Credit for parts of this chapter goes to an anonymous collaborator

Jay breathed out sigh as he made his way uptown. The tech sector was down… again. This was 5th day in a row. He couldn’t have predicted it… he knew that. But that didn’t do much to lessen the blow to his ego when he saw just how much his portfolios were down.

He stopped at midtown walked into Rockefeller Center, taking a quick detour from his usual destination of the train station; he had heard from his buddy Tom that a new high end shoe shop had opened up. Apparently, the staff were the best in the business, extremely courteous and consummate professionals.

He cracked a grin as he pushed his way through the revolving glass door. He planned to put that reputation to the test.

The place was pristine; Tom wasn’t kidding when he said ‘high end’. He took a moment to take the place in before scrolling up to the cute little brown skinned assistant awaiting his arrival.

***

“Welcome to Pedestal”, Anju exclaimed the moment the man walked in. “My name is…”

She didn’t have to finish that.

“Anju, huh?” the man said in an absentminded tone, bending down to quickly scan her name tag. He stepped up closer to her, standing only a few inches from her slender frame, leaning his head to side to casually look her up and down. As he approached her she caught a whiff of perfume. He was so close she had to crane her neck a bit to look up at him. She automatically took a half step back, pretending to give him way, though internally she definitely didn’t think highly of this invasion into her personal space.

“I’m looking to replace these” he pointed down at his feet and the stylish black wingtips, the stitching starting to show a little wear a tear. “I need to get the exact same pair. You think you can do that for me, babe?”

An attractive man, she thought to herself, with a no-bullshit vibe to him; she predicted he’d be out the door in less than half an hour. Also a difficult type to convince to buy thrice as much as they planned…

She followed the direction that he pointed in with her eyes. He had good taste, she decided. The “babe” grated on her nerves just a little bit, but she let it slide. She had to. If she ever reacted negatively to anything like this, Felicia would bite her head off. But then again, this was pretty mild. Anju preferred a “babe” to many things she’d heard in her line of work before.

“You’ve come to the right place”, she noted. “Do you know the manufacturer, model and size, sir? If we have these, I’d fetch them for you right away. If we do not have the exact same ones, I will be very happy to offer you some alternative options from the latest collections we have available”.

The smile never left her face and her pose, ever so slightly tense, was that of someone ready to get going right that second.

***

Jay furrowed his brow as she pressed him on the details of his shoes, spouting out some corporate mantra to likely loosen him up to buy more of their grossly overpriced merchandise.

“Isn’t that your job, hun?” he asked, arms crossed, turning to meet her gaze, “You’re the clerk here. Not me.”

He turned to a leather couch facing the foyer of the shop and took a seat, raising his chin on his hand. The look of disappoint on his face was palpable; he expected to be treated like a king here. Was this girl just terrible at her job?

“How about you take off my shoe and find it yourself” he demanded, stretching out a leg along the ground in her direction.

“Or is that too much to ask from the service here at ‘Pedestal’?” he continued, raising his voice enough for the other employees to hear.

He took out his phone and idly thumbed through his notifications, waiting for the girl to do as she was told. It felt good to let off a little bit steam. Maybe this little shopping detour would prove to be a decent distraction from the market after all.