Day in Pompeii

A Day's Work

I soon realized the time and decided to head to the gem cutters'. My journey never seemed to end. The walk today felt longer than it ever did before. When I arrived and was about to open the door, something strange caught in the corner of my eye. There stood a tall, thin man with the most interesting hair and the weirdest clothes I had ever seen in my life. Though curiosity could have easily gotten the best of me, I ignored him and entered the store.

Theo was at the front desk. I could see him vigorously writing down orders. I may not have been in trouble for tardiness, but the weight of guilt was always on my shoulders. We greeted each other and I took over for him. I told him to go on break and he gladly accepted. He really did deserve it. In fact, he might as well take the rest of the day off, or the rest of the week for that matter! I filled out as many orders as I could, and there were PLENTY.

A young woman, maybe about my age, came in. She was looking at our ring display.

"Can I help you with anything, ma'am?" I asked.

"Oh no, I was just browsing," she said without turning to look at me. "I think my boyfriend might propose soon, so I'm just admiring the rings!"

"Well that's great!" I added. "Who's the lucky guy?"

"His name's Hi-" she said as she turned around and got a good look at my face. "Um..." she hesitated. "Y-you don't know him!" A bead of sweat rolled down her face. "H-he's new here, just moved in from Herculaneum! Yeah!" she said, a bit too loud for inside voices.

"Are you alright?" I asked. "You're really sweating."

"Fine! Couldn't be better!" then she smiled a really big, fake smile.

"O..kay?" I trailed off. Then she hurried out. Great, more suspicion. She's got to be hiding something.