Hide Your Fires

6: I Think So

“Hello, this is Hallie Rhodes,” I answer my cell phone with my professional voice like I do every time my phone rings and it’s a number that I don’t recognize. I design clothes for some people and they call my cell phone when they want to place an order, so I try to sound professional.

“Hi, my name is Cindy and my friend told me that you make dresses?” The person on the other end replies.

I dip one of my fries in the ketchup and respond. “Yes, I do. Would you like to order one?”

“I think so. She showed me your Facebook page and I’m loving the pink one with the tan belt,” She explains. “But I don’t see prices anywhere.”

I’m on my dinner hour downtown in that little diner place that I usually eat, the one that’s next door to the probation office, and I still have a while to eat so I don’t mind taking a break to talk to this lady. I also have my laptop with me so I open it up because that’s where I keep track of all of the orders that I have. “Well, that’s because the price always depends on the order. How I create the price is I combine the price of all of the material that I have to purchase and then I estimate how long it will take me to make the order and add on 10 dollars an hour so after you explain what you want me to make, I can tell you how much it will cost.”

I open up the Excel sheet that I use to keep track of everything and in the first column, I write down “Cindy” under “Bridget” who is the next person that I have to make a shirt for that I need to do tomorrow since I don’t have work.

“Okay, that makes sense,” Cindy tells me. “What I want is that pink dress but instead of it being pink, can it be red? And the belt black?”

“I can do that,” I confirm, knowing exactly what pink dress she’s talking about. I’m grateful that it is an easy-to-make dress too, so it’ll be done in a day. “It’ll be about 65 dollars. Is that okay?”

“That is amazing,” She says excitedly. “If you can get it done by next weekend, I will make it an even 100.”

“I can do that,” I chirp before I ask her about her measurements and I’m actually kind of surprised that she already has them because not a lot of people do. I guess she probably does this a lot then. I type them up in the Excel sheet.

As I’m typing down the last of the measurements, I jump a little bit when somebody sits down in the chair across from mine at the small two-person table that I’m sitting at. Looking up, I frown when I see that it’s Tate and he’s smiling over at me. I really don’t want to deal with him right now.

“Awesome. And when it’s ready would you like me to email you or call you?” I ignore Tate and continue talking to Cindy on the phone.

“Um, you can just call this number, that’d be great,” She tells me. “Where should I pick it up?”

“I can drop it off,” I inform her. “I mean, you can pick it up if you want, but I normally just drop it off.”

“Darling, you are spectacular,” She tells me as Tate tries to grab a fry from my plate but I smack his hand away and he just laughs but doesn’t take my food again. “Here’s my address.”

I type her address into the computer and glare at Tate, mouthing the words ‘go away’ but he pretends not to understand me.

“Okay, I will get started right away. Thank you so much,” I respond to Cindy.

“No. Thank you,” She refutes. “I will see you in two weeks.”

And then she hangs up. I close my laptop and put it back in my bag before I pull my plate closer to me on the table and start eating my fries.