Chapter 27 Part II Tasin-8

i just want those jeans wait a minute.What's that girl holding under her arm? It's my pair of zebra jeans! She's walking towards the fitting room.Oh my gosh! She wants to try them on.But it's mine! "Hi!" she greeted briskly as she approached. "Hi!" I took a deep breath, trying to stay calm. "Hmm... how many clothes did you take?" "Four," she said, showing me the hangers.On the wall behind me was a sign saying one, two, three, four.The girl waited for me to give her a sign marked "four" and let her go in and try it on.But I can't do it!

My body couldn't allow her to walk into the fitting room with my jeans. "Actually," I heard myself say, "you're only allowed to bring three in." "Really?" She was a little surprised. "But..." She pointed to the sign on the wall. "I know," I said, "but they just changed the rules, sorry." I gave her my best clueless clerk smile. It's a pretty powerful errand indeed.You can stop people from trying on clothes! You can ruin their lives! "Oh, well then," said the girl, "well, I'll stay..." "These," I said, grabbing the zebra-print jeans.

"No no!" she said, "actually I wish..." "We've got to take the top clothes off," I explained, giving another helpless grin. "terribly sorry!" Thanks for the overbearing clerks and the stupid and pointless rules.People are used to it; this girl doesn't suspect me at all.She just rolled her eyes, grabbed a sign marked "three", and walked into the fitting room.And I was holding that beloved pair of jeans in my hand. Okay, now what? From the girl's dressing room, I could hear the zipper being undone and the snap of the hanger.She's not going to spend long trying on those three dresses, and then she'll come out and ask for these zebra print jeans.My God! What should I do? For a moment I froze in hesitation.Then, a locker room curtain was swung open, startling me and prompting immediate action.I quickly hid my zebra-print jeans out of sight behind the door curtain, and stood up again with an innocent, candid expression on my face.

After a while, Dany strode forward with a clipboard in her hand. "All right?" she asked. "Can you handle it?" "It's fine," I said, smiling confidently at her. "It's my turn to rest," she said. "If you can manage to make it to three o'clock, you can rest for an hour." "Okay." I said enthusiastically, in an employee voice, though I thought to myself, "Three o'clock? I'm starving!" "That's good." She went to the corner and wrote something on a piece of paper.Just then, a voice came: "Hi, can I try on those jeans now?"

Oh my gosh, it's that girl who's back.How did she try on those three clothes so quickly? Is she Houdini? Famous for escaping from padlocked chests. ——Annotation? "Hi!" I pretended I didn't hear the second part of her sentence, "Is there any suitable one? That black shirt is very beautiful, and the slit of the dress is..." "It doesn't really fit." She cut me off, shoving me a pile of clothes, all messily crumpled and falling off the hangers.I might have to count. "I just want those jeans, okay?" My heart began to pound loudly. "What kind of jeans?" I frowned pretending to be ignorant, and asked, "Blue ones? There are more over there, right here..."

"No!" the girl said impatiently. "I got those zebra jeans a minute ago." "Oh," I said blankly, "remember. I don't know where it went. Someone else probably took it." "But I handed you those pants! You should watch them." "Ah," I said with another clerk's smile, "I'm afraid we are not responsible for keeping the items that customers hand us during fittings." "Oh, for God's sake!" She stared at me like she was looking at a retard. "This is ridiculous! I just gave it to you 30 seconds ago! How did you lose sight of it?"

Damn! She was really mad.Her voice was so loud that everyone else was looking this way. "What's the problem?" A sweet voice cut in, and I looked up in horror.It was Dany walking this way, with an expression of enthusiasm and seriousness on her face.Well, stay calm, I tell myself inwardly.No one can prove anything, and everyone knows that customers keep causing trouble. "I gave this saleswoman a pair of jeans to look at, because I've taken four dresses, which is obviously too much," the girl began to explain. "Four?" Dani said, "but you can take four dresses into the fitting room!" Then she turned and looked at me with a frankly unfriendly look on her face.

"Really?" I said with an innocent look on my face, "Oh my! Sorry, I thought it was three. I'm new here." I added apologetically. "I think it's four too!" the girl went on, "You have a sign that says the goddamn 'four' on it!" She sighed impatiently. "Anyway, I gave her the jeans, went to try on a few other clothes, and then I came out and asked for the jeans, and they were gone!" "Missing?" snapped Dany. "Where have you been?" "I don't know." I pretended to be as puzzled as the others, "Maybe other customers took it."

"But it was held in your hand at that time!" The girl said without giving up, "Did someone snatch it from your hand suddenly?" Oh, what an annoyance.What the hell is wrong with her? How is she obsessed with those damn jeans? "Maybe you can find another one off the shelf." I tried to sound helpful. "That's the only one left," she said coldly. "That's a sale." "Think about it, Rebecca!" said Dany. "Did you put it somewhere?" "I must have put it somewhere," I mumbled. "It's been so busy here, I must have put it on the shelf. I think some customer must have taken it." I apologized Shrugging slightly, he said innocently, "What can you do with customers?"

"Wait!" the girl screamed, "What's that?" I followed her gaze and froze.The zebra-print jeans rolled out from under the door curtain.We looked over at the same time and stared at it for a long time. "My God!" I finally said reluctantly, "it's there." "How on earth did it get down there?" Dany asked. "I don't know!" I said, "Maybe someone..." I stammered, thinking as fast as my brain could. "Maybe……" "You put it there!" said the girl suspiciously. "You must have put it there! You didn't want me to try it on, so you hid it."

"This is ridiculous!" I tried to sound convincing - but I could feel my cheeks flushing with shame.Oh my gosh, why am I always the one blushing? Why? "You..." The girl stopped before she finished speaking, and turned to Dani, "I want to make a formal complaint!" "Rebecca," said Dany grimly, "come to my office, please." etc.Isn't she supposed to defend me? Isn't she supposed to protect her employees in public? What's wrong with the united front? "Come now!" Her voice was so stern I was taken aback.I walked slowly towards her office (more like a utility room).All the other clerks in the store were looking at me and talking to each other.God, what a shame! But I'll be fine.I just say sorry, promise never to do that again, or offer to work overtime.As long as I don't get... I can't believe it! She fired me! I haven't even worked here for a day and I'm fired.I was stunned when she told me; in fact, I nearly cried.I think I'm doing pretty well aside from the jeans incident.But hiding the goods and not selling them to customers is obviously something that must be fired. (That's so unfair! She didn't tell me that during the interview.) My heart was heavy as I changed out of my gray pants and T-shirt.My part-time career was over before it officially started.I was only paid £20 for a few hours of work today.Dani said that was kind of generous.She stared at me like she was going to punch me when I asked if I could hurry up and buy some clothes at the employee discounted price. The whole thing is a mess.No jobs, no money, no discounts, just a damn £20.I walked pitifully along the road with my hands in my pockets.Damn £20.What should I use them for? "Rebecca!" I jerked my head up and found myself staring blankly at a familiar face, but for a moment I couldn't remember who it was.He's...he's...he's... "Tom!" At the critical moment, I remembered, "Hi! I didn't expect us to meet here." Ugh, almost made me dizzy.Tom? Webster, came to London.What is he doing here? Shouldn't he be in Reigate, decorating his new Mediterranean house? "This is Lucy," he said, proudly pulling a girl up to me.She held five or six shopping bags in her hand.Unbelievable, she's the same girl who went on a shopping spree at Ally Smith and said her boyfriend would pay for her.Presumably she didn't mean... "Are you going to go out together?" I asked stupidly, "You and her?" "Yeah." Tom grinned at me. "Been shopping for a while." But that doesn't make sense at all.Why didn't Janice and Martin ever mention that Tom had a girlfriend? All the other damn things did. Come to think of it, Tom actually has a girlfriend!