Beautiful Mistakes

"In a little bit, I want to show her this first."

Leigh nodded and smiled, but it looked a little forced. "I didn't realize you meant you were showing her… that stuff. I thought you just wanted me to train her to close up."

"I'll show her that, too," he said.

"Right," Leigh said, offering a smile. "Okay. Well… I guess I will… go out there, and leave you in here…" Frowning slightly at her own awkwardness, Leigh turned and fled the tiny space.

Straightening, Julie stared for a moment where Leigh had just been standing, a funny feeling of suspicion creeping up on her.

"Hey Aaron," she said kind of quietly.

"Yeah?" he asked, taking the ones out of her hand and changing them for a twenty in the safe.

"Does Leigh… not seem pleased that you're showing me how to close?"

Somehow oblivious to his own best friend’s odd reaction, he merely frowned and said, "Why would she care if I show you how to close?"

"I don't know, I just had that feeling just now…"

Shaking his head, he said, "No reason it should bother her. Anyway, you have to change the singles out for bigger bills, because I don't like to take a bunch of singles to the bank in the morning."

"She stumbled over her sentences," Julie pointed out, still hung up on Leigh's slightly off-behavior.

"What?" he asked, frowning.

Shaking her head, Julie said, "Never mind, it's probably just me. Anyway, I'm changing out the ones; what else?"

They were in the office for a while, and after Aaron finished showing her the cash-handling procedures he showed her an overview of the paperwork he did at night. When he showed her that he literally had to add up each individual receipt her eyes widened and she wondered if that was why he always seemed to work late.

But since Aaron had been doing it for a while, he showed her the shortcuts, suggesting that you keep up on them at the end of each shift and then it would be a whole lot easier at the end of the night.

Since the 8 o'clock person was getting ready to leave, Aaron handed Julie his keys and told her to go count the register down to a hundred and put the cash in a plastic bag, and to make sure she gathered up all the receipts and brought them back with her.

Aaron went out with her to check the eight-o'clocker's work, then he went over to chat with one of the remaining customers while Julie attempted to settle the drawer.

She had convinced herself perhaps she had imagined Leigh's strange behavior, but as Leigh frowned when she saw Julie with Aaron's keys at the register, Julie's opinion that Leigh didn't appreciate Julie learning to close was renewed. She even saw Leigh's mouth tighten into a firm little line before Leigh forced herself to turn away and not pay attention.

Aaron followed Julie back to the office to show her what to do with the drawer once it was counted down and how to settle the receipts so that the work would be all but done when it came time to close, and before long the stack of receipts didn't look so terrifying.

Once he was finished with that he gave her the pie and cake inventory chart and sent her out to Leigh, asking Leigh to show her how to do it and then clean the pie case while he went to check on the kitchen.

Julie couldn't recall a single time before that night that she felt uncomfortable around Leigh, but as Leigh showed her how to do the inventory and then grabbed the cleaner, Julie definitely felt uncomfortable.

"So, you two seem to be getting along much better," Leigh remarked in what sounded like a casual tone as she wiped out the pie case.

Nodding, all Julie contributed was, "Yeah."

There was a pause as Leigh continued to wipe out the case, then she went on, "So… is he giving you keys? Is that why he's training you to close?"

"Oh, no," Julie said, shaking her head. "I was just sitting at home and I was bored, so I was whining about it and Aaron offered to let me tag along and learn to close."

That seemed to ease up most of Leigh's tension, and it only took a few minutes for her to return to normal, smiling and being her bubbly self.

Julie was relieved.

When she was finished with the pie-related closing ritual, Aaron came back to get her.

"The next thing that can be started around this time is sweeping the floor," he stated.