Cami had never known what she wanted to do with her life career wise, but there was one thing that she was certain of—she didn’t want a career in retail.
She hated it when people returned merchandise because she knew there wasn’t a guarantee that they would receive their money back (which is what most wanted). Sometimes returns would go smoothly but other times not so much. There had been many times when customers would try to return merchandise for refunds but had to be turned away because they had waited beyond the store’s thirty day return policy. Not giving them what they wanted would usually result in her being yelled at and the customer angrily leaving the store.
Haylie assured her that she would get used to it but Cami didn’t want to. She saw it as wrong for people to yell at her just because she couldn’t refund their money. Instead, it was their fault for not looking at the receipt.
Teenage girls who craved the latest fashions trends were the store’s primary customers. Being a teenager herself, she knew that most didn’t pay attention to the information printed on the receipt. Sometimes she found herself wishing that they would act more like adults instead of spoiled children who couldn’t get their way, but this wasn’t the only thing that bothered her. She hated constantly taking apparel and shoes out of the dressing rooms, refolding apparel, and bending and stooping to restock the store.
She receives a ten percent store discount, but it’s still not worth everything she puts up with. This made her want to graduate from high school and college even more because earning minimum wage wasn’t something she wanted to do for the rest of her life. Despite all of that Cami was grateful for her job. Although there were times she was exhausted, she would push herself to work even harder.
Her eyes focused on the falling raindrops outside while seated behind the cash register.
Haylie always kept a cushioned chair behind the register just for her. She also worked around her schedule for school. It made her happy to know that her manager was so considerate towards her, and it made her realize that there are good people in the world who are willing to help if asked.
“So Cam, would you mind helping me with this?” Haylie asked, while pointing to an opened box of jeans.
“Sure,” she replied. She really didn’t mind helping her. Working with Haylie was a breeze.
As they folded jeans and laid them on the display table, Cami couldn’t help but steal glances at her. She admired Haylie. Having a business in a prime location on Hardy Street and staying on top of the hottest trends made the twenty-four-year-old a self-made millionaire in less than two years. After graduating from high school, she enrolled at a fashion design school in California. While there she learned the basics of sewing, sketching, and how to manage a clothing store. She went on to receive her four year degree in fashion merchandising. Instead of staying in California, she returned to Hattiesburg, got a loan for her store and the rest is history. Since then she has become a regular on the scene who often gives back to charities that benefit children.
She chased after her dream and made it come true. Cami wanted the same thing for herself. Although she wasn’t sure about what kind of career she wanted, she knew that she would work hard to make whatever dream she chose come true.
Haylie had noticed Cami was watching her earlier but now she was staring in the distance while folding jeans. She figured that the young expectant mother must have a lot on her mind.
She didn’t think twice about hiring her when Cami asked if she was hiring. She just hired her on the spot right then and there without her filling out an application.
What tugged at her heart strings the most is the look that she saw on Cami’s face when she came into the store inquiring for job openings. It was a look of sadness with a hint of fear. She would not ever forget the words that the young sixteen-year-old mother-to-be spoke the day she came into the store, “I really need this job because I’m pregnant, but if you don’t hire me, that’s fine. I just…really need the money for my baby.” The words that she spoke were words that a teenage girl should never have to say.
It was clear to Haylie that she was a responsible young woman who was trying to do the best that she could, and she respected her for that.
So far everything had been working out perfectly fine with her new hire. Cami was always on time for work, and she had a strong work ethic. She never complained when Haylie told her to do something. To put her to the test, Haylie told her to do several tasks including cleaning the windows, sweeping the floor, and vacuuming the carpet. Most new hires would quit or be fired because they didn’t think that it was their job to do such menial tasks. Thankfully, Cami was different.
Although Haylie had a maintenance employee to do those tasks, she always told her new hires to do the same tasks because she wanted them to know that they weren’t above performing any job duty in her store.
As she reached down into the box, her hands came up empty. Cami and she had worked much faster than she’d anticipated.
A quick glance over her shoulder revealed that Cami wasn’t there. Where could she have possibly gone? Suddenly, the sound of someone panting and shuffling filled her ears. Her eyes darted to the back room area where her inventory, lounge room, and office were. Cami was standing near the door with a box of merchandise on the floor near her feet with her hands on her knees as she bent over.
“Oh, my God! Cami, are you okay?” But before she could respond Haylie added, “That’s it! I’m calling 911 right now!” The first thought that crossed her was that the teenager was about to give birth. The slightest bit of blood made her feel as if she was going to pass out, so there was no way she was going to let Cami give birth in her store. Besides, she wasn’t a nurse. What if she delivered the baby and something went wrong? She just couldn’t deal with that.
“No…Don’t call 911. I’m…fine,” Cami answered without looking up. “The box…was just… so heavy.”
Haylie leaned down and laid her hand on the mother-to-be’s back. “Are you sure you’re okay because if not, I can take you to the hospital right now.”
“I’m fine…honest.”
Haylie removed her hand from Cami’s back and she stood up straight. “From now on don’t carry any boxes. I don’t want you or the baby to get hurt.” Cami smiled at her remark. Even at her young age, Haylie sounded like a mother—her mother.
Haylie noticed that her panting had slowed down. Although it had decreased, she was now sitting on the floor with her back against the wall with her arms by her side, and her legs outstretched in front of her.
“Can I get you anything? Um… How about water?” Haylie asked.
“Yes, that would be great,” Cami replied. A full minute hadn’t passed before Haylie had returned with natural spring bottled water for the young girl.
“Thank you,” Cami said, as she handed the bottled water to her.
Haylie remembered the first time that she had met her.
It was on the day of her grand opening. The turnout had been bigger than she had expected. Amongst the more than two hundred guests that arrived, two people stood out more than anyone else—River and the girl he had arrived with. Haylie had seen her younger cousin with girls before, but there was something about this one that was different.
As she watched them interact with each other more closely, she realized that he must be in love with her. He was acting all lovey dovey and made sure that she didn’t have to lift a finger to get a thing. He even purchased a pair of stilettos and accessories for her at the grand opening.
Haylie chuckled to herself. This girl must really be something because she had never known him to purchase anything this expensive for a girlfriend. The River she knew would’ve purchased this girl a cheap bracelet if he could find it and those stilettos that carried a high price tag would’ve been out of the question. But all of that seemed to have changed somehow.
She had to meet this mystery girl.
She loved River dearly and could relate to him
on levels that his friends or girlfriends for that matter couldn’t. He was like the brother that she never had. Their mothers are sisters so they spent a great deal of time together as children. His father wasn’t around when he was a child and hers had died in a skiing accident before she was born. As a child, he would often tell her that he wanted to meet his father. She felt sad for him because he was a great kid and his father wasn’t making any sort of attempt to get to know him. For fear of hurting him any further, she didn’t dare tell him about the conversations their mothers would have about his father.
As she looked at River now, it seemed as if he had overcome all of that and was now in a happy place with his life.
His eyes met hers as she maneuvered her way through the crowd. A wide grin appeared on his face at the sight of the woman he considered his sister. Without saying a word, he grabbed his date’s hand and began to make his way to Haylie with the young girl following closely behind his heels.
Once they finally reached each other, they embraced the other as if they hadn’t seen each other in ages. Haylie peered at the young girl over River’s shoulder and noted to herself that she did not appear to look angry at their embrace. In fact, she was smiling and it wasn’t fake but sincere. Haylie was relieved not for the girl but for herself.
At the age of seventeen, she was punched in the nose by River’s then girlfriend, Jenny. Apparently, Jenny had witnessed him hug Haylie while they were at the mall. After punching her, River ran to his cousin’s aid. Jenny demanded that he get away from her but instead he screamed at her and told her that it was over. Even after she found out that Haylie was River’s cousin, she had never apologized to her.
He noticed that she had been staring at the young girl, and he quickly reassured her that his date wasn’t crazy like Jenny. With an extended arm the young girl introduced herself as “Cami.” As Haylie shook her hand, she began to feel drawn to her. There was just something about her that she loved, and that’s still true till this day.
The sound of a customer entering the store startled both women. Haylie extended her arm out to help Cami get up. Then, she turned her head slightly and said, “Welcome to Haylie’s Fashion Paradise.”
From a distance, the young woman looked familiar but with her head hung low, Cami couldn’t see her face very clearly.
“I’ll take this one,” she said with her eyes still on the young woman.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Haylie asked eyeing her.
“Yes, I’ll be fine. After I’m done, I’ll help you restock.”
“If you say so,” she heard Haylie say as she began to make her way to the register. As she got closer to the woman, she realized that she had been crying. Then her eyes suddenly caught onto something that the woman was carrying. She was clenching a brown teddy bear with red feet as if someone might try to take him away from her in one hand and carrying two bags with store merchandise in the other.
“Welcome to Haylie’s Fashion Paradise. How may I…” Now she understood why the woman looked so familiar. It was Tammy.
Although the girl had been mean to her in the past, she felt sorry for her. Her hair was disheveled; her face had mascara stained tear marks everywhere. Cami wasn’t sure if she was seeing things correctly or not but she thought she saw what appeared to be cutting marks on one of Tammy’s arms near her hand. Now aware of her staring, Tammy began to feel uncomfortable and turned around as if she was about to walk out of the store.
“No, Tammy wait,” Cami heard herself say.
She was the last person that Tammy expected to see. She didn’t want to be in the presence of someone who she knew didn’t like her. Then again she had done and said some horrible things to Cami so maybe she deserved to hate her. She looked towards the door and saw her mother sitting in the car anxiously waiting for her. She knew that if she tried to return to the car with the bags, her mother would make her come back inside the store.
Cami watched as she debated whether or not to return to the car. Then, she slowly turned to face Cami.
“I need to return these,” she said in a low voice that Cami could barely hear.
“Okay. I’ll get you at the first register.”
While she took the clothing out of the bags, she realized that they were infant clothing. This made her begin to feel sorrow for Tammy all over again. She was returning all of the infant clothing that she couldn’t use.
“Do you have your receipt?”
Without a response, she pulled a long, white receipt out one of her back pockets and handed it to Cami. The young cashier looked at the receipt and then excused herself and made her way towards Haylie.
Tammy had no idea what was going on. All she knew was that she wanted to get out of this place as soon as possible. Every inch of it reminded her of the baby she no longer had. Then, her eyes settled on Cami who was busy talking to Haylie.
She could feel herself becoming overwhelmed with emotions. She didn’t know if she was going to cry or scream but she had to get out of this place. The pink and white polka dots in the clothing section for infants that read “Congrats…It’s a Girl!” were starting to make her feel nauseated.
She had made up her mind. If Cami was continuing her conversation with the manager, she was going to leave. When she looked over her shoulder towards her, she saw that she was now making her way back with Haylie following closely behind. It’s about time, Tammy thought to herself.
“Okay,” Cami began once she had reached the register. “Your thirty days are up to return the merchandise…”
“Great. Just great,” Tammy interrupted feeling herself getting upset all over again.
“I wasn’t finished,” Cami added.
“What could you possibly say that would make me feel better?”
“We’re going to overlook that and give you your money back.”
“Really?”
“Yes,” Haylie answered. “I wasn’t going to do it at first, but after Cami begged me to I thought I’d let you slide just this once.”
Tammy couldn’t believe it. The girl who she had been horribly mean to actually did something nice for her. She suddenly found herself feeling remorseful for all of the things that she had done to her. She didn’t deserve any of that. If anyone deserved it at all, it was Leena and Kelly.
“Do you still want to return these items?” Cami asked.
Tammy nodded. She wanted to thank Cami, but she didn’t think her voice would allow her to speak.
“Okay, just give me a minute or two.” She noticed that Tammy hadn’t let go of the teddy bear. Although it wasn’t any of her business, she wanted to ask her about it but declined. Her face was a telltale sign of the pain that she was feeling, and she didn’t want to cause her anymore pain.
As she diligently worked, she could feel her baby begin to kick. They were light and subtle but she knew that the baby was awake all the same.
“Okay,” Cami began as refunded Tammy’s money, “Twenty…forty…sixty…” As she counted the money, she couldn’t help but notice Tammy’s facial expression. She looked as if she might burst into tears at any minute. As soon as Cami handed her all of the cash, she shoved it into one of her back pockets.
“Thank you for shopping at Haylie’s Fashion Paradise and Tammy…I hope you have a really nice day.”
Tammy made herself make eye contact with Cami. “Thank you but…I just…don’t think I’ll ever have a nice day ever again without her.”
In response, Cami walked out from behind the counter and made her way towards the young woman. She hadn’t experience a loss as great as Tammy’s, and she was aware that there was probably nothing that she could say to make her feel better but she was going to try.
Standing in front of her, Cami gently placed her hand on Tammy’s arm. Tammy could feel fear wash over her. She didn’t understand what Cami was doing. She had never touched her before. The only thing that she could think of was that she must be trying to take the bear away. As a resul
t, her grip tightened around it. Then, Cami lifted her arm with the bear in hand and pressed it to Tammy’s heart. “She’ll always be in your heart…”
“How touching,” Leena said as she eyed them. “I see you’ve finally decided to come out of hiding,” she added referring to Tammy.
Tammy stood frozen while facing Cami. Cami just stood there shaking her head. She hadn’t even heard Leena enter the store.
“I guess you interrupted something,” Kelly said, as she popped her gum.
Leena flinched. “Well, what do ya know? I guess I did,” she said with a chuckle.
“Probably wasn’t important anyway,” Kelly mumbled.
Haylie couldn’t believe what she was seeing and hearing as she marched over to the girls. She was not a fan of Leena or Kelly. In the past, she had told them repeatedly to not enter her store. They only belittled people and caused trouble, and she didn’t allow people to do that in here. She didn’t understand why they even bothered to enter because they never even purchased anything.
“It’s time for guys to leave now,” she said while facing Leena and Kelly.
“What if we don’t want to leave?” Leena asked while applying lip gloss. Haylie knew that she was only trying to push her buttons, but instead of letting her temper get the best of her, she remained calm.
“Then, I’ll call the cops.”
“And what are they supposed to do to us? I’ll tell you what…absolutely nothing. So you would be wasting your time.”
Now she was starting to feel as if she was being bullied in her own store and she didn’t like that. She didn’t like bullies; it was time for them to get out. “Either you get out of my store or I’ll make you.”
Leena shrugged. “Make us.”
Without another word, Haylie dashed to her office.
Cami watched her run back to her office and then turned around to face Leena and Kelly. “You really need to leave now.”
“And what is she going to do—shoot us?” Kelly joked.
“It’s your funeral,” Cami mumbled.
Although she said it in a low tone, Kelly heard it and it made her feel uncomfortable. The thought of death bothered her. She wasn’t ready to die. There were just too many stores she hadn’t shopped in and too many countries she hadn’t visited. “Let’s leave,” she said, tugging on Leena’s arm.
“What for? She’s not going to do anything,” the girl’s older sister said. Leena was not going to let Haylie scare her out of the store. She was beneath her for all Leena cared, and even if she did try something, she would call the cops and have her arrested. She was a Davidson and she could have and do anything she wanted.
“Let’s just leave and go shopping somewhere else,” Kelly said. “This place is a dump.”
“Fine,” Leena said while casting a look at Tammy. “But I’ll be expecting to see you at…”
“Get out now!” Haylie shouted as she held her baseball bat.
Everyone turned to look at her. Leena smirked. She thought she would have a gun. What harm could she do with a baseball bat?
The eldest Davidson sister boldly reached out and pulled a strand of Haylie’s hair. Without hesitation, Haylie got into her batter up position and hit Leena in her left knee. She instantly let out a yelp of pain and fell to the floor with both hands clenching her knee.
Cami and Tammy could only stand in awe as they watched the scene unfold in front of them while Cami made a mental note to never get on Haylie’s bad side.
“You are crazy!” Kelly exclaimed. “Look at what you did to her!” She grabbed one of Leena’s arms and tried to pull her up to her feet, but she was in so much pain that she didn’t want to get up. She winced at the pain that was shooting through her knee.
Although she was in a great deal of pain, she knew that she had stayed long past her welcome—or unwelcome, that is. Never in a million years did she think that Haylie Miller would do something like this to her. Like all people who did harm to her, she was going to get her back one way or another, but it wasn’t going to be today because she was in too much pain.
She held her breath as she slowly rose to her feet, but she quickly found that she wouldn’t be able to use her left leg while walking. She quickly put one of her arms around Kelly to steady herself. Neither Leena nor Kelly said a word as they made their way to the exit.
“And don’t ever come back ‘cause if you do, you’ll lose both knees,” Haylie called after them. No one had ever made her as angry as the Davidson sisters had.
It was at that moment that she looked around her store to see if any other customers were there. Only Cami, Tammy, and she were there. With that she found herself happy because she probably would’ve scared the other customers away. She hoped that she hadn’t scared Cami and Tammy too much.
Leena cast one more look in Haylie’s direction before exiting the building. She wasn’t ever going to forget this or let it go. Whenever someone hurts her, she always made it her mission to return the favor.
She was going to make Haylie Miller pay dearly.
Chapter 31