Early one morning Jacob was nervously getting dressed for work, putting more effort into his appearance than usual. He was going to be going on his first unsupervised store inspection that morning. Usually employees in the sales department would have to be promoted to a senior position before they"d be allowed to go on an inspection alone, but his father, who was eager to give Jacob an opportunity to stand out, arranged for him to go alone. Almost alone. Just to be safe he had Elle tag along with her step-brother.Elle had been reluctant to go along at first, after all she had her own work to take care of. The task also felt dangerously close to baby sitting. However, after some persuasion from her father and some deliberating on her own part she realized it wouldn"t be so awful to get an entire day off work just to follow Jacob on his excursion. Elle"s department was still in their slow period, so Elle decided to go ahead and enjoy herself today.
Jacob drove them to the store he was a.s.signed to in silence. They were parked outside the store, and Elle watched with a faint sense of humour as Jacob double check all his paperwork before confidently entering the store. Elle pulled out a book and reclined her seat, content to pa.s.s her time in an uneventful way.
Inside the store Jacob was shown to a waiting area where he waited for the store manager to arrive. As he waited he tried his best to shove the b.u.t.terflies in his stomach down. After a few minutes the store manager finally arrived, apologizing for the delay as he approached.
Jacob was surprised by his appearance, but managed to not let it show. The manager was young, and dressed smartly in a fitted suit. He looked to be about the same age as Jacob, perhaps a year younger even. It was uncommon to find a manager so young.
"Thanks for waiting, I"m Michael Davis." The manager said, introducing himself.
"You can just call me Jacob." Jacob said politely in return.
The inspection went on smoothly. Jacob carefully inspected invoices, shipping doc.u.ments, and sales receipts before doing a physical count of the inventory. He double checked, and triple checked all the numbers, desperate to not make a mistake.
The time went by quickly, before he knew it three hours had pa.s.sed, but he was finally done. The only thing left to do was to review with the manager before he left.
"Mr. Davis, I just need you to sign off on these doc.u.ments." Jacob said, handing the paperwork over.
"Just call me Michael." He insisted. "It feels strange to be referred to so politely by someone so young."
"I was thinking the same thing." Jacob said with a laugh. "You must have done well for yourself, to be in a management position position at such a young age."
"I can say the same for you." Michael commented. "You"re already in the senior sales department."
Jacob"s smile faltered. "Ah, no I actually didn"t start that long ago."
"Oh that"s right! I remember hearing about it. You"re actually the president"s son right?"
"That"s right."
"It"s still an impressive feat. He wouldn"t put you in this position unless he was confident in you."
Jacob hadn"t thought of it that way before. A small sense of pride tugged at his heart. "I"m glad I got to come. It"s a nice change of pace to get to interact with someone in my own age group." Jacob joked.
"Well you know there"s a circle of guys, mostly store employees, who all get together from time to time. You should join us."
"Really?"
"Sure! We"re actually going out for drinks this weekend, if you"re free you should come along."
Jacob happily exchanged his contact information with Michael. He had been so nervous about the inspection today; who would have guessed that he would make an unexpected friend.