Vera was immediately sympathetic to his plight. The strip mall containing her shop was on the side of a back road without much on it near a suburb of Seattle.
"Of course but first let's warm you up a little before you catch a cold. Hang tight," she said before heading into the back room and getting a blanket from her office. Some nights she fell asleep here if she stayed too late in the workshop.
She should get him hot chocolate too. It was the perfect excuse to make some for herself and he looked like he really needed it.
He seemed surprised by both the blanket and the hot chocolate. "Is this f-for me? You're v-very kind. Thank you."
"Of course! Here, let me get you a chair too," Vera said before rushing off to find one that wasn't susceptible to water damage. All she really had in that category was a spare folding chair but he seemed grateful anyway and sat down wrapped in the blanket with the Styrofoam cup of hot chocolate warming his hands.
He sipped his hot chocolate and sighed contentedly as the warmth hit his stomach and warmed him from the inside out. He didn't speak again until the hot chocolate was gone but she didn't mind. It gave her more opportunity to drink hers.
This particular hot chocolate brand was incredibly rich and came in a wide variety of flavors. The one she had made for them was Mexican chocolate, which had cinnamon in it. It was one of her favorites.
"Th-thank you again. Do you m-mind if I use your phone now?"
Vera smiled reassuringly at him. "Not at all."
She swapped her phone for his cup and took it to the trash can as he made the call. She noticed that he continued stuttering the whole time he made the call. Was he still cold? He had been soaked to the skin and the blanket didn't change that.
While he was on the phone, the customer from earlier came back to pick up his purchases. It was still raining pretty hard but they had parked in the designated loading/unloading zone to minimize water getting onto anything. It would be outside for thirty seconds tops.
Vera helped him and his friend load things up without difficulty and thanked him for his business, handing over her card and telling him to call her if he was ever in the market for any similar pieces.
Once she was done she realized that he had finished his phone call and was holding out the phone for her to take. She stuck it back in her pocket as he explained what was going on.
"They s-s-said they would be here to t-take me to my c-car in fivety-four minutes. Uh, forty-five! Forty-five minutes," he said, red-faced. "So s-sorry for imposing."
The poor thing seemed terrified of inconveniencing her. She was beginning to think he had a speech impediment rather than simply being cold and that it was aggravated when he was nervous.
She had never thought of herself as all that threatening. She had a heart-shaped face, gray eyes so pale they were nearly colorless, equally pale skin, and a straight black bob with blunt bangs. She looked more like Snow White than some undead creature but she supposed some people scared easy.
Maybe it wasn't her. Maybe this guy didn't like inconveniencing people period.
Vera smiled sunnily at him. "You're not imposing at all. I just realized I didn't catch your name though. I'm Vera Gilmore."
"C-casey Parker," he said nervously, fiddling with the edge of the blanket.
There had to be something she could do to put this poor sucker at ease. He had already had a bad enough day and, if she had to guess, he had used up every ounce of his courage asking to use her phone earlier.
"Casey is a nice name. So what were you doing out this way, Casey? I don't get a lot of visitors unless people are specifically looking for me since I'm kind of in the middle of nowhere."
"I was t-taking a sortcut—shortcut!—because b-back roads are faster. Unless your c-car breaks down," Casey said with a tiny, nervous laugh.
Aww, bless his heart. This uncomfortable and trying to make a joke.
Vera laughed too and not only to make him feel better. What happened to him was rather ironic. "No kidding! How long were you out in the rain before finding me?"
"I-I dunno. A couple of hours?"
"Some shortcut!"
Casey cracked a small smile. "Yeah. S-some shortcut."
"Are you going to be okay getting a tow?" Vera asked, suddenly worried about how he was going to get home, especially since his phone was dead. Speaking of… "And what kind of phone do you have? You might be able to borrow my charger."
"I'll b-be okay. I have T-triple A. And it's an iPhone."
"Today's your lucky day, my friend. I happen to have my iPhone charger on hand so you can give yours a little juice while you wait. May I?"
Casey pulled his phone out and quietly thanked her again before going silent. Vera wasn't sure what else she could talk to him about but didn't get the chance to come up with something before the landline for the store rang and she excused herself before picking it up.
"You've reached Old and Bold: Antique Repair and Sales! This is Vera, how may I help you?"
"Hi, do you do reupholstery? I have a Victorian settee that really needs to be redone but I'd like to keep it as close to the original as possible."
Vera grinned. She loved projects like this. "You've come to the right place! Reupholstery happens to be a specialty of mine. I would love to inspect the piece and give you a quote. I can come by any morning but Sunday before ten."
The person on the phone sounded relieved and set up a time for her to come over in the next few days. She had to do on-site inspections before the store opened. The hours were 10-4 every day but Sunday.
She may be a workaholic but she had to save some time for errands and giving herself a nice break because of the physical nature of much of her work. She was quite fond of unwinding with bath bombs while listening to audiobooks.
Vera had nearly forgotten that Casey was there until he spoke up a bit hesitantly. "F-forgive the intrusion but…you restore things?"