Working The Dream
https://www.amazon.ca/Working-Dream-Stories-Fountain-Book-ebook/dp/B07KXR2GR3/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1547400513&sr=8-1&keywords=Working+The+Dream+by+Christiane+France
Michael
Shaw has big dreams. He dreams the king-size crush he has on his boss, Erik
Harris, will turn out to be more than a bad case of wishful thinking. He also
dreams of earning enough to start a business of his own and become as
successful as his father. But the store where Michael currently works is in
financial trouble and with his job in jeopardy, it’s time to exchange those
dreams for reality. Once the store closes it’s unlikely he’ll ever see Erik
again. As for having his own business… That depends on him first finding
another job in a town where employment opportunities are few and far between.
Erik
doesn’t have time for dreaming. A visit to the store by two suspicious-looking
strangers confirms his belief the store owner is in debt to the wrong people.
The kind who’ll stop at nothing to exact repayment. With no idea as to the
owner’s current whereabouts and Michael and himself directly in harm’s way, he
realizes they need to disappear temporarily. A decision that forces Erik to
face the one dream he’s spent a ton of sleepless nights trying to ignore.
Chapter 1
Bored, fed-up and
frustrated described my mood to perfection. Mid-afternoon on what should have
been our busiest day of the week, and Luigi’s Gentlemen’s Fine Apparel was
deserted. I’d only taken the job to earn what I needed to realize a long-held
dream, but at the rate business was going downhill I couldn’t see it lasting
long enough for that to happen.
I shifted my
weight from one foot to the other and back again. The same thing I’d been doing
over and over for the last hour or more.
A few short weeks
ago, we were so busy we’d barely had time to breathe, but those days were long
gone. Staff had been reduced to the bare minimum, and we’d had exactly two
customers since the store opened at nine-thirty.
I was bored from
standing around, doing nothing but staring at the walls and counting the
seconds. And fed-up with listening to Benny Milano, Luigi’s current owner and
the great-grandson of the store’s founder, keep saying everything was fine and
there was nothing to worry about.
Fine? Not to me it
wasn’t. In fact things had reached the point where I was having a hard time
believing anything that came out of Benny’s mouth.
The cause of the
problem was the recent and much needed revitalization of downtown that had
redirected our customers’ interest to the new stores that were springing up
like weeds in Fountain Square. I doubted the customers would be back and said
so. Benny disagreed. He insisted they most certainly would return since our
current situation was no more than temporary. He wasn’t about to close up and
go out of business, and he hadn’t been sleeping. He had plans which included
various options he needed time to consider. If we could just be patient, in due
time all would be revealed.
If what Benny said
was all true, something solid in the way of details to back it up would have
been nice. That hadn’t happened. He’d not given even the tiniest hint as to the
nature of his future plans. I didn’t know if he actually had any or if he was
stringing us along while he figured out what he hoped would be a workable
solution, and it was driving me nuts.
I glanced around
the immediate area on the off-chance there was something that needed taking
care of. Something I’d missed that would help what was left of the afternoon
pass a little faster. If there was, I failed to see it. The pristine glass
counters I’d already cleaned at least twice, once before lunch and once after.
I took a deep breath and released it slowly as I rechecked the carefully
organized racks of suits and outerwear, the shelves containing every type of
shirt from business to casual to formal, the displays of ties, socks and
sweaters, and lastly the highly-polished dark wood floor. But everything was
exactly the same as the last time I’d looked. Nothing out of place and not a
speck of dust in sight. There was nothing for me to do but breathe, try to stay
awake, and wish the hands on the old-fashioned clock above the cash register
would move a little faster.
As for my
frustration… That was a whole different ballgame. I swallowed a sigh and looked
across the store to where the one other remaining employee, Erik Harris,
continued to arrange and re-arrange the same new merchandise over and over on
the main display unit. First, he placed the pale blue cashmere sweaters on the
bottom shelf, the mid-blue in the middle, and the navy at the top. Then he
reversed the order with navy at the bottom. A moment later, he’d changed it all
again and put navy in the middle.
I knew he was
simply trying to look busy in the unlikely event a customer showed up, but the
constant fiddling with perfection made me want to yell at him to stop. Except
Erik was more than just another employee. He could turn me on with a single
look, and I wanted him in a way that bordered on obsession. If he was aware of
my interest, he’d made no sign, and no way was I about to make a move on him.
Erik was also the store manager, my supervisor, and in total charge of all
things Luigi whenever Benny, who hadn’t shown his face in days, was absent.
Irritated with the
constant repetition of watching Erik open, fold, unfold and refold, I switched
gears and concentrated on the man rather than on what he was doing. His
perfectly styled dark hair, handsome good looks and nicely toned body made for
great eye candy. And spending a little time admiring the man’s physical
attributes was definitely better than trying to look busy or just staring into
space.
I let my gaze travel
slowly downward from Erik’s head to his feet. Then, as I made the return
journey, I tried to imagine him in something more casual than the pale grey
suit, black shirt, and discreetly patterned tie all store employees were
required to wear. Something really cool to show off those six-pack abs. Such as
a pair of ripped jeans hanging low on his hips and nothing on his feet.
The thought filled
my mind with a flood of images, followed by a sudden surge of need that turned
my knees to water. I gripped the edge of the counter, hard, took a deep breath,
and went back to staring at the walls.
A guy who used to
work here told me that before coming to Luigi’s, Erik had worked as a fashion
model in New York, and I could so easily imagine him doing that. Strolling down
a runway or adorning the cover of one of those glossy magazines. What I could
not imagine was why he’d exchange that kind of glamorous life for a small town
like Barton Bay and a low-paying, run-of-the-mill job managing a menswear
store.
Erik was a few
years older than me and way out of my league, but I liked older men. I liked
the confidence that suggested experience way beyond my own. Erik had that in
spades, along with the body, the looks and charm to spare. In other words, the
man was smoking hot. The customers loved him, and if his social life was
anything to go by, he got more action in a week than any one person had a right
to. He literally had the world by the balls. And, yes, you bet I was jealous.
If he showed me
even the tiniest scrap of interest, I’d be over the moon. But no. The most I
ever got from Erik was Mikey fetch me this or Mikey do that like I was his
fucking dog. I swallowed my frustration as I turned away, took out my cell and
checked the time.
When I was hired,
Luigi’s was the number one go-to store in Barton Bay for any man who cared
about his appearance. Everyone, from the young business professional looking to
impress to the older, establishment types who wouldn’t be caught dead in
anything that wasn’t custom tailored, did their shopping at Luigi’s. Back then,
there had been six fulltime sales’ assistants, a couple of tailors who worked
on the premises, and two or three student part-timers who came in on weekends.
We hadn’t had time to be bored.
Then the city
fathers’ plan to revitalize the center of town most everyone thought had long
since died was finally approved and overnight everything changed. The first
step had been to revamp Fountain Square by making it more user-friendly with
pedestrian walkways, seating areas, and flower beds. Once that was finished, it
wasn’t long before new stores and restaurants began taking over the empty
buildings bordering the square and suddenly downtown was back in fashion.
Luigi’s location
wasn’t that far from the Square. A five-minute walk max. But in a few short
weeks, sales were down to a trickle and the writing was on the wall for anyone
who wanted to read it. The only reason I was still here was because I’d been
unable to find anything else. There was barely enough business coming in to
keep even one of us busy, so I figured that must be Erik’s excuse as well.
If it were my
store, I’d be worried sick. Benny had admitted the city’s sudden turn around
took him by surprise, but he didn’t appear to be particularly concerned. Apart
from constantly reassuring us our jobs were safe and his options were taking
longer to consider than expected, he behaved as if he didn’t have a care in the
world.
I’d hoped Erik
would know what these vague options were, but he said no, Benny hadn’t discussed
them with him. Neither one of us had the slightest idea what was going on and
the way Benny kept repeating “this is only temporary” every time he showed his
face was getting old. I needed more than vague promises and the growing
suspicion I was being played. If our employment was as secure as Benny wanted
us to believe, the least he could do was offer us a little insight as to his
plans. Preferably while he still had a few customers left.
Maybe he thought
there was no urgency, that he could find somewhere to relocate and play
catch-up later whenever it suited him. If he did, he was in for a surprise.
Going by what I’d heard via the grapevine, anyone who hadn’t planned ahead and
snapped up space in one of the buildings bordering Fountain Square was well and
truly out of luck.
A movement to my
left caught my attention. Erik had finished fussing with the sweaters and was
now heading my way with a stack of boxes.
The topmost box
started to slip sideways. I stepped forward to save it as Erik tried to do the
same, but before I could reach him, he tripped and lost control of the entire
stack. The boxes went every which way, strewing their contents across the
floor. As he hurtled toward me, I put out my arms and stood firm, barely
managing to save him from crashing head-first into one of the glass counters.
“Jeeezus!”
I didn’t know if
it was me who said it or Erik. The shock of having Erik in my arms, feeling his
heat and smelling his scent was too much for me to just shake off. My vision
blurred and I swallowed hard. I couldn’t even move a muscle. For one brief
moment, I was frozen to the spot as I dared to dream, unable to control the
surge of need that ripped through my body and set my pulse to pounding before
landing right on target.
My feelings were
in desperate need of an outlet, and I could tell Erik wasn’t as immune to my
charms as I’d thought. It wasn’t his knee I could feel pushing against the
lower part of my body. and I wanted to take things to the next logical step. I
wanted to bend him over the counter and—
Cool mysteries and hot romance
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