Chapter 221

• Casie, also known as Kelly, knew it was going to be a busy day from the moment she woke up, three hours ago. Standing in the early hours of a Sunday, hands and head busy in the kitchen of her deli shop, trying to prepare the order that had been entrusted to her with due anticipation, but the successive inconveniences with the staff and machines had prevented her from completing it as she would have liked.
• Being as structured as she was, finishing a task on the verge of being demanded from her generated nightmares and headaches in considering everything that could go wrong. Everything that would make her fail. The usual feeling of failure affected her sleep, but she managed to deal with it. She supposed it was the challenge of any endeavor. In her case, it was multiplied by her perfectionist personality and because she had invested in this shop the little she had managed to save during the harsh years of her marriage, in addition to her expectations and time.
• But there were variables that could not be controlled, including the negligence and lack of commitment of those she could hire, non"specialized staff. Damn, it's not like you needed an Economics degree to attend to customers with a bit of taste and kindness, or that putting brownies in a box or display case was a risky task. On more than one occasion, her employees had strained her proverbial people skills and kindness, almost forcing her to shout and fire them. Almost.