//------------------------------// // The Real Start of Her New Life/The Trouble With Customers // Story: It Ain't Gold that Dazzles // by Gyro Steambass //------------------------------// The rest of the day went by relatively quick. The next day was going to be her first real day at work. She didn’t know how to feel about that. Sure, she was still going to be practicing, but it just felt... weird. After they were finished they had dinner, they went to bed, Adagio putting on her “new” nightgown, which was a plain white. But they didn’t know of the “assassin” that had entered their home. She couldn’t breathe. Something was smothering her, slowly trying to drain the life out of her body. She then fell of the couch and onto the floor. She sprung up, trying to find the attacker. She looked around frantically, ignoring her aching muscles, but she didn’t see anyone. “Mew.” She blinked and looked down. In front of her was a huge, gray cat, missing it’s right ear and an ugly scar going down it’s neck, which started at the missing ear. It just stared at her, as if it was challenging her to do something. “Were you... sleeping on my face?” The cat proceeded to lie down on her pillow. She took that as a yes and frowned. “That’s where I sleep, you know.” She walked up to the cat, determined to reclaim her “bed.” Needless to day, Blackjack wasn’t expecting to be woken up at five in the morning by Adagio’s pained screams and hate-filled yells. “Looks like ya met Spades,” he said, an amused look on his face, while he prepared breakfast. “Gee, you think so?” She responded sarcastically, wincing as she touched the band-aids covering the scratches on her arms. That cat got her good. It didn’t help that her muscles ached from all the work she did the day before. “I think she likes ya.” “What on earth gave you that idea?” She blinked once. “She? That’s a she? She’s huge!” She exclaimed, waving her arms in exasperation. “She didn’t attack ya for lying on her sleeping spot.” He walked over and handed her a cup of coffee and a plate with a chicken and vegetable omelet on it. She scoffed. “No, instead she tried to smother me.” He laughed at that. “It’s how she shows affection.” “Sure she does.” She took a bite from her omelet, surprised by it’s rich taste. He really was a good cook. “Talking about cats, why didn’t you tell me she slept there? And why’d you call her Spades?” She took a sip from her coffee. “I forgot about it. She tends to disappear for a day or two.” He paused as he took a sip from his coffee. “I called her Spades, cuz she likes to dish out pain in Spades.” He chuckled at his own joke. “Where did you find her?” “One night, a year ago, I heard a lot of noise coming from the cutting room. She had broken in and had one of the cleavers fall on her.” Said cat mewed in response as she walked into the room. “I tried to help her. Guess what happened.” “She tried to kill you?” That made him laugh. “That’s basically what happened. I still tried to treat her, but it didn’t work out so well.” He shrugged. “And she’s been living here ever since.” “You’ve got a weird way of making friends, you know that?” “Ya have no idea how right ya actually are.” He got up, taken their plates and cups. “Now clean up. I’m opening in half an hour.” Their work started relatively the same as the day before, although he quickly taught her a few new things. Such as the fact that in the cooler, where the carcasses were hanging and being chilled, the carcasses had to be kept clean of bacteria and mucus. “They’re still rotting corpses. Which means we need to make sure they don’t actually rot away.” At first, after he had switched the closed sign for one that said ‘open’, there weren’t any customers. So they continued what they were doing yesterday. She would practice cutting meat while he cut meat and prepared it for sale. After about half an hour, they heard the doorbell, signaling that a customer had come in. Jack walked to the counter, quickly wiping his hands clean. The customer wanted nothing special, just a few steaks and some ham. It became a steady stream of customers after that, Jack staying at the counter almost the entire time. Apparently that was the first rush of the day. After a while the stream slowed down quite a bit. And then the first “special” customer entered. “Hello?” Adagio heard a woman say, sounding bored and impatient. “Wait here, Coco.” Just the she talked was already annoying Adagio. “Ah, there she is.” Jack sighed and got up. He then took of his gloves, washed his hands and left for the counter, leaving Adagio to raise an eyebrow. “Ah, there you are.” She heard the woman walk up to the counter. “The usual.” “Sure thing, Suri,” Jack said dismissively, the sounds of him slowly getting the desired product following soon after. She heard the woman, apparently called Suri, scoff. “For the umpteenth time,” She heard a hand slam down on the table. “it’s miss Polomare to you, got it?” Jack chuckled at that, clearly not giving a damn. “I sure do, Suri.” Suri just growled in response. “That’ll be thirty-five ninety-nine, Suri.” Suri growled some more and threw the money onto the counter. “Have a nice day, Suri.” She growled even louder. “Shut up! You’re lucky you’re the only one who wants to sell this, otherwise you’d be in trouble!” She heard the uptight woman yell. “I’m sure I would be, Suri.” Adagio could almost feel Jack’s grin. “RAAAGH!” She heard Suri yell as she stomped out the door, slamming the door behind her. She then heard someone quickly walk to the counter. “The usual?” She heard Jack quietly ask, followed by him quickly getting the desired product, instead of slowly. “Thank you,” she heard a meek and shy woman say, followed by some money being placed on the counter. “Have a nice day, mister Jack.” “Have a nice day as well, miss Pommel.” She heard the door close quietly. ”Hurry up, Coco! I don’t have all day!” Suri yelled. ”S-sorry, miss Polomare!” Coco meekly replied. Jack then walked back to the cutting room. He noticed Adagio’s confused stare. “Those were Suri Polomare and Coco Pommel. Suri is a stuck up attention whore who apparently makes nice clothes and Coco is her assistant/victim.” He continued preparing the meat. “Sometimes ya get weird or difficult customers.” He shrugged. “I just mess with Suri as much as possible, while I give Coco a slight discount for putting up with that bitch.” “Why would she even work for her in the first place?” “I asked Coco once. Apparently they used to be close friends.” He shrugged. “She doesn’t want to tell me anything else though.” “And what’s this special product that only you sell?” She asked, a little curious. “Kangaroo steak.” He chuckled. “Suri has good taste, I’ll give her that.” “Isn’t that expensive? Do you even know how to prepare it?” “Yup.” He chuckled. “I also charge her more than I should.” She raised an eyebrow at that. “And there’s nothing she can do about it.” “You’re much sneakier than I expected, you know that?” He looked up, grinning at her. “You got a problem with that?” He asked. She grinned back. “Not at all.” She continued her work. “Not at all.” That night she was again awoken by Spades. Although this time the cat was laying on Adagio’s stomach. The girl glanced at the cat. The cat glanced back. Adagio sighed. “Truce?” “Mew.” “Fine.” She started petting Spades.