Welcome to Gaia! ::

There was simply no way around it. Aleksy needed an employee. Someone to do all the dirty, grimy work of maintaining the plants in the shop, taking deliveries, all of that. He simply couldn't do that, do the work of front-of-house, and get his gallery work and commissions done on time. For now, it was fine, but he wasn't going to risk the hit to his reputation that loomed closer and closer with every busy day. Luckily, the local high school maintained a 'job listing' in its weekly newspaper. (Why a high school needed a newspaper, Aleksy wasn't quite sure.) It was only ten dollars, so he'd got himself added to the listing and promptly weathered the storm of what felt like a thousand high schoolers beating down his door.

He was down to the last applicant, finally. There were some with high points, some with low, but mostly he wasn't pleased. Maybe the college would be a better place to look, even though Aleksy wasn't near old enough to impress his boss-ness upon them. At least they wouldn't ask questions like can I do my homework at the counter--b***h, no, if he had his way they'd be doing minimal counterwork at all!

So. Leslie St. Whatever. Aleksy flipped his pen in his hand and stared at the door like it had done something to personally offend him, waiting.

Wow. This one looked... young. Aleksy blinked once, twice, and then nodded to himself. "Come in," said Aleksy. "Don't be shy. You're not doing yourself any favors, you know." He gestured to the high bar stool against the wall, then pointed to the other side of the counter. "Your name's Leslie, yes? Leslie St. Peter?"

Aleksy huffed out a sigh, silently, and took the photos. The plants were in good health, he saw that right away; they looked cared for, which was better. His florist's eye marked the signs of pruned leaves, recent weeding. Then he looked over at the shelf adjacent to the window, where a variety of small ornamental plants soaked in the late afternoon sunlight (what little there was in early March).

"We mostly work with already-cut flowers," said Aleksy, putting the pictures down on the counter between himself and Leslie. "But we do keep a stock of live flowers for gifts. If I hire you, your duties would include keeping those. However... how are you at following directions? If I tell you to restock the fridges or refill the buckets, will you need things explained twice?"

Aleksy nodded. It seemed like the kid did have a spine, when you got down to it; he approved. "Alright," he said. "Come back tomorrow afternoon. Between three and four? I'll have paperwork for you to fill out and then we can do your schedule."

He had a good feeling about this one, alright?

Okay, so... that was adorable. Aleksy found himself smiling a little more sincerely. "It's not a favor," he grumped, but hey: he'd had his first job once, too. He got it.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Leslie," he said. "Don't be late."