"No," Alesha moaned as the alarm clock went off. She pulled the pillow over her head trying to hide from the sound. Blindly reaching she turned the alarm off. Sighing, she slowly rolled out of bed. She "sleep-walked" her way to the shower and turned it on. She got undressed and stood under the hot spray, trying to wake up. She finished her shower, turned it off, dried herself, and then got ready for work.
She looked at the clock as she came out of the bathroom. 8:15. "Pretty good," she said yawning. She sat down on the edge of the bed and looked through her purse for the mall directory to find the store. She glanced down by the nightstand and saw her laptop. She smiled remembering her chat session last night with Nick. "Did that really happen?" she asked herself. Resisting the urge to pick the computer up and check her email, she decided she should go. Yawning again she grabbed her keys and her jacket and left.
Alesha found the mall rather quickly, much to her surprise. She wandered around for a couple of minutes, lost in this unusually large mall. She finally found the DWC.
Unlocking the door, she turned off the alarm and hit F8 on the computer to start it up. "Dammit," she said remembering that she had to put herself in the computer. Grumbling, she clocked in under Julie's number so that she could add herself to the employees of the store. After clocking in she looked around the store trying to get her bearings.
"Oh my god, this store is a mess. What the hell?" she said in disbelief. She shook her head and continued looking around. She did the morning paperwork and then turned on the lights as the Front Desk announced they were open. "Here we go," she mumbled.
It was a relatively busy mall, she didn't have any problems keeping busy. About 2:00, a guy walked into the store, "Hi, you must be Alesha. I'm Joe." He said with a smile.
"Hey Joe. Nice to meet you."
They chatted for a couple of minutes and helped customers. He was nice and kinda cute. Interesting to talk to, also. 3:30 rolled around and Alesha asked him if he'd be okay if she took a short break.
"No problem," he said grinning. "I'll be okay. It's not that busy."
She smiled and waved and walked out of the store, before leaving she asked, "Ummm...dumb question, but can you point me in the direction of the food court?"
Before Joe could answer someone behind her said, "I'll show you. Going there myself."
Alesha turned around surprised. "Nick? Oh my god. What are you doing here?"
"Told you I'd bring my watch here." He laughed. "Come on, let's go get some food, then we can talk about the watch."
"Kay," she said following him to the food court.
They got their food and sat down in a remote corner, away from most of the crowd. He had his hat pulled low over his eyes again...probably to keep people from recognizing him. They chatted easily for a while, when Alesha yawned suddenly, clapping her hand over her mouth in surprise.
"I'm sorry...don't know where that came from," she said with small laugh.
"I know the feeling. Didn't get to bed until late last night...or rather earlier this morning," he said.
"Really? Busy night, huh?" she asked fidgeting with her straw.
"No, spent most of the night on the computer. Emailing, chatting, reading, etc." He shook his head and laughed. "Longest amount of time I'd spent on the computer in a long time."
She smiled. "Fun..."
"You sound convincing." He grinned. "So tell me what you did..."
Alesha shrugged. "Oh...drove here, ate, watched a movie, checked my email and went to bed."
"How exciting," he said his eyes twinkling.
She laughed. "Anyway, we better get back to the store. Don't want to take up any more of your time. Besides, hopefully I'll be able leave work early."
Nick smiled. "Don't worry about taking up my time. Got a lot of it to waste right now. The guys and I are kinda on vacation for a little bit."
She raised a brow. "Oh really? Must be nice for ya'll. It's been a while since ya'll had a break, huh?"
"Yeah. About 6 months ago," he said cleaning up the table.
"Wow. Don't know how ya'll do it. I'd go crazy not getting a day off for 6 months. And I only work in the mall," she said laughing.
He grinned. "Yeah, but you get to see all kinds of people."
"I definitely know now what Shannon meant," she said.
"Shannon?" he asked questionably.
"Yeah, the shiftless layabouts that have no shopping agenda...just here to hang out," she said grabbing her purse.
"'Mallrats'," he said looking at her strangely.
She winced as she realized her slip. "Dammit," she thought. "Ummm...yeah. Random thought. Have you seen that movie?"
He nodded slowly. "Yeah. But a long time ago."
She started walking back towards the store. "Me, too. Perhaps I'll rent it sometime. I use to love that show. That and Empire Records."
Nick shook his head and caught up with her. "Anyway, here's my mom's watch." He handed her a Movado watch with "Mom" engraved on the dial. It had been specially made, and it was obviously expensive.
Alesha looked at it closely. "Hmmm...looks like there is some crystal glue or something caught in the hands. Give me sec," she said as she entered the store. She unscrewed the screws holding the back on. Taking a look at the movement, Alesha tightened some of the screws surrounding the hand gears. She then took the stem and crown out and looked at the hands. Sure enough, there was a small amount of glue that had fallen and gotten caught in the hands. She grabbed a pointed screwdriver and some tweezers and
removed the glue. She then proceeded to gently clean the fingerprints from the dial. Alesha then put the watch back together, set the minute hand right on top of the hour and watched it for a minute. After seeing the hands move, she handed the watch back to Nick. "There you go," she said. "All fixed and running."
"Wow...that was quick."
"Lotsa practice," she said with a wink.
"Well, I guess I'm gonna go. Thanks for fixing the watch for me. My mom will be so happy."
"No problem hon. I hope that she will be."
He waved and walked away. Alesha sighed and cleaned up her mess. Joe looked at her, "You look tired. Why don't you go home. Or to the hotel or whatever. It's not that busy. I can handle it."
"You sure hon?" she asked.
"Yeah, go," he said smiling.
"Thanks sweetie," she said grabbing her stuff and leaving. "Cool," she thought. "Maybe I can catch Nick online." She stopped suddenly almost causing the people behind her to run into her. "What the hell, I don't even LIKE him." She shook her head, and started walking again. "He's just fun to talk to. That's all...besides, there isn't anyone else to talk to around here," she said to herself.
