Cate nearly laughed as she took in the stunned look on Jodi’s face.  The other woman had arrived at work twenty minutes earlier, and clipped on her name tag without much thought.  It had taken her nearly 15 minutes to glance down and realize that there was an addition to the badge—Caitlyn had gotten out the label-maker earlier and added the words “assistant manager” below Jodi’s name.



“Is this some kind of joke?”  Jodi had demanded.  “April Fool’s day was last month, Cate.”



“No, Jodi, Carl and I talked this morning, and he agrees that you’re the best person for the job.  Congratulations.”  Cate had discretely passed her a slip of paper that explained the pay raise and benefits available to her as the new assistant manager.

It was nearly an hour before Jodi took a moment from her task of setting up a new display to seek Cate out again.



“Do you realize what this means, Cate?  I can quit at the janitorial service!  Mom won’t have to take the kids so often, and I can actually spend some time with them, instead of feeling like I only see them a couple of times a week.”



Cate merely nodded, pleased that Jodi was so excited about the promotion.  She knew it would be a good thing in her life, but it was still gratifying to hear the enthusiasm in her voice.



“Are you sure I’m the right person for the job?  I mean, I don’t have an education—I know that Kara and Angie both have college degrees, and I don’t even have my GED. . . “



“Yet,” Cate broke in.  “Didn’t you tell me you’re signed up to take the final tests next month?”



“Yes, but there’s no guarantee that I’ll pass them, and then I’ll have already quit my other job and the Dawsons . . . “



“The Dawsons and I are both confident that you’ll do wonderfully both on the test and as our new assistant manager.  If something happens with the test, we’ll figure out what went wrong and go from there.  We have faith in you, Jodi, and we know you’re perfect for the job.”



Jodi still looked slightly shell-shocked over the news, but the smile on Caitlyn’s face as she reassured her was enough to shake her mind into focusing on the task at hand.  Some assistant manager you’ll make with your head in the clouds!  If Cate knew how scattered you’ve been all day, she would probably change her mind entirely!



“Jodi, it’s okay.  Go to the back, take five minutes and call your mom, and maybe even the janitorial service so you can give them notice.  You don’t have to try to pretend you aren’t excited or that this isn’t a big deal.” 



Jodi laughed.  “And I was telling myself to quit acting like a teenager before you changed your mind,” she admitted.



“Jodi!” Cate said in mock exasperation.  “Go make the phone calls, then get back to work on that display.  The plan-o-gram was a bit odd for that one—if it doesn’t make sense, come grab me and we’ll try to figure it out.  I’d like to have it finished before I leave—there are a lot of little cleaning and straightening things that need to be done tonight, and that should keep you guys plenty busy without trying to decipher the charts in that kit.”



“It is an odd one,” Jodi agreed, heading toward the back of the store so she could make her phone calls in private.  



Cate shook her head as she watched her go.  Jodi was one of the most conscientious employees Caitlyn had ever had during her years in retail management.  She knew Jodi’s worry about the GED test was genuine, but she was smart and capable and Cate was determined to keep her in the position even if the test results weren’t quite what they’d hoped for.  I’ll tutor her myself if I need to, she decided.  



Soon enough, some other store would realize that Jodi was more than capable of handling a store of her own and hire her away from them in short order.  Cate would be happy for her friend when that happened, but until then, she was going to enjoy being able to relax a bit with a competent assistant whom she trusted implicitly.  Kara had never done anything dishonest, but her carelessness had resulted in a lot of extra work for Cate—including the police statement she still needed to give that afternoon. 



Reaching for the notebook she kept in her back pocket, she jotted down a reminder to stop by the police station on her way home to take care of that particular nuisance, and maybe to inquire on the accident report from that Saturday.  She had made an appointment with her mechanic to get the car looked at, but she wanted to know if man who had hit her had insurance, or if she was going to be paying for these repairs herself.  She knew her insurance would pay for the actual damage, but Cate realized she’d pay for it out of her own pocket in increased premiums if she made a claim against the policy, even though she hadn’t been at fault in any way for the accident.  Unless being dumb enough to get in the way of a drunk counts as being at fault!  Cate didn’t see it that way, but she knew the insurance company didn’t make money by paying it out without a care.



Worry about that on your own time!  There was plenty of work to be done at the store to keep her mind more than occupied.  With a glance toward the back room, she headed to the front of the store to relieve the cashier who was on duty—Jodi had arrived for the day, and there was no need to have three people in the store on a Monday morning.  



The day after a holiday was always slow, anyway, and weekday mornings were insomnia curing.  It would be a good day for paperwork, merchandising, and cleaning, even if the sales numbers would be less than ideal.  It was a trade-off, though—on busier days, the sales numbers would be higher but there would be far less time to improve the appearance of the store, and setting up new merchandise displays on a sales floor teeming with customers was not a favorite activity among the staff.  Thankfully, outside the Christmas season, they usually had a good mix of the two on a weekly basis, allowing them to keep the store presentable while maintaining enough of a profit margin to keep Carl and Jackie comfortable with Cate’s management.  And the holidays are still months away.



Cate mentally cringed when she thought of the display of blown-glass angel ornaments that had met an untimely end the previous Christmas as one of the seasonal employees had attempted to make her way through the crowded store carrying precariously stacked boxes.  That particular girl hadn’t lasted more than a few weeks at the store before the continual carnage on the sales floor had led Carl and Jackie to decide it was worth paying another sales clerk overtime to decrease the breakage caused by her clumsiness.  Cate had hired Meghan a few days later.



Jodi, she recalled suddenly, had simply taken over the situation, sending the other clerk to the back for cleaning supplies the way Cate had dispatched Alex the day before.  Without drama or hysterics, the other woman had simply taken care of the accident and gone about her day.  That memory firmly in place, Cate was more confident than ever that she’d made the right choice in promoting Jodi to the assistant manager position.