Authors: Shirlee Lewis
Chapter Seven
When we woke up the rain was pouring down hard. Looking out the front door, I couldn’t see the porch. It couldn’t have been a better day to open the blood bank. It always rains in Oregon and sunny days were far and few. Tony and I arrived by five to make sure everything was ready. The staff arrived around six-thirty. We unlocked the door a few minutes before seven and then stood in the lobby and waited for our first customer. Tony wanted us to meet everyone who came. He said ‘it will be better for business if the customers are comfortable with the new owners.’ So there we stood for an hour waiting for our first customer.
Mrs. Salibaster was the first to arrive an hour after we opened. I showed her to the first room on the left where our staff eagerly awaited to get started. As soon as she was in the seat another customer arrived. I repeated the process of taking the customer to the room and going back to the lobby all morning.
“We won’t have to do this tomorrow, will we?” I whispered.
“No, just for today,” Tony whispered.
The paperwork was filling up the box I had hanging on the outside of my office door. I would be here until dark getting it into the computer and filed.
We closed for lunch at noon and I was glad because my feet were killing me. The break room was filled with
employees. At my office door, I grabbed the papers out of the box, closed the door, laid the papers on my desk, sat down and put my feet up.
Tony came into my office
from his office through the adjoining door with a flask in his hand. Sitting on the edge of the desk, he took a drink and then rubbed my feet. That felt good and I didn’t want him to stop.
“We’re having a great turnout for being closed for almost a year.”
“Hum,” was all I said.
“Why don’t you stay in your office for the rest of the day? I can see the paperwork is piling up and I know you don’t want to be here late since we have to do it all over again tomorrow,” Tony offered.
“I’ll be okay.”
“Well then, I hate to interrupt your break, but it’s time to greet customers.”
I opened my eyes and looked at the ceiling. Taking my feet off my desk I said, “I’ll leave the paperwork until tomorrow.”
Tony finished his flask and sat it on my desk. We went back to the lobby and greeted customers until five o’clock.
The staff left a little after five and the cleaning crew Victor hired arrived as Tony and I got in the car to head home.
“Aren’t you hungry? You missed lunch.”
“I’ll just make a sandwich at home.”
“I believe it was a successful day, don’t you?” Tony asked.
“I do.”
We got home a little after seven and I went straight to bed forgetting to eat.
“Jess,” Tony whispered beside me.
“What?” I said halfway asleep.
“We won’t have to go so early in the morning.”
“Okay,” I said, and then I lost consciousness.
In the morning we headed back to Portland. I slept so hard it felt as if I hadn’t slept at all.
The staff was already at the blood bank when we arrived. I went straight to my office, turned on the computer and then went to the break room to put on a pot of coffee. To my surprise it was already made. Grabbing my cup, I went back to my office and started on the paperwork.
The software program was
an exact replica of the program Victor had in London. Thankfully I had familiarized myself with it when I visited the blood bank in London. I started putting in the names of the clients from yesterday and around lunch; I was halfway through the huge pile.
Tony insisted I eat because I didn’t have anything yesterday. He took me to the Steak and Grog. I wanted a salad, but Tony ordered me a steak with all the fixing’s. After I finished eating, I was more awake.
Back at the blood bank, I finished with the computer and it was time to make folders for the clients and file them in the filing cabinet. Not wanting to be a day behind, I started in on the day’s paperwork in hopes to have it done before we left for the evening. At five o’clock, I had only two left and I smiled.
“Jess, you ready to go?” Tony asked coming into my office.
“I have two more and then I’ll be ready.”
“I’ll make a few phone
calls to potential clients.”
“Okay. It shouldn’t take me more than ten minutes.”
Tony left my office with the door open. I heard him on the phone talking about an order of one thousand bags of ‘O’ positive blood to ship to Japan.
Victor was right about how busy we would be, but I wasn’t expecting it to be the second day after we had officially opened.
On the way home, I asked “Is business going to start picking up?”
“Business is going to be wonderful. I have an order from Japan and Australia. From the looks of the clients we’ve had after the second day, I’d say we never have to worry about closing our doors.”
“That’s fantastic, but who is going to run it for us when we get married and go on our honeymoon?”
“Father has some people from his blood bank coming a week before the wedding.”
“I should have known Victor would have it all taken care of.”
“He’s nothing if not thorough,” Tony smiled when he made that comment.
I couldn’t help but smile too.
Victor was one to never leave anything undone.
Back at home, I made a sandwich and grabbed a soda from the refrigerator. Tony grabbed a flask, retreated to the living room and I sat at the kitchen table. The wind picked up outside and the rain was starting.
Wonderful
, I thought.
Not again
. You had to expect rain if you lived in Oregon.
My laptop sat on the corner of my dresser. I needed to look up material for my wedding dress. I went to get it when I s
aw a shadow move across the hall bathroom window. Knowing it wasn’t Charlotte, she was dead, so it had to be none other than Mildred. Hurrying to the spare bedroom window, I opened the curtain to see Mildred trying to find a peephole in the curtain. “This is getting old,” I said through the window. “If you want to know what is going on, please feel free to move in.”
Mildred gasped and headed to the north end of the house. I hurried to the front door, opened it and waited for her to come around to the front of the house. When she was by the porch, I went outside. Instead of saying anything to her, I headed down the street to her house.
Frank was getting up from his recliner when I knocked on the door.
“Hi Jessica, please come in. I’ll get Millie for you.”
“You won’t have to. She’s coming from my house,” I said patiently. Mildred was on my last nerve and it needed to end.
Frank looked at me as if I had lost my mind. “What do you mean?”
“It seems she can’t stay away from our house.”
“I can’t imagine her doing that. She never has before.”
“Could you please keep her away? Tony and I don’t like being spied upon.”
“I’ll do my best. Once she gets something inside her head, she won’t let it go until the task is complete.”
Mildred walked into the house. I turned to glare at her. Not thinking I blurted out, “Stay away from our house. If Tony and I want
you
to know what
is
going on I’ll post it in the newspaper or better yet, I’ll advertise it on a bill board.”
Storming out of the house I walked home, almost running. When I got home, I was fuming mad and forgot what
I was going to do in the first place.
Tony jumped when the door slammed behind me as I headed to the kitchen.
“Jess, what’s wrong?”
“Mildred is what’s wrong.”
Grabbing the coffee pot, it banged against the side of the maker. Not caring if I had cracked it or not, I started putting water in the decanter.
“Jess, sweetie, you need to calm down.”
“Right now I could strangle her.”
Tony came around the corner, took the pot from my hands. “Jess, what
did she do?” he said calmly.
“I found her at the spare bedroom window. Apparently our life is intriguing to her.”
“So, this isn’t the second time she’s been outside our window?” Tony asked.
“No, it’s not.” I looked up at Tony and he just looked across the room.
“What are you thinking?” I asked.
“I’m thinking about talking to Frank. This needs to stop and now.”
“I’ve already talked to him.”
“When?
” he asked.
“Just a few minutes ago when you heard the door slam. He said he would try, but Mildred had a mind of her own.”
“We’ll just see about that.”
Tony put the filled decanter on the counter, grabbed a fresh flask from the refrigerator then headed to the front door. Before I could stop him, he was gone.
I went to the front door and watched him walk to Frank and Mildred’s. Hopefully he could get something done about her snooping.
I went back to the kitchen and finished making the pot of coffee. Then I remember
ed I was getting my laptop from my dresser and headed to the bedroom.
Tony wasn’t back yet when I got the laptop and sat it on the kitchen table. Waiting for it to come
on, I got a cup of coffee and went back to the front door.
Tony must be still talking to Frank. Mildred must me horrified with Tony in her house,
I thought. I had to laugh. It served her right for being so nosy.
I went to see if the laptop finished loading, then sat down to look at all the material for my wedding dress. I found silk and chiffon material reasonably priced, so I order it with express delivery. The beads were difficult to find, but I finally came across a company that had beads in the shape of roses. Looking over the assortment, one caught my eye.
It was a rose with a yellow tint. Perfect! I also found blue material and ordered it. The lace for my veil I also order. In a few days everything would be here and I couldn’t wait to get started.
Closing the laptop, I went to the spare bedroom and dug out my sewing machine from the closet. I didn’t have a table to put it on, so I put it back. Tomorrow after work, I would find one.
Hearing the front door, I went to see what had taken place over at Frank and Mildred’s. Tony went to his recliner.
“Did you get it settled with Frank about Mildred?” I asked sitting on the arm of his chair.
“I did and I also found out Frank is related to me.”
“Really! How?”
“He’s a distant cousin.”
“Wow!” I said. “Now you have a relative living right down the street. Maybe you both will get to know one another.”
“I don’t think so,” he said.
“Why not?” I asked.
“After we discussed Mildred, he got offensive. I don’t think I’ll be welcome back.”
“Oh,” was all I said.
Tony and I went to work as we had every day. Instead of eating lunch, I went to the furniture gallery and found a sewing machine table, and then went to the hardware store and bought a door handle with a key. Tony surely wouldn’t
see the dress now. Everything was back on track and going to plan.
Jason called every other day to give me a report on Abigail. The main rule for her, he
told me, was she was never to hurt Jennifer. If the urge, so to speak, hit her, she was to immediately grab a bag of blood and down it. I couldn’t see her
ever
doing anything to Jennifer, but I guessed ground rules had to be set in order for her to live in the mansion and around Jennifer.
Every night after work I
could work on my dress. Weekends would be harder to find the time to sew because Tony didn’t go anywhere, but when he was busy watching his program, I could sneak into the spare bedroom, lock the door and sew until he knocked and asked what I was doing. When I wasn’t sewing I would keep the door locked and the key hidden.
Sometimes Tony would be on the phone for hours in the backyard after we got home from work. Maybe, he was talking to potential clients for the blood bank.