Page 37 of Night and Day
“Actually, I can. I have plenty of leave, and I never call in sick. We’re going to spend the next couple of days catching up these orders. While I call the office, you call the staffing company. We’re going to need more than one temp, apparently. Figure out how many people you need based on the number of orders, let them know, and tell them you need help right away.”
Whatever had occurred to cause the spike in sales, those numbers probably wouldn’t die down any time soon. Tamika nodded but remained frozen, so Anton walked over and gripped her shoulders.
“Tamika, you got this.”
“I got this,” she repeated, with much less confidence than he did.
She picked up the phone from the desk.
While she made her call, he made his. Because he didn’t take much leave and had never called in sick before, human resources was concerned but didn’t give him a hard time. He hung up and hurried over to where Tamika sat on the chair in front of her desk. He listened to her side of the conversation, learning that they couldn’t get anyone out there until Monday, but they could send over the three temps she requested. That meant she had to handle all of those in-coming orders between now and then, which was four days away. And from the looks of her screen, the orders weren’t slowing down.
When she hung up, Tamika buried her head in her hands.
Anton lowered to his haunches and pulled her hands away from her face. “Here’s what we’re going to do. I’ve seen this a million times with the companies I work for, okay? Expansion is hard, but not impossible. All we have to do is fill these orders and get you through the weekend until your temps can get here and you can get them trained. I can help you, but is there anyone else you can think of who’d be willing to help?”
She snapped out of her fear and answered, “Dana and Layla. They’ll help. Maybe not tonight, but definitely on the weekend.”
“Okay, give them a call. In the meantime, I’m gonna go change. We’re going to get through this, okay?”
She gazed up at him in awe. “You said ‘we.’”
“Of course.” Anton smiled. “Let’s go. We got orders to fill.”
He gave her a quick kiss and then hurried into the bedroom to change.
Tamika didn’t knowwhen she had ever worked so hard, but at least she wasn’t alone. Anton was there, her friends Layla and Dana had been at the kitchen since Saturday morning, and Marvin had shown up last night and was still there twenty-four hours later.
The five of them had spent the weekend filling orders that came through and had developed a smoothly running system. Layla helped Tamika create product from her instructions, and she also unpacked ingredients and supplies that came in, which Tamika had placed a rush order on. Dana helped create products and put labels on jars, while the men put together orders, affixed the shipping labels, stacked the boxes, and then loaded them in the car for delivery. Over the weekend, the group had made multiple trips to the post office, and all the packages they put together tonight were being stacked by the door. At the end of the night, they’d get taken out to their cars for delivery on Monday.
Tamika kept everyone hydrated and energized with water, Gatorade, and food trays delivered from a nearby deli. She also cranked up the music to keep them in a good mood. But they were doing hard work, and she insisted that her friends take breaks. At the moment, Marvin was in the car, the front seat reclined, taking a nap until he came back in for another shift.
Yesterday she discovered the reason for the spike in sales. The Associated Press picked up the story about TamCam Cosmetics in theFulton County Chronicle, and the article went out to newspapers and websites around the country. The flow of orders continued, with thousands more that needed to be filled, but at least she had been able to put a dent in the ones that came in over the weekend.
“We’re almost done,” Dana said, setting aside what looked to be the last tube of lip balm to cool on the counter.
Tamika rested her hands on her hips and surveyed the kitchen. She’d spent a small fortune having supplies delivered Next Day Air to meet demand. But, since her friends were working for free, she made good money getting her products out the door.
“I’m all done over here,” Layla announced. She wiped sweat from her brow with the back of her hand.
“What else do you need us to do?” Dana asked.
“I think that’s it. I’ll have more supplies tomorrow and the temps will be here. If you could put more labels on the jars, that would be great.”
Dana saluted and went to work.
Tamika went over to where Anton was working at the shrink wrap machine. “How’s it going?”
“Doing fine. You okay?” His concerned gaze swept her face.
“I’ve been better,” she admitted. A wave of nausea hit her a few minutes ago, but she hadn’t wanted to stop. “Tired,” she said.
“You need to take a break.”
“I can’t. There’s too much to do.”
“And it will get done, but not if you’re—”
His voice broke off as a dizzy spell made her sway in front of him. He caught her and lifted her in his arms.
