Chapter 54

2020.01.30

Father said okay for the importing. I selected the items and started with making business cards, tags and thank you cards. I called my aunt to make some eco-friendly bags. I asked my brother to get machines to punch the tags and another to print the prices. But the same night my father said no again. I got pissed off and mumbled, 'Do whatever you want.' I cancelled all the orders.

2020.01.31

My mother came in the morning and said that Father agreed to do the import and she will be the investor. I was dumbfounded. "Come on! Are you pretty sure? Please ask again. I even cancelled all the orders.' The vendor is going to blow up. I fell back on my bed. Mother stood by the door with the broom to sweep up my room. "Anna, I think you should slow down when you do things. You are very quick and impatient when doing something. It is a good thing but not always." I looked at her. I was very fast in making in decisions and getting my job done ASAP. My problem was speed. I was fast in everything even speaking. I was always asked to slow down whenever I speak. It was like I had plenty of time to think before I spoke. I sighed and asked my mother's phone and messaged the vendor with an apology and requested the items. As I predicted she was mad but anyways she placed the order and said me not to change it again. I promised her.

After a year passed by Sally messaged me. There was a misunderstanding between us. Sally had thought that I was mad at her. I was like, for what? I completely had no reason to be mad at her at all. We texted each other for a while. Then she said that Amy was getting married and that she got the news from the groom's family. I denied and said that she will tell me if she was getting married. Then I texted Amy asking if she was getting married. Guess what she messaged. 'Are you crazy? I am still a baby. I am not getting married man.' I replied with a sure. I screenshotted the messages and sent it to Sally. I then messaged, 'I told you that she was not getting married. I think you got the news wrong.' She replied, 'No! I am pretty sure.' 'Will see what happens' I messaged her back.

Later that day Sally had messaged Amy again and she had said the same thing that Amy told me. And the news died that day.

2020.02.24

The goods arrived. This was the first batch of the goods. I even ordered some flower decorations too to sell. Business cards and tags were ready. I unpacked the goods. The package was in a bad state. I panicked. The dresses within were slightly damaged but they were fine. I slowly cleared the goods from the dirty bag and kept them aside. At once I messaged the vendor that the packaging is very bad, terrible and the dresses were in bad state. She asked me how many suits had come. I replied, '19 of them'. She said no that she sent 21 of them. I said that there were no 21 suits. It turned out to be that during the god checking in that country the checker had stolen two of the dresses. I was not feeling good to be honest. My mother said me to cheer up.

My father showed me how to price the goods and we had to add the loss of the goods to the goods that we received. Which means the price is 5 US Dollars high. After that I tagged the prices on to the dresses and put them in to a cling bag and the dress were ready.

2020.03.14

The second batch of goods came. There were 15 dresses this time. The packaging was slightly better this time. I packed the second batch too and as the first ones. There were no dresses missing this time. The ones they stole last time were normal dresses not the expensive ones. We thought of waiting for the third batch before launching our shop.

2020.03.29

We got the third batch. There were 25 dresses. The packaging was even better because I am the one who had to pay for the packaging. And this time they stole another dress. I was getting tired of this theft. I immediately messaged the vendor about it and she said that she was not responsible for it. I do not know if she should be. She made sure to go and make a complaint to the post office and she made sure that the message had passed to the port itself.

2020.04.15

We opened our shop. The place was in our residence but outside our house in an open area. It was a small office with full see through windows. I even made cookies to sell. The first order was from another district. The client was from one of my aunt actually. The client bought four dresses. And slowly people bought one or two. My mother's side bought three dresses and from my father's side they did not dare to come and even said that why should they buy from me and they were expensive. I was hurt. I even checked the prices over and over again and did not find the price that high. I can still decrease for my family right? Even they did not care enough to ask how the business was going.

Most of the clients kept saying that the prices were high and all. But I refused to decrease the price. Then I checked from a normal shop the client said that they sell cheap ones. To my surprise the dress had no quality and they were not worth the money. Buying from me was a better option. I explained that the dresses from me last longer and guess what one of the clients said. They said that they want to wear it one time and throw it off. They do not want to have it for years. No wonder they were going bankrupt.

2020.12.13

By the end of the year only thirty dresses were sold out of ninety dresses. I bought more dresses during the previous months. We were now put to lockdown and all. The business was definitely going downhill. I was feeling guilty because this was my mother's money. She said not to worry because we were not in debt to others. But that did not give justice to me.

2021.01.04

We are still in lockdown due the covid-19. The deaths were increasing due carelessness of people and also the government. None of my friends texted me except for Sally and Jessica and sometimes Sandra. Sandra went overseas to study during the last year.

Sally messaged me saying that Amy was getting married on thirteenth. I asked why she bought this up again. I texted Amy again and it was the same thing she said, that she was still a baby. Sally was down to her knees saying that she was telling the truth. I told her that I believe her and I believe Amy too. Will see who my real friend is.

2021.01.10

I checked Amy's status in the Attsapp while laying down bored. The status read, 'Congratulations sis Amy!' and there were wedding cake and food pictures. I sat on the sofa upright. She did not tell me! I calmed myself down and texted her congratulations. She replied with, 'Thank you Anna.' I messaged in return, 'Why did you not tell me in advance, I would have send you something.' 'It was all sudden.' I typed okay and promoted my shop in return and sighed at the screen.

I messaged Sally about it and she immediately send me photos of her that was sent to her fiancée with the goodies that they were going to send them. I then messaged Amy to ask when her wedding date is even though I knew it was in three days from today. She did not reply nor did she see the message. May be she was busy with her wedding. Who would not be right?

Later in the evening I opened the stargram app to text with Sally. Then I saw Amy had posted a story just five minutes ago. I clicked it open. My heart shrunk. It was a chat conversation between Amy and Sarah. They all lied to me. Amy pretended to hate and swear at Sarah. It was all drama. They did not like me from the first. They could have told me. They could have not chosen me to be friends with them. They could not have secretly put love letters to me when we fought for petty reasons. Or maybe I should have understood it. I opened the drawer and pulled out the notebook. I flipped the page to where I had written a list of my friends. I crossed Amy's name out. It was a list of friends that I was going to give luxuries for their wedding and also when I start earning. Amy does not deserve them. She told it by herself.