AN March 26 2021: This story is being published soon, and the publisher has stipulated that I can only leave three chapters up without going against publication rules, so these are the three chapters. The buy link, should you wish to purchase, is in the comments section to the left 👉. In addition, I'll be running a giveaway for two autographed copies, so be sure to enter when I post the information--it's open worldwide!
p.s. ANYONE who's read this (as Pet Store) and wants to leave a review, please do! It would help me so much, you know the drill—think of it as a thank you to me 😉

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Elena's nasal voice came over the PA.

"Robin, you're needed in small mammals, Robin, you're needed in small mammals, please?"

Robin looked toward the back corner of the store, where the small, colorful cages sat, filled with sawdust, water bottles and exercise wheels. Jordan must be working the floor.

Sure enough, Robin could hear Jordan's high-pitched voice telling someone, "Just a minute, okay? She'll be here to catch her, promise."

Robin sighed and set her clipboard down on top of the bags of dog food, large, that she was currently inventorying, making sure to set it down on the one she was actually counting so she wouldn't lose track. She'd just gotten used to the smell, too. If she left the area and breathed regular air again, the smell of burned beef and carrots would hit her afresh when she returned, and she'd have to adjust all over again.

"Coming!" she called, flicking her braid over her shoulder and straightening her blue vest as she went. Her name tag, which said, "Hi, I'm Robin, have a dogtastic day!" usually sat in her pocket, but she saw Grandma Miller, one of the owners of the store, heading toward her, so she whipped it out and quickly pinned it on.

"Hi!" She gave a sunny smile and wave as she passed her. "Just headed back to give Jordan a hand."

"Don't know what we'd do without you, dear," Grandma M responded. "I have an appointment in a few minutes, but I'll be back this afternoon, okay? You and Peridot can hold down the fort? And Miles, of course."

"We'll be fine," Robin assured her, wondering if she could go that long without killing Jordan, or Tina, or Garret, or any of the other summer nincompoops the Millers had hired.

"Just what I wanted to hear." She took a step closer to Robin, blissfully unaware, it seemed, of Jordan and her crisis in small mammals. "You know, Robin, Grandpa Miller and I were so sad that things didn't work out between you and our grandson. We thought that you and Miles made such a nice couple." She rubbed Robin's arm in sympathy. "I know you weren't officially engaged or anything, but if any couple was in it for the long game, I really thought you two were. You're both so sensible, and your plans made such good sense, too. Miles with the store, here, and you with your veterinarian's practice? Why, nothing would've been better!"

Robin nodded and spoke, just to get Grandma to stop talking. "Well, Grandma M, I thought so too," she said, keeping her voice light. She wasn't about to give Grandma M any information to take back to Miles about how she was pining for her ex, crying over him still, even if she was.

"Maybe he'll change his mind," Grandma Miller suggested. "Young men can frequently be fickle, you know?"

"You never know," Robin agreed, nodding. "Though he and Tina seem to like each other quite a bit, don't you think?"

"Oh, Tina, Schmina," Grandma Miller said, waving a dismissive hand. "You and Miles dated for three years, you have a history. You were planning a life together. She's just a summer fling, I think."

"Why, have you heard anything?" Robin couldn't help asking, eyes wide. "Does he talk about me?"

"Well, no," Grandma M admitted. "It's just a feeling I have. I know my grandson, and you mark my words, I think he's headed back to you, sweetheart." She patted her arm again. "Anyway, I'd better be going, but don't lose heart, okay?"

Robin was nodding and contemplating her words when a loud voice brought her back to the present.

"Rob, are you coming?" Jordan's voice was nearly hysterical. "I think it's getting away!"

"Just a sec," Robin replied, striving to keep her voice even. She arrived where Jordan was waiting, blonde hair swishing as she looked around, nearly in a panic. She'd done that stupid thing many of the summer female employees were doing, adjusting the buttons on their vests so that they fit more snugly, accentuating their waists. It seemed like she'd taken up the hem on her shorts, too, to show more leg. Robin gagged inwardly.

"It tried to bite me when I picked it up," Jordan explained.

"So you dropped 'it?' Robin asked, putting emphasis on the word 'it.'

"Did you hear me? It tried to bite me?" Jordan's blue eyes were terrified.

"Well, probably because it's a hamster, which is nocturnal, which means it was sleeping, and you just reached in grabbed it without waking it up first, or grabbing it by the scruff of the neck," Robin explained, again, striving to sound patient, especially in front of a customer. "They don't see very well, and it's scary when you just grab them out of a sound sleep." She looked at Jordan. "I mean, how would you like it if you were just yanked out of bed when you were sleeping?"

The customer in question stood with her son next to her, unsure what to do.

Robin poked around under the boxes under the tables where the cages rested, easily finding the sleepy and confused hamster.

"Come here, poor little guy," she crooned, grabbing him by the scruff of the neck so she, too, wouldn't be bitten. She carefully replaced him in the cage with the others while she talked to Jordan, the mother and the son.

"Is that the one you wanted?" she asked.

"They wanted a girl," Jordan told her. "That's a girl, right?"

Sure, if you wanted to ignore his testicles, which were huge, Robin thought.

"Um, the sign on the cage says all of these are boys," the son pointed out helpfully. He gestured toward the label.

Male teddy bears.

"Oh, oops," Jordan chirped with a laugh.

"The female teddies are in this cage here," Robin pointed out.

"Hello, cuties," Jordan attempted, sticking a finger between the bars. One of the females lifted a sleeping face, eyes closed, to sniff her finger, and Jordan yanked it out, nearly lifting the cage off the table and onto the floor.

Jesus.

"Tell you what, Jordan, I got this, why don't you go on your break?" Robin suggested.

"Really? You sure?" Jordan did everything but lunge at Robin's words. "Because I totally don't mind to stay."

"I'm sure, I was just counting dog food, not a big deal," Robin assured her. "Go on."

"Okay, then." Jordan was already scampering toward the break room. "I think Tina just went, so I'll go now. Thanks!"

Robin tried not to cringe at the mention of odious, boyfriend stealing Tina (okay, she hadn't exactly stolen him, and he wasn't exactly her boyfriend when she'd "taken" him, Robin had to admit), and turned her attention back to the mother and her son.

Robin helped the little boy, Robert, pick out a nice, docile, female teddy bear hamster in a pretty pattern of gray and white, and got them out the door before she went on her own break, meeting up with Peridot in the break room.

"You sure the store can survive with both of us on break at the same time?" she asked, taking a huge drink of her strawberry smoothie.

"Who gives a shit?" Peri responded, handing Robin half of her granola bar. "I swear, if I see one more bag of crickets, I'm gonna barf."

"I went, like a whole hour without thinking about Miles, I think," Robin said. "That's got to be a new record for me, don't you think?"

"Not bad," Peri responded, nodding, her blonde curls bobbing. "Now let's see if you can go the whole day and not cry about him, hm?"

"Oh, fuck," Robin said morosely. "Why, why did he break up with me? I can't even say it's because he liked someone better, because he didn't even meet that stupid, slutty Tina Yang until three weeks later."

The door to the break room opened and a tall, blonde man wearing a manager's vest walked in.

Oh shit, could he possibly have heard the remark about Tina being a slut?

"Hello, ladies," he called with a smile.

Probably not.

"Hi Miles," Peri answered for both of them.

"Have either of you seen Tina?" he asked.

Under the table, Peri squeezed Robin's fingers in sympathy.

"She took her break earlier, with Jordan, I think they're both on the floor now," Robin replied. "She might be in fish?"

"Okay, thanks." He nodded at both of them and turned to go, but stopped and turned back. "Oh, Peri, did Gram tell you about hiring a couple more people? We're still a few short, even after all the summer hires, so she said you need to pick up, like, three more? Yeah, who can do twenty-five a week?"

Peri nodded. "Okay. She didn't say anything to me, but sure, no problem, I can interview tomorrow and have them scheduled by the day after."

"Super, thank you." He grinned and left.

"He's so nice, too," Robin moaned when the door closed. "He can't even be a dick, like other exes."

"Just look at it this way," Peri suggested, stroking Robin's red hair. "Most of us are stuck in this stupid job for life, but not you, right? You're saving money, you're going to apply to vet school and get the hell out of Dodge! How in the world does Miles Miller fit in with those plans? I mean, if you stayed with him, that would mean staying in this stupid berg of Warren. You would've gone off to Cromwell or whatever its called--"

"Cornell, Peri, please! It's an Ivy League school, could you please get it right?"

"Cornell, sorry," Peri said comfortably. "And then you would've had to come back here to Warren, which, let's face it may as well be called Bumble-Fuck, California, to get married to Miles. Then, you'd open your little vet practice, pop out 2.1 kids, and you know that when one career had to go, it would be yours, the woman's. Then where would your Ivy League education be? What purpose would it have served?" Peri nudged her for emphasis. "Miles was just a big, giant, good-looking, I'll admit, albatross around your neck, a handsome rubber band just waiting to pull you back here." She gestured deprecatingly around the break room.

"Now, though, you can go off to Ithaca, New York," and here Peri grinned at Robin as if to say yeah, I remembered, "completely unrestrained and untethered in any way. Who knows, you might meet some really cool dude in college and you can set up a group vet practice in some really cool place like New York City or Paris or something!"

Robin shook her head. "But that's not what I wanted! I wanted Miles! I wanted to come back to Bumblefuck, California and set up a little practice, Peri!" She put her head down on her arms and proceeded to weep stormily into them.

Peri patted her best friend's back and let her cry.

"I know, sweetie, and I'm sorry."

"You don't know, though, Peri. You've never been in love like this."

"I know I haven't." Peri and Robin had burned many hours trying to figure out why she hadn't had a great love like Robin and Miles, and they had so far failed to figure out why.

She let Rob cry for a few minutes, then grabbed a napkin out of the holder for her to clean up her eyes.

"Come on, Sweetie, someone might walk in. Maybe even Tina. And she might want to comfort you, you know how nice she is."

The thought of Tina Yang wanting to hug and comfort her was enough to dry up Robin's tears, and she blew her nose vigorously, grabbing another napkin to carefully wipe her eyes while trying to preserve her eye make up. It had been on point that morning, and she didn't want to wreck it any more than it already was.

She looked at Peri for her approval.

"Do I look okay? Can you tell I've been bawling?"

"No," Peri lied, like any best friend should. "Now get back out there and sell some fish, or whatever the hell you were doing."

Rob nodded, and kissed her friend on the cheek.

"Thanks for being such a cool friend. I don't deserve you."

"You don't, but that's okay."

The two friends left the break room, arms around each other.