We Wait

"Samantha, can you come in here when you finish up?" I asked from the door of the back room.

"Yeah, of course!" She responded as she rang up a customer.

"Thank you." I returned back into the room and sat down at the desk chair.

I had felt confident choosing Samantha for the job. To be sure I had given her a few more duties and watched how she performed. It was like an interview without her knowing. As expected she did not disappoint me.

There was a knock on the door. It must be her.

"Come in." I spoke loud enough to make sure she could hear me.

"You said you wanted to see me?" She looked like she was fighting off a look of worry.

It wasn't often that I asked for someone other than Julie to come into the room with me. I could tell the poor girl was nervous. She must think she's in trouble or something.

I gave her a small reassuring smile. "Come sit down."

"Did I do something wrong?" She asked apprehensively.

"No." I chuckled. "I didn't call you in here to reprimand you or anything."

I could see her body slightly relax as she sat down. "Oh, what did you want to see me about then?"

"You are aware of the store in Atlanta that's going to be opening up next spring, right?" I asked.

"Well yeah." She nodded.

"I need a manager for it. The problem I have is the applicants I was sent, they have the experience but they just didn't wow me. So because of that I decided to look elsewhere for a manager." I explained. "Samantha, I would like to offer you the position of managing the Atlanta store."

She seemed surprised by the words that had left my mouth. "But I'm not a manager or anything. Why choose me?"

"Because you're dedicated." I answered. "I can see it when you walk in the door. You make sure every customer is happy when they leave here and you don't complain about a single duty that I have given you. Even when it has been an extra one."

I could tell she was nervous all over again. "I don't have the experience though. How am I going to know what exactly to do?"

"I will train you." I responded. "In the meantime while the renovations are still underway in Atlanta I'll work one on one with you here."

"Are you sure about this?" She bit her lip.

"Yes Sam." I was confident that she would be a good fit. "You can do this. After everything I've seen you do, I know you can do this and I trust you."

She nodded in response.

"So do you accept?" I asked, I was trying to hide how eager I was feeling to get her response. "If you don't want to, you don't have to, but it is an opportunity I wanted to offer to you first."

She bit her lip as she seemed to think it over. "I think I would like to give it a shot. If you really think I can do it then I think I can too. Especially after some training."

"Great!" I gave her a pleased smile. "This is going to be great Sam, you'll see!"

"How does this work when it comes to moving though?" She questioned. "I don't mind the move but I don't exactly have the expenses to up and move to Atlanta quickly. I would've saved better if I knew something like this was going to happen."

"You don't need to worry about that." I answered. "Mr. Tipton and I have discussed the matter and if you accepted then he offered to put up the costs for relocating. We can also get you into an apartment pretty quickly out there."

I finished up my conversation with Samantha and then left Amethyst a little earlier than normal for the day. I was pleased with how well things had gone. I expected that I would have to be more convincing. Something told me though that even she knew she would be a good fit, she just had to be confident in that.

The car arrived at the mansion and pulled into the driveway. I headed inside and was surprised to see Damon was already home. "Hey." I gave him a puzzled look, it was only about two and usually he didn't walk in the door until five.

I could tell by the serious expression on his face that something was up. "We need to go into the study."

He didn't give me a chance to respond. He turned and headed for the hallway. I quickly followed behind him. This was clearly important and could not wait. He opened the door and we stepped inside the study. He then shut it behind him and we sat at the desk across from each other.

"What's wrong?" My voice held a tone of concern. I had a gut feeling this was about Zach, there's no way it couldn't be.

"I received a call from Justin." He answered.

That confirmed my suspicions. "What did he have to say? Did he run into him?"

Damon let out a sigh of frustration. "It would seem that he heard about us looking around for him. He hasn't returned to do any gambling ever since Justin started staking it out. I don't think even Justin will be able to get any answer out of him."

"Has he been seen anywhere else then?" I asked. He couldn't just disappear again could he? Not that quickly.

"I'm afraid not." Damon was trying to keep himself calm but I could tell he was frustrated about the matter. "I've looked at the recent records of arrests and he's not in any of them. Not with the name he gave you and not with the alias."

"So what do we do now?" I questioned.

"I'm afraid we have to do what he clearly wants from us." Damon clenched his fist tightly, so tight his knuckles went white.

"And that is?" I studied him as I waited for a response.

"We wait." Damon answered. "He clearly wants us to wait it out and he'll show himself when he's ready to shake things up."

I could tell this was bugging him more than he was letting on. He for once felt like he had control over this situation. Like he would find Zach at any moment and make him pay. Now it was like that had been taken from him. Was this way of Zach proving to Damon he didn't have the upperhand as he had thought?

"But I'll be watching." Damon's tone grew dark. "He'll slip up and that's when I strike."