Her Forbidden Billionaire

Chapter 6

Raina whistled some tune that played on the radio while entering her grocery store. The sales during the Christmas holidays were huge, luckily covering most of her expenses and leaving a few more bucks in her account, so she could finally exhale and relax a little. Her business didn’t go down the drain as she thought it would, after all. Even though there were still some small problems to tend to like the big amount of goods with their consumption dates nearing, she could freely say that she had earned a bit of rest from worrying.

“Ms. Barnes?” The pimpled face cashier approached her. His face was lighted by a wide smile and his hands full of goods from the storage at the back of the store.

“Hey Andrew! I came to check how things were going around here,” she said joyfully. “Need any help with that?” She pointed toward his full hands.

“No, not at all. I can manage!” He answered excitedly. “This is… We got a one of a kind opportunity, madam.”

What the hell did he mean? Raina stared at his content face trying to figure out his words. He looked as if he had won the lottery and that increased her curiosity more and more in each passing second. It was not like the grocery store had become the most famous in the city. “Come on! Spit it out already!”

“They bought all of it! All the goods, madam. Emptied our shelves on the spot!” Andrew seemed like he would explode from happiness. “We’re saved! Saved! No more justifying before the banks or throwing the goods in the trash because of their elapsed consuming date!”

Raina stood on the tiled floor frozen. She inhaled sharply, her mind racing with possible scenarios all of that to be a dream or the employees pulling a prank on her or April Fool’s to have arrived earlier that year, but none of that made sense. The truth was right before her eyes. In Andrew’s hands. They were emptying the storage. All of her goods sold out. Sold out and bringing the, oh, so needed money in her pockets. She let her breath out and shouted as loud as her lungs could handle.

“We’re saved! There’re no more clouds over Raina’s grocery store, people! No more rain! Well done! Well done!” She praised them, seeing their cheerful faces appear from behind the shelves. They were all packing the goods in boxes and readying them for the buyer to pick them up. The workers from all three shifts were there making her proud and so grateful to have them all. “I could never have done this without you lot. Never!” She sustained from letting the tears roll down from her eyes instead biting her lips and drawing a smile wide across her own face.

“Long live, Miss Barnes!” The employees were chanting and clapping between the packing.

“I want to help!” She told Andrew throwing her brown bag next to the till on the counter. “What should I do?”

“But, madam… I…” Andrew mumbled but she took half of the goods from his hands.

“Where are we taking these?”

“There! Right in the corner!” Andrew showed her the boxes lying one on top of the other in the corner of the store and she nodded. Quickly she loaded a few more boxes with marmalade jars, salami, mayo and tomato and as soon as Andrew filled the last one with the chocolate bars, everyone exhaled happily staring at each other.

“Good job!” Raina wiped the sweat from her forehead winking at them. She was still panting, her thoughts scattered around the place she called her second home. It looked so beautiful, even though it was empty now. Only a few perfumes, soaps, detergents and such remained on the shelves, reminding her of the first day she had stepped in there. Despite her friends’ statements that she would never succeed, that the store would never be enough for making a living, she had stepped on that same floor, had stood behind the till and had begun her work. Now all of that seemed to have paid off. She could finally prove the world that her little store was worth something.

“When are they coming to pick the boxes up?” She stopped for a bit remembering something. “Who is coming to take all of this? Andrew? Who bought all of this?”

“A catering company, Miss Barnes. A woman came and ordered me to pack the whole store. They were from around here and were hosting some party later today. She said that they needed all of these things urgently so she was glad that she found everything in our store. Look! She even left a deposit of $500 as a guarantee.”

“That’s great! See? By helping someone, one always receives more than expected. Come on then! Let’s bring the boxes outside!”

Just when she said that, Raina’s ears picked up the sound of an engine turning off right before the store and the opening of doors. Five men rushed in the store dressed in blue uniforms with ‘the catering service’ written on them.

“Good morning, madam. We’re here to pick up some products for tonight.” One of the guys faced her and Raina shook his hand.

“Welcome to my store, sir. There are the boxes in the corner.” She showed him the piled boxes and he smiled.

“You shouldn’t have bothered. That’s why we are here. We would have packed them. And I wondered why the store is empty!” The guy said motioning to his friends to take the boxes. They obeyed and in no time more than twenty of the boxes lay in the back of the huge white van parked before the store. Andrew and a few of her employees placed the rest while she counted the dollar bills and once again shook hands with the guy who seemed in charge of the group.

“Thank you, sir. And say a huge hi to your boss. I hope you have an awesome party tonight,” she said sincerely.