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She took a deep breath, set her first real custoht
The first one wasn’t too bad; it was a ements for her father, and she seeht, until she realized that there was a glaze of shock and misery over the woue, bargained reasonably, and walked aith a relatively htly better than average floral package, as well as the higher-priced memorial notice in the newspaper and online Mr Fairview sat off to the side, saying nothing of any real substance, looking solid and helpful After it was over, he saw the woman to the door and walked her out; Bryn watched from theas he escorted her to her car, head bent down as if he were listening Halfway there, in the lovely little garden grotto with its beautiful angel statue, the woman just … collapsed, as if she’d been hit in the solar plexus Mr Fairview didn’t seem surprised He eased her down to a bench and sat beside her Bryn watched, fascinated by the silent drae told the whole story--wared to stand up and walk to her car, and Mr Fairview ca, half-resentful She hadn’t read the wo ready to drop, but obviously Mr Fairview had much more experience at this than she did She had a lot to learn
And to think she’d co to impress him
By the tiood start on the paperwork and opened up the new folder with the deceased’s nahtelectronic with the process Maybe if they all had tablet PCs they could do this at the initialafter the fact… Show the pictures of the caskets and floral packages right there; zoom to show the detail…
Mr Fairview came back inside and took the chair across from her Bryn looked up, brows raised She wanted to ask, but she was hu to say
"Relax," he said, and although she would have sworn she really wasn’t that nervous, she felt some hidden tension deep in her stoh, Bryn Not a perfect job, of course, but solid If you continue to sell that well, you’ll have a bright future in the business Do you knohat you missed?"
"Well, obviously, she was ready to collapse," Bryn said, and bit her lip "I didn’t see it You did"
"I’ve had considerablythe recently bereaved Don’t blaray of his eyes reminded her suddenly less of silver than of dead ashes It was just a flicker, and then it was gone Probably her iination had always been a problem for her, which was partly why she’d stubbornly decided on a job in the death business… Because i with corpses and grief Bodies didn’t scare her--no, indeed--but she couldn’t help but iht them to this last, painless end Unlike most funeral directors, she’d not only seen death; she’d seen dying in many for emotional process of that that she wanted to avoid
The dead didn’t feel
"Thank you for taking care of her," Bryn said "She see odd in his look, as if Bryn were speaking a foreign language all of a sudden "Well, I’et to know her better over the next few days and see whether your assesse those"
"Oh, yes, sir"
"That would include deciding onwith her chosen s like funeral dress anddead, Bryn thought She’d never had to arrange a funeral herself on the buyer’s end, but it see a house, and just as prone to larceny Right, note to self, she thought Don’t ever care enough for anybody to have to do this for thehts, but they made her feel better
Mr Fairview seemed satisfied, because he checked his expensive Rolex watch and said, "Ah, I see it’s tiht her lunch PB and J, just as she’d had all through high school and college After MREs, having a simple peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich seemed like heaven in her mouth Her tastes were pretty simple, but she didn’t really want Mr Fairview to think that; he seeuy She bet he drank Perrier water, too
"Well, then, you must join me to celebrate your first day Do you like French food?"
She’d no idea, so of course she nodded, s, and tried not to seelad now that she’d gone with the nicer suit Another note to self: buy way ht about it back at her apart the saet old--not just for her, but for her coworkers, who’d think she was a charity case That was so that hadn’t really occurred to her; she was used to having unifor, different day, all crisply laundered and starched, but nothing individual
Her credit card would withstand another couple of purchases… Well, barely That last trip to Crate & Barrel hadn’t been strictly necessary When was payday for this job? Oh, yeah, not for at least two more weeks Damn She hoped the bill wouldn’t coet my purse," she said She retrieved it fro, but as nice as she could afford She hoped he wouldn’t look too closely, or judge too harshly He seemed very well tailored, the kind of ner labels and the little details She’d never really been like that If her shoes were cheap and made in China, well, so what, who cared … but she could already see that her attitude was going to have to change about such things Perht she’d left all that spit-and-polish crap behind her, but she should have known; once in the army, always in the army This was just an army that wore business suits, and her neas al to turn out to be a total pain in the ass