Page 36 of Night and Day
“And here I was, thinking I was one and done.” He looked down at her from lowered lids.
“Oh no, I take care of my man. Once a week, we’re doing our faces.”
“Can’t wait,” Anton said, with a tight, fake smile.
“Whatever. Mark my words, you’ll be on your knees showing your appreciation soon enough.”
Tamika raised up on her tiptoes and gave him a quick kiss before she sashayed away.
16
Anton poured himself a glass of orange juice as Tamika lifted a piece of bacon into her mouth.
“If you have time today, meet me downtown and we can get together for lunch,” he said, lifting the glass to his lips.
“I probably won’t have time. Between talking to the temp agency and trying to catch up on all those orders, I’ll have a full day.”
The feature in the paper had been published, and sure enough, she’d seen an uptick in orders ever since. They didn’t know how long the spike would last, and though Tamika never complained, he could tell she was a little stressed. He was glad she’d finally taken his advice and started the process of getting additional help by talking to a temp agency. She needed to be in a position to handle the increase in manufacturing once she did a big marketing push, and no better time than now to get people trained and ready to go.
Anton drained his glass. “In that case, I’ll see you when I get back.”
“Have a good day.”
Tamika sat down in front of the computer, and Anton patted his pockets, checking for his keys and wallet before he left. Once he was certain he had everything, he leaned down and kissed her cheek. “Later.”
He was walking away when he heard her gasp. He turned around to see Tamika staring at the computer screen, one hand over her mouth.
“What’s wrong?” He moved swiftly to reach her side.
She looked at him with wide-open eyes. “I don’t know what happened overnight, but I have thousands of new orders. Way more than when I closed up shop yesterday.”
“Thousands?”
Anton stepped behind her and looked at the screen, and sure enough, there were thousands of new orders. His mouth fell open. “Holy shit. What happened?”
“I have no idea. What am I going to do? I don’t have any temps yet, and I didn’t anticipate such a huge spike. What the hell happened?” With every sentence, her voice raised an octave.
“Okay, calm down. Let’s think about this for a minute.”
“I can’t remain calm!” Tamika screeched. “I can’t fill all these new orders. Anton, what am I going to do?”
She jumped up from the chair and started pacing the living room.
“You’re going to fill those orders,” he said with confidence.
“How? I was already behind on the ones that came in this week. I thought for sure I’d have time to get the temps so I could catch up.”
“And you’re going to catch up.”
“How? There’s no one else but me.” He saw nothing but raw panic on her face.
“I’m going to help you,” Anton said.
Tamika shook her head vehemently. “You have to go to work.” Tears filled her eyes.
“No, I don’t. I’m going to call in sick and come to work with you.”
“You have a very important job. You can’t do that.”
