Birdie wiggled a little white box. ‘I have Lovely chocolates for us to indulge in.’
Cally chuckled. ‘Trying to bribe me, are you?’
‘Of course! I know how the world works. Bribery has performed wonders in my business.’ Birdie laughed. ‘Let’s get the kettle on.’
Cally stripped off her coat and made her way to the staff room kitchen. Birdie followed in behind her, shut the door and put the little box of chocolates on the table. After waiting for a pot of tea to brew, Cally sat down.
Birdie raised her eyebrows. ‘Let’s cut straight to the chase, shall we? What have you decided? Remember, no pressure at all– if you’d rather just keep things as they are here, that’s fine by me. If so I’ll start putting the feelers out.’
‘I’d love to take the job. Thanks for giving me some time to think about it. Sorry it took a while.’
‘Excellent!’ Birdie clapped her hands and pulled the chocolate box away. ‘I don’t need to bribe you, then, ha ha!’
Cally laughed. ‘You need to pay me in Lovely chocolate.’
‘Okay, what I’ll do is get the proper offer of employment sent and then we’ll get started as soon as possible. I can’t see any point in hanging around.’
‘Nope.’
‘Any questions?’
‘Will it be in at the deep end, or will there be training or what?’ Cally asked. ‘The email mentioned a few things…’
Birdie smiled. ‘Well, there’s the new system for you to have a look at, and the training modules can be done online if you want to do it that way. I thought you could start with that and see how you get on. To be honest, the more I’ve thought about it, the more I think it’s a bit suck it and see.’
‘Yes, right, okay.’
‘You’ve done so well here that it might be best for you to just go with that and run with it.’
Cally thought that might be the case. ‘Mmm.’
‘The main issue I have, as you know, is as I’ve taken on more shops, I’ve lost control of some of the day-to-day stuff. For a fact, I know that Peaceton isn’t running quite as smoothly as everywhere else. I just haven’t had time to get to the bottom of it, and it’s a mess.’
‘Maybe I should start there then.’
‘The pharmacist working there at the moment is managing everything because it’s quite a small store, but I think it needs some looking into. The storeroom needs sorting out just for starters…’
‘Okay. Well, it sounds as if that might be a good place to begin. I like a challenge.’ Cally laughed and sipped her tea.
Birdie popped a chocolate truffle in her mouth. ‘As long as you don’t mind being in the deep end a little bit.’
‘Of course not,’ Cally nodded, while inside feeling slightly nervous.How hard could it be, though?she thought to herself.
‘I’ll talk to the pharmacist there and brief her that you’re going to take over everything regarding the ordering and deliveries.’ Birdie opened her phone and made a note. She looked up with her eyebrows raised. ‘So, we get on with this as soon as possible, as we said, yes?’
‘Yes,’ Cally nodded.
‘Fabulous.’
‘Thank you, Birdie. I cannot believe how generous you’ve been.’
‘Nonsense! What about your other job? What are you going to do about that?’
‘I’ll phase that out,’ Cally said with a smile, feeling strange that she would at last be finished with the chatbot job. Unknowingly, it had been a big part of her life.
‘And Nina, working for A Lovely Organised Life. She’s going to miss you.’
‘She will. She’s already apprehended me for evening shifts and weekends if I can fit them in. We’ll see.’
