Clarissa hurried out of the store, her adrenaline pumping so fast she was surprised she didn’t levitate above the floor. Did her grandfather really think so little of her that he would do this?
She caught him at the bottom of the stairs. “Granddad, can I talk to you for just a minute?”
He smiled and turned. “Sure. Really surprised you good, didn’t I?”
“You can say that again.” She looked toward the door of the pharmacy. “I’m working as hard as I can here.”
“I know you are, that’s why I brought in some help. It’ll give you the time to do some of the things you need to get done to get the business going. You can learn from her, she can learn from you. It’ll be a win-win situation.”
“Who’s paying her salary?”
He looked surprised by the question. “Well, the store of course.”
“I can’t afford another salary right now.”
“You can’t afford to not have another salary right now. Sometimes in business you have to invest a little extra up front for the big payoffs in the long run.”
“But how am I supposed to make this place profitable if you keep adding unexpected expenses?”
He smiled. “I told you all along, customer service has to be king. This will pay off big in the long run.”
But time was something Clarissa didn’t have much of. She wasn’t worried about dividends over time. She was worried about here and now. And here and now she didn’t have the money for this new girl.
“So, it doesn’t matter whether or not I think we can afford her?”
“I was running my own business long before your father was even born, much less you. These kinds of things you’ll just have to trust my judgment on. You’ll see. It won’t be long until you’re thanking me for hiring her.”
“Somehow, I doubt that very much.”
“You can handle this, you can handle this.” Paige whispered the words over and over, yet each time she said them she became more and more convinced they weren’t true.
A frazzled-looking young mother entered the store, holding a toddler by one hand, a crying baby on the opposite hip. With every step the woman took, Paige fought the increasing urge to duck behind the shelves. What was she supposed to do? Clarissa had been gone almost ten minutes now, and Paige had no idea about the setup of this pharmacy, and not even a clue how to work the computer system.
She forced herself to make the walk to the patient counter. “May I help you?”
The mother put the baby up on her shoulder. “There, there, stop your crying now. Andrew, hand the nice lady the piece of paper, okay sweetie?”
The little boy reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a crumpled prescription. He handed it to Paige with a serious expression on his face. “My brother needs some medicine.”
“Your brother?” Paige looked at the baby on the mother’s shoulder, wearing pink and ruffles.
The mother nodded toward the door. “His older brother. He’s waiting out in the car, so if you don’t mind hurrying, I’d appreciate it.”
“I . . . well, I’ll get this as fast as I can.” Paige walked back up to the dispensing area and looked at the crumpled prescription blank. Amoxicillin 250 mg capsules shouldn’t be hard to find. She walked down the first aisle and began to read labels. Everything appeared to be in alphabetical order by generic name; of course she could do this. When she saw the white plastic bottle with the words amoxicillin 250 on the label, she almost cried with relief. She could count these out, put them in a vial, and hope that Clarissa showed up in time to work the computer.
She poured the capsules on the tray and started counting. Five, ten, fifteen . . .
The pharmacy door squeaked open. A rumpled girl walked behind the counter, red hair frizzed and untamed, pale face splattered with freckles. Someone looking for drugs?
Paige summoned up her most authoritative voice. “I’m sorry, no one is allowed up here. You need to wait below.” She looked toward the front door, willing Clarissa to appear. The door remained shut tight.
“Last time I checked, I worked here. Unless you know something I don’t?”
“Work here?” This waif in the low-cut jeans and wrinkled shirt couldn’t be more than twenty.
“I’m the tech.”
Paige suddenly felt foolish. “Oh, sorry, I’m Paige. I’m the new pharmacist. I just started today.” Paige extended a hand, which the girl eyed suspiciously.
“Yeah, I just saw Clarissa out front. She told me all about it.”
She reached out and gave Paige’s hand a brief shake. “Name’s Dawn.”
Did Paige imagine the undertone of hostility in Dawn’s voice?
The same undertone she’d imagined from Clarissa? Stop being paranoid.
Dawn dropped her oversized purse into a bottom drawer. “I’ll go check the refill line.” Had the room just grown colder?
“Uh, wait. Do you know how to work the computer? There’s this new prescription here, the kid is waiting in the car, and I don’t know how to do it.”
Dawn went to the terminal without another word. In no time, the label printed. Paige put it on the vial she’d already filled with the medicine and hand-initialed the label. Dawn rang up the purchase at the back register. “Okay, now I’m going to listen to the refill line.” She walked to the back counter and didn’t say another word.
Just then, Clarissa came stalking down the aisle, looking even less happy than she had when she’d followed her grandfather out. “So, did Dawn show you the setup?”
“Uh . . . no. She went to listen to refills.”
“Right. Okay, so come on, I’ll show you around.”
The tour was impressive. Behind the counter were the fast movers, while the rest of the shelves were arranged alphabetically by generic name. Liquids lined the back wall, and to the right the shelves held inhalers, ophthalmics, and everything else. Somebody knew what they were doing when they laid this space out.
“This place is really streamlined,” Paige said when they’d finished. “It’s got to be the most efficient pharmacy design I’ve ever seen.”
“I did the layout myself.” Clarissa almost smiled, but not quite.
“You’re kidding. Wow, you’ve got a gift.”
Clarissa looked at her, studied her face as if expecting something to suddenly appear. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“What would possess you to take a job in a place that you’ve never seen, with people that you’ve never even met?”
“Well I . . .” Paige pushed against the corners of her lips with all the strength she possessed, but she knew that nothing even resembling a smile was there. “The clinic was going to be closed for a while due to renovations. I needed the money. Your grandfather was very nice and offered this job. It’s closer to my parents’ than Nashville.”
“You intentionally moved closer to your parents?” Her sarcasm left no room for misinterpretation.
“I . . . yeah.” There was no reason to go into the rest of the story.
“Well, okay then. I guess that says a lot.”
Dawn came walking from the back counter while several labels spit from the printer. She pulled them off without saying a word.
Clarissa nodded at her. “How are the refills?”
“Thrilling as usual.” Dawn looked at Paige then back at Clarissa. “So . . . I’m just going to start filling these.”
Paige reached out her hand. “I’ll be happy to take some of those. It’ll be a good way for me to get my feet wet.”
“Sure.” Dawn tore off a couple of labels. “Knock yourself out.”
A moment later, Paige was walking down the third aisle, looking for metoprolol, when she heard the unmistakable sound of whispering coming from the next aisle over. A higher-pitched voice, obviously questioning, then the lower-pitched answer—Clarissa’s voice and full of anger. “Can’t believe he’d do something like this,” followed by other words she couldn’t make out, then, “What kind of person takes a job in a place she’s never even seen? Not someone I want to work with.”