The events of Saturday left me uneasy the rest of the weekend. Although it was like a dream come true, I wasn't sure where I now stood with Jamie. Did she know what had been going on or was I just being paranoid?
Monday came all too soon and I spent most of the day trying to avoid going into the office area. Eventually I had no choice, and headed in to get some things done there. As I entered, I glanced into Jamie's cubical and noticed she was busy on the phone with a customer. Hopefully, I'd be in and out before she was done. I hurried along trying to get done as fast as I could, when suddenly I heard her call my name. I turned around to see her waving me over to her cubicle, so I timidly headed over to her. The whole time I worried what she was going to say. Well, it was good while it lasted, I thought to myself.
"I haven't seen you all day, and I was starting to wonder if something was wrong," she said.
"No, it's just been a real busy day and I haven't had a chance to stop up here till now." This was a total lie on my part.
"Well, I just wanted to thank you again for all your help" she said with a heartwarming smile on her face.
Before she could say anymore, her phone rang. Then just before she answered it, she chuckled. "I know you're a busy boy, but don't be such a stranger."
As I left the office, I was thinking what a dope I was. I'd gotten all worked up about nothing. After that, things were pretty much back to normal with her, and I couldn't wait for the next time she would work the weekend. Unfortunately, it would be another month until it was Jamie's turn to work a Saturday again.
Thursday afternoon, Jamie paged me to her desk. This wasn't too uncommon, since she sometimes got calls from customers with questions that were a little too in-depth for her to answer.
"You rang?" I jokingly asked.
"Yes, I need some help and I was wondering if you could do me a favor?"
"Sure, anything for you Jamie." I was laying it on thick.
"Glad to hear you say that," she said with a smile on her face and a sparkle in her pretty blue eyes. "I got drafted to do inventory this weekend and I figured since I always see you when I'm here on Saturdays, that you might be so kind as to give me a hand."
"No problem, I'll be more than happy to help you out," I said, while thinking, yes, this is going to be great.
The company mainly relied on the computer to keep track of inventory, but we would do quarterly spot checks to make sure the system was running smoothly. Although our company was service based, we kept a relatively large amount of stock for sales and exchanges. It could take a couple hours to all day to do a spot check, depending on which row of shelves needed to be checked.
When I arrived at work Saturday morning, Jamie was there already waiting for me. She was dressed casually in a T-shirt, blue jeans and white mules that looked like sneakers. I was very disappointed that she wasn't wearing her sandals like last week. Maybe if I did the counting of the product, she could sit down on the step stool writing the count down. It probably wouldn't be long before she started to dangle her shoe off her foot and I could get a little show.
Jamie already had the key and the printed out list of what we had to do, so we headed back to the inventory room. The room consisted of many rows of four 3x8 shelf-units with varying numbers of shelves on them. We lucked out and got the row with larger products on them. There were only 5 shelves per unit: one at floor level, one at about knee level, one about mid chest level, one just above my eye level and one at the top that wasn't used.
"Okay, you ready to do this?" I asked.
"Ready as I'll ever be," she said. "I think we should start at the top and work our way down. Did you notice the stool anywhere when we came in?"
"No, did you?" I asked.
"Nope, me neither. If I hadn't gotten here before you, I'd think you were playing games and hid it on me," she said with a pouting look on her face. "Well, I guess we'll just start on the second shelf and come back to the top later when we find it. Since you can reach that shelf better, you count and I'll write the numbers down. We can switch jobs when we get to the next one."
We worked our way down the row doing all the shelves at my level, then the ones at hers. When we got to the last shelf-unit at her level, she said, "Give me the clipboard and I'll finish up this shelf, while you take a look around for the step stool."
I checked up and down all the rows, but didn't see it anywhere. When I got back by Jamie, she was just standing there waiting for me.
"What's wrong? Why did you stop?" I asked.
"I didn't stop, I finished it," she said showing me the clipboard. "It seemed to go a lot quicker when I counted and wrote it down by myself."
"Thanks a lot, that makes me feel real useful," I sarcastically replied. "Obviously, I didn't find the stool, so on to the bottom shelf? You want to count or write?"
"Both, no offense but it seems to go quicker when I do it alone. I just wish you'd found that stool so I could sit on it rather then on the dirty floor," she said with a sad look on her face.
Then she got that look in her eyes. "Tell you what, you want to feel useful? How about getting down on all fours so I have something to sit on?"
I wasn't sure if she was serious, but not wanting to miss an opportunity, I got down on all fours with the shelf to my right and the long isle in front of me.
She giggled. "I was only kidding, but as long as you're offering." Then she moved over between the shelf and me, and placed her shapely behind on my back.