The Night Manager_(1)

Today was supposed to be her day off, her reprieve from working with demanding clients and incompetent coworkers. Instead she had spent the morning in the office as usual; phones ringing non-stop, pacifying angry clients, picking up the slack of her lazy coworkers. She was now spending the evening taking care of a few last minute items on her to-do list. She was throwing a dinner party tonight, much needed time with good friends, good food and good wine. As excited as she was, she was that much stressed. She wanted every little detail to be perfect. This would have been a breeze had she been able to stay home from work, but duty calls. She hadn’t been able to spend time with her friends in quite a while, this was very overdue.

She arrived at the grocery store and quickly found a place to park. She pulled her shopping list out of her purse and started making her way around the store. Flour is here, the wine is there, need another package of butter. She was briskly making her way through these last minute items until she came to the last item on her list. She pushed her shopping cart to the appropriate aisle, looking for the black olives; she needed them for her famous pizza. Finding them, she was a bit surprised at the dust covering the lid. Just to be safe, she decided to double check the date. Shocked, she found the contents were out of date almost 6 months. She reached for and checked the next cans on the shelf to reveal all of them were already expired. Frustrated, she asked the next store employee she saw to check for any additional cans in the store’s stock room. The girl disappeared for about 15 seconds and came back empty handed. “We’re out,” was the short, curt response given as the young employee shrugged, walking away.

Shocked, she stood mouth agape in the middle of the aisle trying to figure out what just happened. A voice behind her surprised her from her trance, “Can I help you, miss?” She turned around to discover the source of the question. His sweet smile was the first thing she noticed, next was his height as he towered over her. She sighed, attempting to release a bit of her frustrations before talking to this so-far, innocent man. He introduced himself to her, said that he was the night manager of the store and he would look into the situation for her. This time instead of mere seconds, he was gone for a few minutes. Irked; she checked her watch several times, tapping her toes that yet again, her time was being wasted. Finally, he resurfaced – empty handed. Yes, his hands; they were quite large, she caught herself staring as he started talking to her again. “Sadly, we are fresh out of the olives you were looking for. I won’t be able to get them in until later next week. I can however, give you a discount on the rest of your order,” he reported.

She locked eyes with him for several uncomfortable seconds before saying anything. She actually felt bad for this man. He only worked here, much like she only worked at her job. But enough was enough, she couldn’t hold in her frustrations. Finally, she rolled her eyes, pinched the bridge of her nose and put her hands on her hips. “You mean to tell me,” she loudly sighed again, “that there is no way I’m leaving this store with a simple can of olives?” She continued before he could speak, “No, no.