I mean, I was already right here, where there was service. Plus, it wasn’t like I had anything else to do. I grabbed my phone and went back to the window.
I typed “TOBIAS RHODES” into the Facebook search box.
There were only a few Tobias Rhodes, and none of them were based in Colorado. There was one with a picture that looked a little old—and by old I meant maybe ten years or so from how blurry it was, like an old cell phone picture—of a little boy with a dog beside him. It said he lived in Jacksonville, Florida.
I wasn’t sure why I clicked on, it but I did. Someone named Billy Warner had posted on his page a year ago with a link to some article about a new world record fish that had been caught, and after that was a post with an updated profile picture of an even younger little boy and the dog. There were two comments, so I clicked on them.
The first one was from the same Billy Warner, and it said: Am got my looks
The second comment was a reply, and it was from Tobias Rhodes: You wish
Am? As in… Amos? The boy? His skin tone was about right.
I went back to the posts and scrolled down. There were barely any. Three actually.
There was an even older profile picture of just the dog, this big white one. And that had been from two years before that.
The other post was from the same Billy person with another fishing link, and that one had comments too.
Being as careful as possible, because I was going to die if I accidentally liked an old post—I would literally have to delete my account and legally change my name—I clicked on the comments. There were six.
The first one was from someone named Johnny Green, it read: When we going fishing?
Tobias Rhodes responded with: Whenever you want to come visit.
Billy Warner replied with: Johnny Green, Rhodes is single again. Let’s go.
Johnny Green: You broke up with Angie? Hell yeah, let’s do it
Tobias Rhodes: Invite Am too.
Billy Warner: I’ll bring him.
Who Angie was, I had no idea. Chances were, it was an ex-girlfriend or maybe even a current girlfriend? Maybe they had gotten back together? Maybe it was Amos’s mom?
Who Billy or Johnny were, I had no idea either.
There was no other information on his page though, and I didn’t trust myself to snoop through other profiles without getting caught.
Hmm.
I exited out of the window before I accidentally clicked on anything.
I’d just have to snoop through Picturegram and see what I could find. That was a good plan. Worst case, maybe I could invest in some binoculars to snoop on the outside.
Deciding that was a good idea, I went to take a shower.
I had a busy day tomorrow.
I had a life to start building.
Chapter 3
A gallon of water even though it was less than a one-mile hike? Check.
Brand-new hiking boots I had only tried breaking in walking around the apartment that were more than likely going to give me blisters? Check.
Two granola bars even though I’d just eaten breakfast? Check.
Two days later, I was ready to go. It was my first day off since Clara had hired me, and I was going to try and knock out the short hike to the waterfalls. I’d been guzzling down so much water in an effort to avoid getting altitude sickness that I’d woken up three times last night to pee. I didn’t have time to get hangover-like symptoms.
Plus I was hoping that the hike would get my mind off how useless I was at the shop.
Just thinking about the shop got me to stop with the Spice Girls lyrics I’d been singing under my breath.
My first and only day had gone just as bad as I’d worried it would, as I’d warned Clara it could. The shame of staring blankly at one customer after another when they asked questions hurt me. Literally hurt me. I wasn’t used to feeling incompetent, to having to ask one question after another because I literally had no clue what in the world the customers were referring to or asking for.
Beads? Leaded weights? Recommendations? Just thinking about how bad yesterday had gone made me cringe.
What I needed to do was figure out a solution, especially if I was planning on sticking around for much longer. A couple times—mostly when customers were extra kind when I didn’t know things, especially when they were almost condescending telling me not to worry my pretty head because that got under my skin like nothing else could—I thought about quitting, letting Clara find someone who knew more about anything in the store than I did, but then all I had to do was look at the dark circles under her eyes, and I knew I wouldn’t. She needed help. And even if all I did was ring people up and save her two minutes, it was something.