Skin Deep

1 1 0
                                    


I've been trying to think of a way to win over my mother's favor all day

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.

I've been trying to think of a way to win over my mother's favor all day. It helps that it hasn't been very busy, but I still haven't come up with any real plan since Wednesday. And she's still ignoring my presence like before.

There's gotta be something...

"Hey, ready for lunch?" Taki asks around 2 o'clock.

"Sure. Let me just go and get my usual." I wander back, deep in thought.

I don't want to go back to how I was, but where's the middle when it comes to her controlling my life and me controlling my life?

I absently reach for the last thing of sushi and touch a bare shelf. Hm? I turn and look, but it's completely empty. I narrow my eyes. I know I saw one just a couple hours ago and didn't sell it. Where'd it go? I scratch the back of my head and decide to look for something else. Maybe I was just distracted when someone bought it earlier.

I rummage around in the snacks for something good and among the chips, I find a half eaten thing of sushi. My half eaten thing of sushi. What the crap! I grab the item and run it over to Taki.

"It happened again!" I whine, handing it to him.

He furrows his brows. "Dang. Whoever it is did this on Tuesday too." He types a few things into the POS. "Did you see anyone suspicious today? Maybe someone who came in and never bought anything?"

I shake my head, at a loss.

"I have no idea when to check the cameras either." Taki notes out loud, his tone thoughtful. "I make sure to check the coolers on the cameras every chance I get, but they always manage to slip right past me."

I frown, making a mental note to pay more attention to the customers that don't buy anything from now on.

"Here. Can you toss this in back?" He hands me the sushi.

"Sure. I'll try to be quick about picking out something else for lunch when I return."

"Don't worry about it." He waves at me dismissively. "It's not too busy. Take your time. I know how inconvenient it can be to change up your routine when you're always used to eating the same thing."

I smile. "Thanks."

I hurry towards the back and toss the sushi, a little annoyed that they didn't even finish it. Who even does that? I shake my head in disappointment and head back into the store in search of something different.

It takes a little longer than I expect to settle on something, but none of it sounds good and I was really looking forward to the sushi.

"Hi!"

I get out of my head and look down at a young boy.

He smiles nice and big. "I'm Alex! I'm four!"

I blink at him a few times and look up at what seems to be his father, keeping an eye on him while shopping. I look back down at the boy and smile. "Hi, Alex."

Life in RetailWhere stories live. Discover now