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Derrick muttered to himself a bit as he fixed up the card display, again. He wasn't too annoyed at it, it just always surprised him how lazy people could be when it came to putting back items. It wasn't even that hard. It was understandable if it was the last card, but it was easy enough to tell where a card came from when there were plenty of cards behind it. It's not like one had to put in a whole lot of effort anyway.

He shook his head a little, trying to get rid of the negative thoughts. Working at 'Paper Greetings' wasn't too bad. He made enough to live on and he could order supplies for his other hobbies with the money he made, but sometimes, working in retail was hard. The customers could be the best and yet the worst part of the job sometimes.

Getting up and looking at the now organized card display, Derrick felt a bit of satisfaction at seeing it cleaned up so nicely. There were 4 rows of cards, one of them on the wall which contained most of the cards, and then 3 shelves, one with two sides and a shelf with one side, a bit aways from the wall. The rest of the shelves were lined with other things such as ornaments, decorative paper, and other little knick-knacks that one would probably buy for fun or to send to someone in a hospital or something. Of course there was also a Beanie Baby display which was forever hopeless in staying organized.

Derrick walked back over to the cash register and sat on the stool looking through the door. The owners were nice enough to let their workers sit if there was no one in the store, which happened a bit considering how many people regularly worked during the day.

However, the door bell pulled Derrick out of his musings, getting up from the stool and going closer to the door and he heard himself say the usual greeting,
"Welcome! Is there anything I can help you with?"

Derrick could tell that the man was nervous, though he wasn't sure why. Most likely it was just some form of social-anxiety though. He resisted raising an eyebrow and instead in his best customer-service personality smiled at the man and pointed to the man's left. "The cards are right over there. If you need any help finding a particular one, please feel free to ask me! I know there are a lot of them."

Well, it was better than dealing with some demanding customer at least who wasn't really a "customer" and more of a scammer since they never wanted to pay for anything. Luckily management gave Derrick a lot of leeway when it came to kicking out rowdy customers.

He shouldn't be too much of a problem., Derrick thought as he went back to his random thoughts as he waited for the other to eventually address him in some way again, whether that was to ask for help or just to pay for their item(s) in some way.

Derrick was surprised to say the least, and he couldn't help but lift up an eyebrow and open his mouth in shock. Sure, people had managed to knock them over before, but not all of them!

He looked towards the man who was clearly embarrassed. Derrick wasn't mad at him. He had suggested to the owners that perhaps those stands weren't the best idea considering all of the accidents he had seen with them, but they would apparently risk losing some stock versus getting rid of the stands. Sure, the cards probably wouldn't be ruined, but some of them might be bent, which would mean that people wouldn't buy them. At least he got free cards that way then.

He rushed over, seeing that the young man was clearly trying to clean up the mess. Derrick crouched down and slowly picked up the cards. It wasn't that bad at least. "It's all right, you aren't the first to knock these stands down. Are you all right though? You aren't hurt?" Sure, the most the man would have gotten was probably a bruise on his hip, but Derrick had to ask. The other could have a cut or something possibly.

"I've had to stock these cards so many times, so I can tell where they go. You don't have to worry about picking them up, it at least makes my job a bit more interesting having to sort all of these in the proper place." He said, chuckling a bit. He was trying to make the man feel better, though he wasn't exactly sure what to do.

Well, Derrick wouldn't badger him if the guy said he was all right. After all, it didn't look that bad anyway. He almost said something to the guy while the other was trying to put some of them in the stand where they came from. He felt like saying something, as the guy really wasn't putting them back correctly, but he didn't have the heart to do it. It would probably just make the guy even more embarrassed. Ah well, at least he would have something to do during the slow hours.

"Well, thank you, though you don't really have to. It's my job after all." He replied, smiling, hopefully conveying that he didn't mean it in any sort of sarcastic way. He nodded. "Yeah it does. I'm allowed to bring in a book sometimes if I'm really bored or they know we won't be that busy. We tend to have a lot more people in here closer to holidays or other major celebration months, like ones that have a lot of birthdays in them." Such as the end of summer/beginning of fall. "I'm Derrick by the way. May I ask what your name is?"

Derrick silently took the cards from Shiloh, setting a few of them up back onto the stand. "Thank you." He said, still glad with some of the help. "Yeah, I kind of wish it was busier more often. It would make the time pass by quicker." Even if he was able to read a book every so often, time still seemed to go at a snails pace. It was only when they had customers that things really seemed to speed up, at least partially because he was helping other people.

"It's okay. I feel like we should anchor these stands somehow anyway so they wouldn't fall over as much." The circular floor piece that these stands stood on left very little room for it to stay balanced. About once a day one of the stands would be knocked over accidentally.

He looked at Shiloh when the other man asked for some assitance. "Happy to help! We have a lot, and I assume you might not want to do the more sappy ones, those carry a certain level of intimacy... do you know what they may like? Or do you want to go for something more generic? Or there are even humorous ones, at least ones that aren't totally crass that is..." The owners were quite old, and anything they deemed bathroom related were never put on the shelves.

Derrick stood up with the rest of the cards in hand and started to put them away as Shiloh described his friends. Should be easy enough. Derrick thought as he simultaneously chose out a few cards for Shiloh's friends also. There were plenty of glittery/sparkly cards and he quickly put that one in it's envelope to keep as many of the sparkles/glitter that he could on it. Next he picked out a cute bunny-themed card that had some wording in it, though one could write in it if they wanted. And finally a simple card with a blank inside but what seemed to be a gavel on the outside.

Finally though he was able to put the rest of the cards away and turned to look at Shiloh. "That did help, thank you. We have a lot of variety so it's nice to be as specific as possible when trying to find a certain type of card." He said glad that Shiloh had helped him. So many people would just say something like "good" and well that depended on taste sometimes. "Well, these are the ones I first thought of, but if you don't think they work, I have some others in mind." He replied as he held the cards out to Shiloh. "You should be able to write your own message in them if you want."

Derrick laughed a bit. "Almost it seems. I'm sure we're missing some, but if people suggested it they owners would probably put them out. I swear they just like to display the cards as much as having people buy them." They could be a bit eccentric at times, but they were quite relaxed and paid their employees well, which is why Derrick really hadn't found nay other place he wanted to work.

He blushed a bit at Shiloh's words, happy for the compliment. "Thanks. I've been working here for a while so I eventually started learning which cards to use for what... though sometimes people still aren't happy. But that's retail for you." When it came to cards it was mostly little old ladies who could be quite picky about what they wanted, and while some walked away unsatisfied, the variety of cards had made the majority happy.

Thinking about it, he shook his head, looking back at Shiloh and standing up straight now that he didn't have to bend over to get the cards. "I've barely ever gotten cards myself, except from my little brother on my birthday or something. But it's always nice to have a hand-written message you know? I also like looking at hand-writing styles a bit and cards can have a lot of variety because of all of the different people writing them. So I still appreciate getting them, especially when I'm not expecting it."

Derrick followed Shiloh to the register, though he got behind it and started to ring up the cards. He shrugged at Shiloh's worrying. "It's all right, usually I can get them to calm down. Though if they do give me enough trouble, I usually convince them to buy one of the more expensive cards..." He replied, giving Shiloh a smirk. He didn't really like that pieces of paper cost so much either, but Derrick supposed it was to pay the artist that created it.

Though some of them did look like a five-year-old had done it, and he was pretty sure the 5-year-old wasn't getting the money from it.

He completed what he could on his end, and heard the bell ring, signalling another customer. He said a quick "Welcome!" before turning his attention back to Shiloh and smiled. "Really it's no problem. It's part of my job after all." He wouldn't admit that he was probably better at it since he sometimes did custom calligraphy cards for people. "And thank you for your purchases! I'm sure they'll love the cards!"

It would be silly for them not to, unless they were cards disguising glitter bombs. But they didn't sell glitter here for exactly that reason. "It was nice meeting you too!"