Today was long, busy, and brutal. Though I haven't mentioned her recently, Grandma is wearing me out. I'm not going to go into it here, because it isn't worth it right now, but suffice to say that if E hadn't started two weeks ago, I would likely have stabbed Grandma with my pruning shears by now. Luckily, E and I work very well together and have similar temperaments, so neither of us has much contact with Grandma.
About midway through my day today, I was watering some perennials inside the greenhouse. I was already hot and sweaty and filthy, but I was enjoying the quiet and general sense of calm that follows Grandmas departure, when a rather portly old woman came up and blurted
"Yesterday I saw some red dahlias at the other B.S. Squared, and I don't see any here."
I stopped watering and acknowledged her, but there was a long pause as I struggled to remember whether or not I had seen any dahlias among the thousand fucking plants that I had already moved. Then I realized that the only dahlias we had were, in fact, directly in front of me. There were two, and neither of them were red.
"We have these," I offered, gesturing at the two plants in question.
"Those don't look like the ones I saw."
"Well, these are the only ones we have right now," I said, and before I could say anything else, I saw the angry look on her face and stopped myself.
Apparently it is my responsibility to have everything that customers see at every store and in every magazine ever. Thing is, I am not responsible for selling anything, and I don't really have to help people if I don't want to- one of the reasons I am glad not to be employed by the B.S. Squared.
Half an hour later L walked over to me and told me that the woman had complained. Kathy the Crazy cashier had been quick enough to grab L rather than an actual manager for the woman to register her complaint with, and therefore her complaint went no further. The woman said that I had been rude to her, and that I had been rude to her the last time she was in as well. I had no recollection of her, but since I can sense a Pain In The Ass when I see one coming, I have no doubt that I gave her a short answer and got away from her as quickly as possible. L apologized to the woman and explained that I was not in fact an employee of the B.S. Squared, and told the woman that she sincerely hoped that she had found what she was looking for, etc. etc. Then she came over to me after the woman left, laughing and agreeing that the woman was, in fact, awful.
Shout out to Kathy for her quick thinking, by the way. Next time she starts to drive me insane (which should be about, oh, six minutes into my next shift) I shall remember that she got my back and exercise extra patience.
*Format temporarily borrowed from Jonny B.'s Private Secret Diary, no rights reserved.
3 comments:
you have to be careful with that JonnyB. He jealously guards his !!!. It's the reason I use !!(!) - he warned me off. He looks and sounds sweet and lovely, but he's mustard. Mustard, I tell you.
Surrounded by douchebags!
Duly noted, Z. And changed. And yes, Jenn, I am surrounded. I suspect that's only going to get worse as Mother's Day and graduation are both just around the corner...
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