The built in ladder to reach the higher parts of the back stock was broken again, the bearings jammed and immobile. The six foot step ladder they were using in the meantime was already being employed by one of the other women, so Rebecca stuck close to the wall nearby and waited her turn. She kept the crumpled piece of paper with the customer's shoe sizes tight to her chest and chewed at her bottom lip as she anxiously hovered by her coworker.

Corrida's was the most expensive women's shoe store in the downtown shopping area, and most of the staff were in their twenties or thirties. Rebecca was only sixteen, and she was usually delegated to running the till. Corrida's staff worked on commission, and none of them wanted a teenager to take any potential sales. They were nice enough, but they liked to handle the majority of the customers. She'd only gotten her current one because the rest of the women on shift were already occupied.

Her coworker finally finished with the ladder and Rebecca hurriedly got down the right sizes for the shiny black stilettos before anyone else could interrupt. The blond woman who had asked for them was sitting where Rebecca had left her, polishing the lenses of her glasses.

"Which size would you like to try on first?" Rebecca asked, hoping the woman just usually looked bored and wasn't displeased at how long it had taken.

"Hm? Oh, the shoes." The woman put her glasses on kicked off the heels she was already wearing. "The size six."

Rebecca slid the shoe onto the woman's foot, and could tell right away it was too small. The edge of the stiletto and the fishnet stockings the woman was wearing were digging into her skin enough to create a slight bulge of flesh that looked unpleasant. The blond woman made a face, and Rebecca quickly switched to the six and a half, smoothing the stockings perfectly flat over the woman's foot as they originally were.

"Much better," the woman said as she stood up, "these are the correct fit."

The simple black heels were over three hundred dollars, but the woman bought two pairs without blinking, and left with a pleased smile. Rebecca tried not to grin, delighted at the commission she would get on the two pairs. Her coworkers noticed though, and immediately put her back at the till. It was hard to be as cheerful as she was supposed to be, ringing through purchases that she might have been able to get a commission on, but she gave it her best effort.

Around noon business slowed down, as all the shoppers stopped for things like coffees and lunch. They rarely had more than one or two customers during the lunch rush on a Saturday. The other two women working went for their breaks, leaving Rebecca at the counter and her manager in the back doing paperwork.

The drawer where they kept all the odds and ends to make shoes fit better was a mess, so Rebecca occupied herself with cleaning and organizing the different pads and insoles. She had finished with one side of the drawer when the tiny bell on their door chimed, and she looked up immediately, hoping it wasn't her coworkers back early.

And it definitely was neither of her coworkers, as the person who had just entered the shop was a young man.

It wasn't completely unusual for men to come in to shop for the women in their life, but unlike those men that made a beeline for a staff member, this man was perusing the displays with interest. After a minute, Rebecca tentatively walked up to him and cleared her throat.

"Would you like any assistance?"

He man turned to her with a brilliant smile and a casual flip of his long hair. It was a lighter blond than the woman who had bought the black stilettos, and was artfully curled. His entire outfit was precisely fashionable, more so than anyone else Rebecca had seen in the shop for weeks.

"You must be a new girl" He said, seemingly unconcerned that she had been staring at him. "I haven't seen you before."

"Yes, I was hired a couple weeks ago. Would you like any help?" She repeated politely, smiling.

With another flip of his hair, the man pointed to a pair of navy mid-calf boots with big gold buckles, and a similar pair in white.

"Could you bring me these in the largest sizes you have?"

"Of course." Rebecca replied automatically. "I'll just be a moment."

The boots the man wanted were in the farthest part of their backroom, and it took Rebecca a couple minutes to wrestle the ladder into place so she could get to the styles he had pointed out. On a whim, she also grabbed a pair of ankle boots in a warm brown leather that were somewhat like the others.

Balancing the three boxes, Rebecca came out from the backroom and her heart immediately sank. Her coworkers had returned from their lunch break and they were fawning over the man as he sat in one of the plush upholstered chairs. The older one noticed Rebecca first and leapt to her feet.

"I'm so sorry you had to be left with the trainee," the woman said, unceremoniously grabbing the boxes from Rebecca's hands, "but I'll look after you now-"

"No."

All three women froze, and the man scowled slightly before pointing at Rebecca.

"I want her. She's doing just fine."

Blushing, Rebecca took the boxes back and sat in front of the man as her coworkers retreated to the other side of the shop. For the first time she noticed that the man was already wearing a pair of boots with impressive heels, and she realized that her hunch that the shoes were for him was right.

As she pulled the tissue paper from the inside of the navy blue boots, the man leaned down and tapped one finger against her low heeled turquoise pumps.

"Why are you the only one who doesn't wear heels from this shop brand?"

With a glance at her coworkers, who were both sporting classy high heels from the shop, Rebecca offered him the unlaced boot to try on. It was a topic her coworkers liked to bring up sometimes, that Rebecca wore cheap shoes.

"I can't afford to." She handed him the other boot and watched as he laced them up.

"That's unfortunate." He replied quietly, tapping the heels of the boots on the floor and tugging at the backs.

Rebecca took his comment to mean the fit of the boots since he was obviously displeased with it, and prepared the white ones for him to try on.

With a dramatic sigh the man flopped back into the chair and began unlacing the left boot as Rebecca started on the right. Even though Rebecca did it fairly often as part of her job, the man was much faster and was finished when she was only three-quarters of the way done.

"Which pair of shoes would you buy if you could afford it?" The man asked, looking around the shop as he waited for her to finish.

"Um." Rebecca blushed and handed him one of the white boots after finishing with the laces of the navy one. "The knee high boots in the window."

"The ones with the gold accents?"

"Yes." Rebecca helped him zip up the second pair of boots and chewed at her lip when the man made a face as he stood. The white boots didn't fit any better than the first pair.

With an even bigger and more dramatic sigh that made Rebecca giggle, the man sat again and took off the boots. He scowled the slightest bit at his socks and reached for his own shoes, obviously planning to leave.

Hoping that she was making the right gamble, Rebecca opened the third box and pulled out the ankle boots.

"I thought these might suit you, if you'd like to try them?"

The man's face immediately lit up and he took them from her. Since they didn't have to fit any of his calf, the boots zipped up snugly at his ankle and when he stood the smile stayed on his face. Rebecca grinned up at him, and giggled again when he did a quick twirl on the spot.

"Sold." He told her with a smile, taking the box and his old shoes from her. "I'll wear them out, even."

Rebecca's coworkers at the counter waved him over with huge smiles, perhaps hoping to win back some of his favour. Rebecca watched from the corner of her eye and only half listened as she re-packed the rejected boots and cleaned up the bits and fluff of tissue paper. After he paid for his boots, he leaned over the counter and whispered something to the older woman that made the mouths of both women behind the counter drop open. The younger one ran into the back room and came back with the manager, and Rebecca's stomach dropped. He had seemed happy, why was he talking to the manager?

After a minute of whispering, as Rebecca stayed crouched on the floor with her stomach churning, the till was opened again and then the man left without a backwards glance. Rebecca looked up to where her manager and coworkers were looking at her with varying degrees of shock and annoyance, and gulped.

But all her manager did was hand her the broom and tell her to come see her in the office at the end of her shift. That didn't make Rebecca feel any better, and she chose to stay behind the till for the rest of her shift so she could hide how nauseated she felt.

Five o' clock came faster than Rebecca wanted, and after gathering her purse she went to the office and knocked. She held her breath until the manager opened the door and told her to come in.

"Here," Rebecca's manager said, holding out one of the shops plastic bags to her with a strange expression. "These are for you. I'll see you next Saturday."

Completely baffled, Rebecca took the bag and left the store before the manager could say anything else. Outside, she sat on one of the benches and opened the bag. There was a shoe box inside, and Rebecca almost stopped breathing when she opened it.

The knee high boots she loved were in the box, along with a note.

Now you can stand even with your coworkers. Help me find the perfect pair of shoes again next time, too. – Cavendish

Rebecca smiled, still completely surprised, at the flourishing handwriting that neatly matched the man who wrote it. She put the note in her wallet, and closed the shoebox before heading to the parking lot where her aunt Viola was waiting to pick her up.

"How was work today, darling?" Viola asked, putting the car into gear once Rebecca had put her bag in the trunk and gotten into the passenger seat.

And Rebecca smiled as she buckled in, and hugged her purse.

"It was great."