12. One Of The Best

12

ONE OF THE BEST

T he last thing Crystal wanted to say was that she was having a great time.

No way Phoenix would want to hear that when he was going to be selling the last of Maryn’s possessions. This had to be a hard day for him and she only wanted to help since she didn’t have much to do.

She saw his reaction to being around Maryn’s things today. It just made him so human and lovable. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen a man let his guard down like that or show such emotion.

She still felt guilty being paid as much as she was considering Elsie was in school most of the day.

Sure, Phoenix had been late more times than not, but he was a busy man and she was fine with it. It was what she signed up for.

They took their seats in a restaurant in the mall. It’d just opened and there were very few people around.

“Thanks for coming with me today,” he said. “I appreciate it. Guess it came in handy.”

“Not a problem,” she said. “I’ve said it a few times. I feel bad that you are paying me to not do much while Elsie is in school.”

“You do a lot,” he said. “You’re doing her laundry and shopping for the household. You clean too and don’t need to do that.”

“Of course I do. The last thing you need to do is come home to a mess left by Elsie. I grew up being told to pick up my stuff. That is all I’m doing.”

Having six kids in a small house, her parents working full time, she’d been yelled at enough if not by her mother, then her older siblings who watched her.

“It’s more than that,” he said. “And I don’t want you to get overwhelmed either. You’re up early and getting Elsie ready at seven, then have maybe five hours while she is in school, if that. Then with her until I’m home at six or seven. You’re cooking and bathing her. I get her ready for bed, but you’re still locked into your job from seven to seven most days. A few hour's break when she is in school isn’t a break if you are running errands and doing laundry.”

She laughed. “You’re making it out to be more than it is,” she said. “I’ve got like six hours I’m not doing much in terms of Elsie. Washing her clothes isn’t hard. I’m doing mine too. Cleaning isn’t a big deal either. If I look at the hours you’re paying me and the amount that I’m with Elsie it’s not as much as I thought it’d be. Don’t worry about it.”

He laughed nervously and took a sip of the water that had been set down. “Guess I’m worried you might quit on me.”

She went with her gut and reached her hand over to lay it on his like she’d touched his hand before. “Listen, Phoenix. I’ve had a lot of bad jobs in my life. This is one of the best. I’m making more than I have before. I live for free in a gorgeous house. I’ve got more personal space than I know what to do with. There is nothing bad about this situation. Not even close. I’ve got no desire to go anywhere.”

The only bad thing was her peace of mind. Even touching his hand across from her, she felt some heat sizzling in her body.

The look in his eyes said that he felt the same way.

The question was—what should they do about it, if anything?

It’d be stupid on her end to try anything and risk her job.

He was already worried that she might leave in a short period of time because she was overworked when she wasn’t.

“That’s good to hear,” he said. “I guess maybe I don’t want you to feel like I’m taking advantage of that.”

“Not possible,” she said.

They placed their orders when the waitress came over. “Tell me what you think Elsie needs. I don’t want to go overboard at Christmas and feel like I have already. I know that Maryn did these over-the-top holidays and it’s going to be hard.”

“Can I ask why she did?” she asked. “It might help me understand. Elsie does talk about her mom but not a ton.”

“I’m glad she is,” he said. “I’m trying to get her to open up but don’t want her to be upset over it either.”

“There is nothing about this situation that is good,” she said. “You’re making the best of it and doing more than a lot would. I know you said Maryn didn’t have a relationship with her parents. Do they know about Elsie?”

“They do,” he said. “She did tell her parents about Elsie after she was born. They have never met their granddaughter. They didn’t accept Maryn being gay and they sure the hell didn’t approve of the way she got pregnant at a clinic with a sperm donor.”

“That’s sad,” she said. “Do they know Maryn passed away?”

She wasn’t sure why that thought popped into her head.

“I had their information and reached out when Maryn was in the hospital. They didn’t come to see her. They said in their mind Maryn was dead to them anyway. I sent them a message when she passed. It was the right thing to do, but I never heard back. I don’t expect to either.”

“I don’t know how anyone could write off their child like that,” she said. “As bad as my mother has been with things in my life, she’d never not talk to us.”

“My family took Maryn in,” he said. “My siblings had all met her. There were times she went home with me for holidays when she would have been alone in the college dorm. It was a wide-eyed experience for her.”

“I bet,” she said. “You don’t talk about your family much. I mean I know you’re close with your parents.”

“I’m as close as can be with my siblings. But the truth is, the twins have each other. The triplets too. Then the age gap is bigger after the triplets.”

“Ah,” she said. She covered her mouth while she chewed her sandwich. “You are the loner of the family. There is always one of them.”

“I guess you could say that. Who is the loner in your family?”

“Landon,” she said. “He is engaged, but I didn’t think he’d ever settle down. He dated or hooked up, but he liked his space more than anyone else. I guess there is someone out there for everyone though.”

“So I’ve been told,” he said. “Yet we are all single and most of my cousins are too. One just got engaged last week, he’s the oldest of us. I think thirty-six.”

Her jaw dropped. “How many cousins do you have?”

“I’ve got eight on my father’s side. Ages thirty-six to I think twenty-two. Yes, Talia, my cousin who is the youngest, and Memphis are the same age. Memphis is getting his MBA right now, so still in college. Talia graduated in May. That is how I keep track.”

“And everyone else is single?” she said. “Damn.”

“The oldest is engaged. The next one is dating someone I just found out. At least it might be serious according to my father, but the rest are most likely single or nothing serious.”

She could tell he didn’t want to talk much about it. The fact he didn’t give many names was odd too, but she got it with that many kids. He wasn’t one to always overshare.

“I’m the last one not in a relationship. I’m not forcing it. It never works when you try to do that.”

“No,” he said.

The rest of their lunch they talked about Elsie and school and anything she might have felt he needed to be aware of.

He paid their bill and then they started to shop.

Four bags later and they were heading back home.

“I didn’t realize you were such a speed shopper,” she said, trying not to giggle every time he jogged into a store.

They were zipping in and out of stores quickly. He bought just about anything she suggested. Guess he wasn’t one for bargain shopping either. A few times she said she could get it cheaper and he just grabbed it to go.

“Maryn was the shopper, not me. She’d make me tag along to pick out clothes for me. She had great taste. Me, I just buy the first thing I see.”

“I like to bargain shop,” she said. “But it’s not like I’ve had a lot of money either.”

“Maryn was helping me with my work,” he said.

“Oh,” she said. “I hadn’t realized that.”

“The bags. She had a great eye for design.”

“I saw that in her house. Also her clothing. But she was more on the fancy side. Didn’t you say that your bags are priced for the everyday user?”

“They are,” he said. “And she was good with that too. The men’s bags are in a good spot. I was getting ready to design a woman’s line and it kind of got halted. I need to figure out trends or something. That is what I suck at.”

Crystal didn’t want to step on his toes or anything. She wasn’t an expert by any means. “I’m a woman,” she said. “Can I see what your choices are? I wouldn’t mind saying if something looked good or not to me. Not that I’d know for sure what the masses would buy, but I know what I would.”

“If you don’t mind,” he said. “Any little bit helps. It might be good to just narrow down basic colors and go from there to get the line ready to launch.”

“I’d love to,” she said. “This is exciting. I know this is horrible—I don’t know anything about your business, but maybe I’ve heard a few things when you’re on the phone...”

He sighed. “I’m struggling at work. Don’t worry, I’m not broke or anything. Just struggling. It’s not going as well or as easy as I thought it would. Maybe I’m not meant to run a business. I don’t know. I’m trying.”

“Not everything is easy for everyone,” she said. “Did you think it would be? I mean if owning a business was so easy, everyone would do it.”

He laughed. Not a funny sound either. “Good point.”

They returned home. “Do you want me to put these upstairs or hide them somewhere else in the house?”

“I can put them with the rest of the things in my room.”

She grabbed two of the bags and followed him in, then stopped when they got to the doorway of his room. “Are you going to wrap them all or will you need help?”

“I would love help,” he said. “Come in. It’s fine.”

She moved into his room. It was bigger than she thought. Nice and neat too, but he didn’t have a lot of things in it to clutter it up.

He opened the door to a closet and she moved to put the bags in there and realized this was more for storage.

“How many closets do you have?”

“Two,” he said. “I guess it’s supposed to be a his and hers. I use the bigger one but don’t need it. This has just had a few things in it and now is mostly Christmas stuff.”

“Comes in handy then,” she said.

Her eyes moved toward his bathroom and she got a quick glimpse in there too. She saw a lot of tan and brown. Not white and gray like so many new places were. Not like Maryn’s place was.

She thought the colors of this house fit Phoenix more anyway.

Once everything was put away, she followed him to his office in the front.

He opened his laptop and then turned on a monitor on his desk, he was shifting through screens and the designs of the woman’s bags.

“What do you think?” he asked.

“I love the design. They are similar to the men’s but scaled smaller with more pockets. Good. Women love pockets and places to store things.”

“Maryn said that too,” he said, his eyes softening. “How about these colors? What if I just wanted to start with let’s say three colors, what would you choose?”

“Black for sure,” she said. “Make it easy because a lot of women will do that. How long before you get the product?”

“I’m hoping I could have it in an eight-week turnaround. Only because it’s a new product so the setup takes longer. After that it should be half that.”

“Not sure how long it takes you to launch all that stuff, but I was trying to figure out when you’d have it ready to use to go with the next colors.”

“The plan had been spring, but now I’m sure it’s pushed back.”

“Then your other two colors need to be bright and cheerful. I like this color here. It’s not pink or red. More like a coral, but not so bright it blows your eyes out.”

He laughed. “Maryn picked that color and had me add it to the list. I wasn’t sure about it.”

She felt some pride in that. Maybe she had more taste than she thought. “Seems like fate then. For no other reason than she picked it. Do you name your bags?”

“Name them?” he asked. “Like a person’s name?”

“Yeah.”

“No,” he said. “I give them a functional name.”

“Boring,” she said, waving her hand. “Call this one Maryn for her. Pick her color. What other one do you think she would have gone with?”

She watched him move through the colors on the screen. Since she knew he made the material, she was assuming they were colors he knew he could produce.

“She’d want a lighter one. Not yellow, though something neutral like gray, but with a touch of feminine.”

“How about this gray? It looks to have blue undertones to it. Like a light blue I don’t see men using.”

“That’s nice,” he said. “I wouldn’t use it, but I think I could see women doing it.”

“It’s more gray than blue. If you can do one more color, I’d say go for a tan or something in that shade. Not too light. These are bags that could get dirty so white is out.”

“Everything can be wiped clean.”

“What?” she asked.

“It’s the material. Nothing stains it. You just wipe it off.”

“Do you say that on your website? I didn’t see it.”

“It’s there,” he said, shifting over to the website. He it found right on the bottom.

“Listen, I do not know marketing, but I know shopping. I’d want that information right there front and center. Then I might risk a lighter color. You should be selling that important feature.”

He wrote something down. “Thanks,” he said. “I’ll reach out to have the site focus on that more. See, that is what I mean about not knowing how to run a business.”

“Hey, don’t be so hard on yourself.”

She put her hand on his shoulder and rubbed it a little from where she was standing behind him.

Could be she was pushing it when he tensed but then relaxed under her touch. But if anyone needed to be comforted she believed it was Phoenix.