After ringing up a pound of red Swedish fish, half a pound of gummy worms, and half a pound of watermelon Jolly Ranchers, I sent the customers on their way to the ultimate sugar high. I popped a few gummy worms in my own mouth. I hated thinking about heroin. These tarty worms weren’t a good substitution but they would have to do.
There was a rush of people into the shop. We had a steady streak of about seventeen or more customers. The place was buzzing for forty minutes. It was a slight relief when the customers were all gone.
I walked out the front door of the store to see how hot it was outside. I waved to an older bloke. He was the owner of the flower shop across the way. He was watering all of the colorful bouquets of flowers that sat on the outside of his shop.
I decided to go over and buy some for Kat. It was a nice fragrant bouquet of white Oriental Lilies. The flowers matched the woman.
I walked back into the store where Kat was leaning on the counter. Her breasts were pressed into the top of the glass. I was going to make an effort to keep my eyes above her neck.
She eyed me curiously and glanced at the flowers.
“These are for you.” I handed them over.
“Thank you.” She seized them and took a whiff. “I love the smell of Oriental Lilies.”
She knew what kind of flowers they were. I was rather impressed. She was a very smart lady. I already knew that about her.
“I saw a vase in your bedroom. It was empty. I thought they would look nice in your bedroom by the window.”
Her smile scorched my chest. “That’s a great place for them.” She grabbed my shirt and pulled me into a sideways hug. “This is very sweet. Watch the store. I’m going to put them in water.
She pulled away. Her lovely arse bounced as she made her way to the steps that led to her upstairs apartment.
After a few minutes, she was back. She sat in the open chair next to me. I could see her eyes on me.
“What’s the look for?”
“Did you pay for those flowers?” She asked.
“Yes, do you think I would steal from that geezer across the road?”
“I never see you with money.”
“Am I supposed to wave it around?” I gestured with a wave of my hand.
“I’m not trying to be nosy or anything but I went over the bank statements for the store.”
“All right.” I shrugged.
“I happen to notice that you haven’t cashed any of your checks.”
“My checks?” I had no idea what she was talking about.
“Your work checks. I’ve paid you three times already and you haven’t cashed any of the checks.”
“Oh, yea.” Now I remembered the checks. I never opened the envelopes. I just tossed them in the drawer by my bed. One of them could still be jammed in one of the zippers of my backpack. “The checks, yea, I haven’t gotten around to it.”
“You haven’t had a chance to cash them?” Her flawless face distorted but remained attractive.
“No, didn’t do that yet.”
“Do you have a bank account?” She lifted her body from leaning to gape at me.
Not in this town. That didn’t seem like a proper response. I needed to say something proper.
“I do.” I didn’t handle my finances. I had a guy for that.
“You can just go to my bank and cash it. They won’t charge you. It’s just a few blocks down right here on Main Street.”
“Yea, all right.”
“Are you saving them up?”
“Uh—” I shrugged unsure about the proper response.
“If you are saving them, they have an expiration date on them. You have to cash them within ninety days of issue. I want to remind you. I don’t want you to have a problem later.”
“I’m not saving them. I’m sure I won’t have any problem.” I shrugged. I wasn’t going to take her money. Money was the one thing I didn’t need. I needed sex, drugs and rock and roll. Fuck! No drugs! I forgot.
“Jason, you seem so unconcerned with money.”
“Isn’t it the root of all evil or something?” I joked.
“I have never in my life come across a young person that didn’t want to have their hard-earned money right away.”
“You always say I’m different.”
Kat twisted her glossy lips. Something about my delivery wasn’t convincing.
“You live in a nice house with your uncle. Are you rich or something?”
I paused thinking about an adequate yet amusing answer. I didn't want to lie any more than necessary. I hated having to lie to her in the first place.
“No, no, I’m not rich.”
“Right, because why would you work in a candy store if you had a lot of money? You would probably work from home doing something, or selling something. I don’t know.”
“Believe me, I’m not rich.” I didn’t feel it was a lie. What made one rich? Was it having a net worth of 3 million? My net worth was high in the double digits. Anything over 10, 20, 50 would make you wealthy I presume. I was over 50 million so I could consider myself wealthy. Being rich just seemed like an understatement. Therefore, I wasn’t being dishonest. “No, no, I’m not rich.” I was properly proud that I wasn’t lying to Kat about something else.
The fake American accent was wearing me down. I felt like such a fraud and I was slipping up and mixing my native lingo with my Californian dialect. I was also mashing random British slang with American slang. I wasn’t going to be able to keep this up for very long. It was so easy with her. So my dialect started slipping into the realm of easy.
The deception seemed cool at first. Now I find myself stumbling around without a clue. It was much easier to act like an American with a script,
