Daniel opened the rear door as the truck pulled into the store's small car park and the driver climbed out. The man smiled at him as he walked round to the back of the vehicle.
"Is Ms Birch around, sir?"
Daniel shook his head. "No, I'll be taking the delivery. I hope that's ok?"
"Yeh, of course. Where do you want these?"
Daniel motioned the man through the back door, and he nodded in response. Climbing onto the rear of the truck, he picked up a long, flat box and brought it with him into the storeroom. Slowly, the space filled up, and Daniel sighed. Some small part of him had hoped that the furniture would be pre-assembled, despite the greater cost that would entail, but clearly that was not the case.
Soon Jenny's order had been taken off the truck and the driver approached Daniel for a signature. He signed the pad and turned back to the small pile of boxes.
He was alone in the store for the moment. He had sent the staff away for a coffee moments before the truck arrived; typically, the very second that he had been left alone was the second that the delivery came. Still, he hadn't had to do anything anyway since the driver had unloaded all the boxes.
"That's a lot of stuff," a sweet voice said, and he glanced towards the door to see Claire stood there. She smiled warmly. "I guess Jenny and I didn't quite realise how much we'd ordered."
Daniel laughed. "Well, when you think about it that's probably about right. I mean, once it's assembled it'll look better. I don't believe Jenny would order too much - the woman never seems to get anything wrong."
Claire grinned in agreement, before crouching down to look at the label on one of the boxes. Daniel took the time to cast his eye over her lovely figure. She was wearing a pair of black ankle boots, tight blue jeans and a stylish grey cardigan. Her slightly wavy red hair was loose over her back.
"These look easy enough to build, at least," she said, and Daniel moved over next to her. He crouched down alongside her, staring at the diagram she ran her finger along, and nodded.
"You sure? To me, 'easy' would be something you didn't have to build at all."
With a giggle, she turned her lovely face to him. "Dan! Don't be so lazy. I've seen sex positions more complicated than these."
He looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "Have you now? I'd like to see those."
"Would you? I think you might be disappointed there, Dan," she said, looking a little surprised, a small smile on her face.
A feeling of horror swept through him at the unintended insinuation of his words. "No. No! I didn't mean it like that. I meant that I'd like to see those positions, generally, in a book or on the internet or something. Not that I wanted to see
you
in those positions. Fuck, I'm not
that
lecherous." He desperately hoped she'd not been offended.
"That's good," she said, her smile broadening, a sparkle seeming to enter her blue eyes. "Because you wouldn't ever see me in those positions. I like to keep things far simpler."
An undercurrent had entered her voice. Clearly, she was not offended. Daniel decided to see how far things would go. "Simpler?"
She leant towards him slightly, until her face was no more than a foot from his, and her voice dropped to a whisper. "Yeh. Nothing fancy. Missionary, cowgirl, that sort of thing. Do you go for the complicated, Dan? Or do you keep things simple?"
He realised that their faces were only a foot or so apart, and as he stared into Claire's blue eyes, a familiar thrill ran through him. The grin had dropped from Claire's face, her expression now a mask of slightly nervous desire.
"I go with whatever feels right," he murmured back, slowly leaning in.
Their lips pressed together, a kiss that started off gentle but swiftly grew in passion. They were still crouched, but soon Claire's arms had reached for his shoulders and she was pressing her torso against him. Their tongues slowly began to explore one another's mouths.
Suddenly, the front door opened, the familiar jingling sounding loud in the small store. The kiss broke, both Daniel and Claire, tumbling away from one another, just in time to settle themselves before Rodrigo poked his head round into the store room.
"Ah, there you are. I didn't know where anyone was!"
Daniel smiled. "We're here." Some part of him wanted to scream at Rodrigo to fuck off, so he could get back to kissing the redhead beauty crouched next to him. Instead, he sighed and stood. "We should probably start building these." He would have more time with Claire later, hopefully. For now, the store needed his attention.
Rodrigo nodded, stepping forwards and picking up the first box, before carrying it out into the main room. Claire stood up then, grinning at Daniel, before grabbing a box herself and taking it into the main room.
The three of them worked solidly for the next hour or so, idle chat passing between them. Someone had brought in a radio, which chirped out the latest musical "hits" - 90% of which Daniel thought were utter shit - and Daniel took the time to explain that the store would be opening in two days time. Initially greeted with shock and disbelief, Claire and Rodrigo slowly came round to the idea, the pervading feeling being that if Jenny said it could be done, then it probably could be. Slowly, the store took shape.
When there were only a few cabinets left to build, the door opened again and Jenny stepped in, a look of happy excitement on her face. She regarded them all with a broad smile.
"Successful day?" Daniel asked.
She nodded. "Yes! I saw the painter, and he's agreed to let us sell his stuff. We put a markup on it and he gets the exposure, it's a win-win."
"Excellent!"
She raised a hand. "But that's not all, my friends. The woman you see before you, magic worker that she is, has also obtained for this store some more local crafts. On the way back from the painter's studio I came across a stall selling photographs and postcards, and arranged for those to be sold here too."
"It's coming together then," Claire grinned at her friend, before glancing round the store. "I hope we'll have room for it all!"
"We'll need some more, too, because Lucy has agreed to sell her designs here as well."
Daniel coughed in surprise. "Her designs?"
"Yeh. Nothing wrong with that, is there?"
"Not at all," he replied. A grin spread across his face. "In fact, they're very nice."
