"That old geezers needs to find him a grandma" Jayden mumbled under his breath.

"Morning…" Some customers greeted him as they were walking through the door.

"Morning and welcome…" he said with a smile. He allowed the ladies to walk around leisurely checking out his merchandise as he busied himself behind the counter readying to assist them as they needed. He wanted them to hurry up, pick something out, pay for it and leave. That way he could get back to watching and keeping tabs on Mia.

Finally after over an hour of trying on this and that; mixing and matching; picking out accessories to go with things the ladies finally agreed upon what they were buying, paid for their items and were leaving.

"Thank you and please come again" he said with a smile as he impatiently waited for them to walk back out through the door. Before he could run up to his door to restart his surveillance of Mia's shop, his door chimes were ringing again as more customers were entering. Jayden made himself relax and service his customers properly; it wasn't a thing he could do about it- business was business.

The day had been like a revolving door; a steady stream of customers kept trickling in one-after-another. Jayden surmised that the small print ads that he had run in the local paper were working. There was always someone in his store and he never did get another chance to peek out and see what was going on at Mia's shop. It was now past nine o'clock in the evening. He had already closed for the night and was counting his receipts and money. This had been a good business day.

* * * * * * * *

Mia was disturbed; a whole day had passed and Jayden hadn't stopped by the shop during lunch nor had he come after closing to just hand out and chill as usual. Hmm, she wondered if something had happened to him. She got up going to the door opening it up and peeking down the sidewalk to see if she could see him. His lights were off. Had he gone for the day? Slightly disappointed she found her way heading back to the game room. There were still some customers there playing various games. Mia found an empty chair in a corner of the room towards the back. She sat down tucking her foot in the chair and propping her head up under her raised knee.

The room was filled with excitement and merriment as people cheered and booed onward in victory or defeat. Mia tuned everything out and soon her mind drifted back to a few days ago.




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