Monday morning and as part of his usual routine Michael goes by the dry cleaners to drop off his clothes from the week before. He walks in to see Anne the drycleaner behind the counter sorting tickets. She looks up and smiles.
Anne: Good morning Michael!
Michael: Good morning to you too Anne, how was your week?
A: Busy, nothing very exciting. (Walks into the back and comes back with his clothes from last week.)
M: (Anne is such a cute girl, Michael always enjoys seeing her and hearing her chat nervously! Michael lays his clothes on the counter.) I have 4 dress shirts, 3 pairs of pants and 1 suit. (Hands Anne his credit card)
A: (Runs his credit card and hands it back. At 5' - 4" she has to look up at Michael being 6' - 1") Is next Monday ok for your pick up?
M: (Smiles down at Anne) of course, I will see you then.
A: (Smiles nervously and looks down, shyly unable to keep his eye contact) bye.
M: (Collects his clean clothes and heads out the door)
A: (Why is she always so embarrassed and shy. Especially with him! He is always friendly and maybe even flirtatious. Anne is a bit mad at herself. She takes his clothes in the back and sets them on a table. Grabs a bag to start sorting them as she silently lectures herself about not being more outgoing with him. She is still distracted as another customer walks in. She scoops up the clothes and bag and walks back to the front to help the next customer Mr. Blake who is such a nice old fellow. She sorts the clothes into separate bags.)
Mr. Blake: I am going on holiday so this is no rush. Maybe 2 weeks.
A: Ok Mr. Blake have a great trip!
The following Monday:
A: (Waits for Michael to come in, she has gotten herself ready for today, she is going to try to be more outgoing and maybe even flirtatious with Michael today. She wore her favorite slim fitting tight dress which she thought made her look very attractive.)
M: (Opens the door and walks in smiling.) Hey Anne, how was your week?
A: (Smiles widely and tries to look right at Michael) It was wonderful Sir, how was yours? (Sir? Why did she say that? She knows his name. That was so akward!! Ugh!!)
M: (Smiles again, laughing a bit to himself at her calling him Sir.) It was great!
A: (Pulls out his clean clothes and hangs them)
M: (Looks at the clothes) Anne, I do not see my suit.
A: (Looks at the clothes and the ticket.) There is not a suit on the ticket. You did not have a suit.
M: I am sure I did.
A: (Looks at the ticket again and shows it to Michael) Look, there is no suit here.
M: (Gets a puzzled look) Ok, maybe I left it at home. I will check there. (Tries to down play the issue and wants to double check before he pushes the issue. Anne is always so nice.)
A: It must be there, I do not have it on the ticket. When clothes come in, I bag them right away. I have never lost a garment of any kind. (Wow that was probably not flirtatious, this is not going how she wanted)
M: Ok, I will check at home. I will see you next Monday to pick these up.
A: Ok, thanks (She tries to smile.)
M: (Collects his items and leaves.)
A: (Stomps her foot.) Ugh!! (One chance a week to flirt with Michael it this stupid suit thing happens!!) UGH!! (Stomps foot again)
Next day.
(Phone rings)
A: Hello First Street Cleaners?
M: Anne?
A: Yes
M: It is Michael Harris, I wanted to see if my suit showed up, it was not at my house.
A: (Excited to hear from him) Oh, um no it did not.
M: Could you check the store for me?
A: (Why should she check the store? She doesn't have the suit. It would stick out like a sore thumb if it was on one of the counters. It is clearly not there.) I can look around right now and see it is not here. Maybe you dropped it somewhere. Did you check your car?
M: (Tries to be friendly about the issue even though it is very clearly not in his car.) I will check everywhere again but I have looked around pretty carefully. Can you just let me know if it shows up?
A: (If it shows up? He is acting like I lost it!) It is not here. I have looked. You must not have brought it in. I HAVE NEVER LOST A GARMENT OF ANY KIND!!
M: (Wow, that is a bit of an over reaction...) Ok, let's give it a week, hopefully 1 of us will find it. It is a charcoal grey herringbone suit.
A: (1 of us!! Oh the nerve of this guy!!) Yes hopefully YOU will find it.
M: Ok Anne, bye.
A: BYE (Slams down the phone. The nerve of that guy!! I can't believe I liked him. Even a little bit!!)
M: (Wow that was a bit crazy, I can't believe I thought she was such a sweet girl.)
Two days later
It is a quiet day in the store which gives Anne time to think about how angry she is at Michael.