Valentine watched bewildered and amused as Oliver pressed his face up against the large front glass window of the store to look outside, his unhinged gaze scanning the parking lot thoroughly before the store officially opened. Juan had only moments earlier regaled Valentine on some of the more heroic endeavors of Oliver, her soon-to-be trainer while showing her the Honor Wall. Some of the more noteworthy achievements were actually quite impressive such as charging a customer for using coupons, charging customers for telling overused jokes (it didn't scan? I guess it's free!), and of course, who could forget about the time he assisted the customer service desk in "defeating" ten customers at once the day we ran out of helium tanks for the balloons? Juan certainly couldn't, he especially couldn't forget the screaming. "What do you mean you don't have any more helium?! What about Tyler's birthday party?!" The brawl had started after Jessica replied with "Well ma'am lucky for Tyler his mom seems to be full of hot air." Juan let out an amused sigh and simply remarked "You'd be surprised how crazy people get over balloons."

Valentine had listened to the war stories very intently, her face slowly changing from her usual radiant smile to a disgusted look of shock and unrestrained horror. Is this what working retail is really like? What if being a dollar store employee was tougher than being a cupid? To make matters even worse Juan had seemed all too interested in her archery skills and seemed hell-bent on eventually moving her to the customer service counter "sometime after mandatory kickboxing lessons." Valentine prayed she wouldn't have to be here that long, just long enough to finally get Oliver to fall in love. That was the only reason she took the job after all, it was even worth skipping a matchmaking attempt yesterday to go shopping for appropriate work clothes.

Valentine shuddered as she looked over to the hopeless boy in question. The pair had already been formally introduced about 15 minutes ago, it was hardly cordial, to say the least. Oliver was none too pleased with the prospect of training "someone who decided being a food critic was too hard." Valentine, visibly irritated, had then decided to tell him and Juan that her previous job was actually that of a matchmaker which, to be fair, wasn't entirely a lie. Oliver simply laughed and told her that lighters were better, leaving Valentine confused as to whether he was joking and attempting to be funny or if he had genuinely misunderstood what she meant.

Oliver's fist pounded the glass in what almost seemed like an anxious kinetic utterance. "She's running late! How am I supposed to prove my unquestionable superiority if she doesn't show up?!" Valentine chuckled softly and rolled her eyes.

"If your superiority really was unquestionable you wouldn't have to prove it." Valentine muttered in reply. A few minutes later Valentine took special notice as Oliver's heart seemed to shatter in response to Juan's panicked announcement. "Jessica called in! We have no customer service representative! Who's going to service the customers?! And by service I mean blow up balloons and deny refunds?! Oh god! The balloons!!!" Juan then ran screaming into his office before a soft click was heard as the door locked. 

The aftershock of silence was broken a minute later by Brad. "He didn't check his voice-mail until just now.."

Valentine could FEEL Oliver sweating, though she wasn't sure how or why. Without so much as another word Brad went back to stocking shelves. A light bulb lit up over Valentine's head.

"Why don't we have Brad run the customer service counter? Juan clearly doesn't want to do it but he can stock shelves instead correct?"

Oliver reeled back in abject horror and shook his head. "The last time we had Brad customer facing he ended his shift with two hundred and ninety-four phone numbers... We only had two hundred and sixty-eight customers that day. Where did the rest of the numbers come from!? He won't tell us!"

Valentine's eyes widened, equal parts horrified and impressed. "Isn't Brad a manager? I feel like that violates some sort of ethics code..." She couldn't help but start to understand why Brad is now relegated to handling truck deliveries and stocking the store. A wicked, almost vindictive smile suddenly carved itself into Oliver's otherwise unremarkable features. Valentine could clearly see the two brain cells he possessed violently slamming into each other in a desperate yet near futile attempt at sparking a coherent thought. "Brad... Why don't YOU train Valentine today instead? ...On the customer service counter."

Brad nearly choked on his vape pen. "Bro, You know I'm not allowed... Juan said that like...violates the Geneva convention."

Oliver's smile grew impossibly wider. "Listen... Juan might be the store owner... but you're the MANAGER of the store he owns... it's your job to manage, so go manage! Besides... Valentine here should do most of the interacting anyway right? Just let her do the talking while you focus on training her. We can all tag team on restocking during the slow downs!"

Valentine instantly understood Oliver's laminated paper smooth plan. By throwing her to the wolves on day one he was looking for a ring out. Unfortunately for him, she had no plans of handing in her name tag and quitting no matter what hell she found behind that customer service counter. "That's fine by me... Brad is probably a better trainer anyway." Her eyes locked confidently onto his. She had just met his declaration of war with raw and unrestrained defiance. "For your sake, I hope so." Oliver shot back his poisonous reply and turned to man his cash register, the sadistic grin still hanging on his face like a ghoulish mask. Valentine followed Brad and took her place behind that dreaded, awful counter as customers began to enter the floor. A deep sigh attempted to push the stress from her bones as she spotted a gaggle of bastards gunning her way with returns.

"Challenge accepted Oliver."