.” She rolled her eyes.