It was Friday and I thanked God for it. Friday's were the days I got off to go do rounds to all of the businesses we own. Dad usually went with but today he was out of town. We were going corporate,which meant Dad was busy handling all of the changes, so I had to do it by myself.
I was dressed and ready by 8:00 and headed out the door by 9:00. Vanessa had made me sit down and eat my breakfast before leaving.
"You and your father are always rushing around", she scolded as I ate waffles, bacon, and eggs. I swear, if I were to ever get fat it'd be off this woman's cooking. "It isn't healthy to be so busy", she scowled. Uh oh. Someone didn't get laid last night.
I finished breakfast and took my coffee to-go. Pulling out of my driveway I got a glimpse of the Collins' house. Lately, I haven't been talking to Chris much. We share nothing more than meaningless small talk and greetings. Since Tuesday we've been drifting a part. I guess I didn't care though, it wasn't a big deal.
I backed out and had the scare of my life. Screeching to a halt I had nearly rammed someone pulling in. My heart was beating rapidly in my chest and my breathing was shallow. That had to be the scariest thing in my life. I almost damaged my baby. Patting the dash I reassured Melissa nothing was going happen to her.
After composing myself I got out to check on the other driver. They had their back to me checking for any dents or abrasions.
"I'm so sorry. I wasn't paying attention", I said approaching them and stopped in my tracks. It was a guy, maybe a little taller than me. He was wearing a black jacket with a black shirt that was way too long, blue jeans and white shoes. Even from behind I could tell who it was. "Justin. What are you doing out here?", I asked the man in front of me as he turned around and smiled.
"Oh, what's up, Steph. And nothing, just driving around. I was thinking about buying one of the houses here".
Not being rude but was he serious? This was a family neighborhood, not a neighborhood for single twenty-somethings. "Really?", I asked incredulously.
"Nah", Justin chuckled, "Chris gave me his address and I came out hoping to see you".
My heart leapt into my rib cage. "Oh", a smile tugging at the corners of my mouth. "I wish you would have texted or something. I'm on my way out to evaluate the stores".
Justin ran a hand through his hair embarrassed, "Sorry, that would have been smart". He looked a little disappointed.
An idea formed in my mind and I knew I might come to regret it. "Why don't you come with. I'll be bored all by myself", I offered half of me praying he said no the other half chanting he would accept.
"Sure, that could be fun".
So, Justin parked his Audi in my usual parking space and we sped off to our first stop, Wisteria, a clothing store. All I had to do was check to make sure stocks were up, numbers were correct and the store was presentable.
Justin trailed behind me as we entered the large boutique. I was greeted by Emily, a redheaded girl of maybe twenty-four who had worked there since we opened five years ago. She was sweeping the white marble floors although they were already sparkling clean.
"Good morning, Emily. How are you?", I said hugging her. At all of our stores we treat employees like family and they work better because they feel valued, which they are. We make sure they understand that they're needed and not just disposable to us, although if need be they can be replaced. But it hasn't happened yet.
"Good morning, Stephanie. I'm good, thanks for asking. Doing your rounds?", it seemed she was trying to be professional and not ogle at Justin.
"Yeah, someone's gotta do it. I don't know if you heard but we're going corporate soon so just wanna make sure everything's in order before we put our name on the logo", it was a big thing, to go corporate, so every little detail had to be in order.
"Oh, that's exciting!", she chirped still keeping her eyes locked on me.
"Oh, and let me introduce you", I said sidestepping so Justin could get around me. "Emily, this is Justin. Justin, meet Emily. She runs this place when I'm not around".
The two shook hands politely and I excused myself to go do what I came here to do. Justin followed me to the back where I crunched numbers and corrected figures. Turns out we'd sold 67.9% more than we did last month from the new spring collection. Promising.
It took me half an hour to finish and just about the same at each store. Today was also a collection day so I had to take all the money from each safe, leave enough money for registers and then go home and pay people.
"So, you do all this by yourself?", Justin asked as we left the last store which happened to be Vince's.
"Not all the time. Usually my dad is here to help and I do half of the stores and he does half, but he's out of town for the next week or so and my stepmom is only good at two things; being a housewife and cooking".
When I got home Justin went over to Chris' while I crunched numbers for another three hours. We had a total of 201 employees, 184 of which made $8.50 an hour and seventeen made $13.00 an hour. We had made nearly 500k this week but with taxes and payroll and supplies we really only made, roughly, 417k, which meant I got to keep a little over 166k. Nice. I did a quick bank run, made sure everyone got paid and sent the numbers to dad so he could deal with stock and supply.
It was 5:23 when I finally got to sit down and relax. I promise, if I had to do this all on my own like Dad had I'd keel over by next month.
"Hey, honey, hard day?", Vanessa walked in wearing a pale yellow tennis outfit. She really was meant to be a suburban housewife. Her hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail and she looked fit as if she were still in her twenty's although I know she was really twice that.
I just nodded in response.
She pouted a bit. "So, I guess no mother-daughter bonding?", she looked so upset and she was all dressed and ready in her cute little skirt and sports bra-top thing.
Ugh! Why was I so nice. "No, I'm fine. Let me go get ready. I'll be down in fifteen", I said tiredly.
The shower woke me up a bit and I got dressed in my dark grey Nike sports bra and spandex and a pair of royal blue Nike Roshes. I brushed my hair back into a ponytail and applied waterproof mascara before meeting Vanessa downstairs. She had my tennis racket carrier ready, hers already on. I pulled it over my head and we locked up before jogging down to the recreational park down the street passed the skate park.
I saw Ky's messy golden brown hair as we passed. He waved to me and so did a couple other guys. One looked like Crawfish. It was. He was hanging out with the guys. It was nice to see he was fitting in.
Vanessa and I were the only ones at the tennis courts so that meant we could go all out. Vanessa handed me a blue Gatorade, where she had pulled it from I have no idea.
"You serve", Vanessa tossed me a yellow ball after we had taken out our rackets. "You look tired. Gotta wake you up", she teased getting competitive.
"Alright, 'mommy', be careful what you wish for", I said backing behind the line. I tossed ball up and slammed it down onto her side of the court.
She went for it and managed to tip it over to my side. We went at it for a good ten minutes or so before I was able to hit the corner.
"Nice hit", she said grabbing another ball and tossing it to me.
"Thank you", I said feeling better. Almost chipper, you could say.
We yo-yoed like this for a solid hour, the score eleven to twelve, my win.
"You're getting better", Vanessa said taking a big gulp of water.
"Or you're getting worse", I said with a laugh.
Vanessa laughed, "It's possible". Vanessa handed me a towel as we sat down to catch our breaths. Where did she keep this stuff? I swear she was like the modern day Mary Poppins.
Out the corner of my eye I saw two figures approaching us. "Isn't that Chris and Justin Bieber?", she said looking straight at the two wide-eyed.
"Steph!", Justin called out.
"Yep", I said waving to them.
She turned to me looking shocked, "You know Justin Bieber!". Was she about to fangirl? Because if she was I was going to leave.
"Hey guys", I greeted them when they had gotten close enough. "What's up?". I stood dabbing sweat from my face and neck with my towel.
"Hey girl", Justin said pulling me into a hug. He had changed since I had last saw him. Now he was donning black basketball shorts and a plain grey muscle T.
We pulled away and Chris was standing there awkwardly. "Hey, Chris", I said offering him my fist.
He bumped it softly. It was safe to say things had gotten weird with the two of us. "Hey". See?
Justin noticed Vanessa behind me and took the liberty to introduce himself. "Hi, I'm Justin. I didn't know Stephanie had a sister", he said shaking her hand putting on the charm. He was hitting on my stepmom. Ew!
Vanessa giggled like a schoolgirl, "Oh, no. I'm her-"
"Stepmom", I cut her off. "So, stop hitting on her Biebs. She's taken", I stuck my tongue out at him causing him to laugh.
"So, what are you ladies up to now", he asked directing his attention to me. Behind us Chris and Vanessa fell into a conversation.
"Probably gonna head home", I said pulling my towel across my neck.
He pouted and took my hand, "No, stay", he pleaded. "We can play basketball or something".
I thought about it although it was hard to think with him holding my hand and the pair of eyes I felt on the back of my neck. "But Vanessa doesn't know how to play and this is sort of our time", I explained.
"What does she know how to play, because I really wanna chill with you", he said rolling his bottom lip between his teeth before looking me up and down. "And you look too good to let you go home", he said pulling me closer to him.
"But I'm all sweaty", I said pushing him away bashfully. Oh goodness, this man.
Justin had gotten his arms around my waist and was holding me close to him smiling down at me. "Sweat is sexy", he crooned.
I pushed him away playfully, "You're such a creep, Bieber!".
He caught me by the hands again laughing now. "Okay, okay. But for real though. How can I get you to stay?", he asked in his seductive tone, his husky voice intensifying the effect.
I leaned in so I had to whisper. "You can't".