Chapter 1

Brenda pulled her old sedan neatly into the employee parking space and turned off the engine. She always liked to arrive a few minutes early so she could straighten up her work area and get ready for the day. There were only a few clouds in the sky and it looked to be a beautiful day, not too warm.

She had a moment’s flashback to college, when half a dozen of her dorm-mates were speculating about what they were going to do once they graduated. There were the usual grad school dreams, a few were hoping for a corporate internship that would ease the way into some kind of trainee program. Miranda planned on being married, within a month of graduation, they’d already decided.

Brenda envied Miranda, she knew exactly what she was going to do and who she was going to do it with, and expected it to last for another fifty years. Brenda wished she’d found someone that she liked as much as they liked her. But there was never a spark in any of her relationships.

As far as her plans after college went, Brenda didn’t know. She couldn’t see where a B.A. in English would get her a job with a future. So when the time came and the money from her parents was going to stop, she panicked. She started asking anyone and everyone if they had any ideas, even if it was only a stopgap that would allow her to meet her bills and start to pay back some of her student loans.

Her friend and roommate, Cassie, tried to be encouraging. “Honey, you’re the most genuinely nice person I’ve ever met. You’re a people-pleaser, you’re always trying to make people feel better, helping them out any way you can. I’ve got to believe that there are a thousand organizations and companies who would honestly love to hire someone who showed those skills.” Brenda hoped that was true, but so far it hadn’t come up in any of the listed requirements in the job postings.

By the time Paul Collins mentioned a place he’d worked summers in college, she was desperate. She sent off her resume, waited a decent length of time, then called and harangued them until they agreed to an interview. Desperation made her try harder at the interview, and thus she was a little surprised when she was offered a job as a client consultant at O’Brien’s Floor Coverings. If it went onto a floor, O’Brien’s carried it. Rugs, wooden flooring, linoleum, all kinds of ceramic tiles, carpets, even bathroom and tub and back-splash tiles.

The place was huge and intimidating. The front showroom gave no indication of the size of the warehouse that was behind it. It was large enough that there were several electric golf carts to ferry customers to the correct location. Mostly it was open, with industrial shelves holding various products. There were several enclosed rooms meant to simulate kitchens, bathrooms and the like.

They were basically large boxes with a door and perhaps eight feet high. When you were inside one, you’d be hard pressed to say it wasn’t a real kitchen or bathroom. It was easier to visualize certain items if you could view them in the environment in which they’d be installed.

The first week there was chaos, trying to recall where everything was located, but everyone was patient with her, because they’d all gone through the same trial by fire.

So after a couple of weeks she no longer had to call for help from the other consultants and began to feel comfortable with where things were located. She even wrote up a little cheat sheet if she forgot. She didn’t have to refer to it very much.

And she found that she was actually good at the job. After awhile she learned enough of the terminology that she could talk intelligently about the different options, the costs, the advantages and drawbacks of each. She discovered that she enjoyed finding out what her customers were looking for, teasing out the information that would help her locate the right product for them.

When the sale was complete, she was gratified to get frequent compliments from her customers, and they made sure that her boss also got an earful. After only six weeks there, she got a small raise, which made her feel good.

She wouldn’t say it out loud to the higher-ups, but the biggest rush for her was seeing how delighted her customers were with their choices. It made her happy to see her customers happy. Even her college roommates had commented on it, when she went out of her way to help someone she knew, sometimes even hinted that she might get too much or a rush out of it. But what could be wrong with feeling good about helping others?

When the customers left, she often walked around for a couple of minutes feeling like she was floating. Who’d have thought that floor coverings was going to be her life’s calling? But she liked the people she worked with and the place where it happened, and she enjoyed making her customers happy.