Bob looked up just as his latest project came in. He quickly
wrapped up the cheese and placed it back on the shelf in a way which made it
seem like it wasn’t obvious that it had been tampered with.
“Do you have any er Comté cheese?” asked the unsuspecting
customer.
Bob replied “Comté? Why we’ve got some here sir.” He pointed
to the back shelf and chose a piece, the piece.
“Er how much is that?” asked the customer hesitantly, wary
about the appearance of the cheese.
“All this? Urm, It’s
quite a bit. £9.31.”
“£9.31?” He checked his wallet and realised he only had a
five pound note and he didn’t feel comfortable using his card, “I’ll have half
of that.”
“Half of that?” asked Bob, unsure as to whether that amount
would be enough. He wondered to himself whether he had had a project which had
been successful only consuming that amount.
“Yeah. I didn’t think you used you didn’t sell it usually. Last
time I came in you weren’t selling it.”
“Must have run out.” Bob said sharply, unhappy with all the
questions being thrown at him. Bob knew that this project was going to be one
of his most difficult ones.
“No he said you sold Gruyère instead,” Replied the customer,
impatiently.
“Yeah?” Enquired Bob, looking over the shoulder of the
customer. He could see the shop starting to fill up now and he was looking for
an easier target.
“Oo that lady in the red hat looks perfect, don’t think I’ve
seen her before” muttered Bob under his breath
“Sorry, what did you say?”
“Oh nothing, when did he say that?” Bob asked
“Say what?” replied the customer, getting more and more
impatient with the lack of customer service.
“That we only sell Gruyère…”
“Oh about six months ago.”
Bob realised that he almost gave the game away. He hadn’t
come this far to be caught with a simple slip of the tongue “Oh, well Paul here
used to work for Gruyère but because they gave him so much of it he just got
sick of it.” Little did the customer know the real reason why Paul got ‘sick’.
Bob chuckled to himself
“Ah. Well, we’ll see
anyway.” The customer now wanted to just get out of there as quickly as
possible.
“Oh but it’s not like this
Comté.” Bob knew he was losing the customer so quickly started to wrap up the
cheese.
“No, I guess you’re right, after all you do know best”
“Anything else?” Bob
asked with a smile
“No that’s it, thanks,”
Bob finished wrapping up the cheese, “That’ll be £4.53,
please.”
“£4.53? There we are” replied the unsuspecting customer
“Thank you very much. Do you need a bag for that?”
“I wouldn’t mind actually.”
“Do you want a paper
or a carrier bag?” asked Bob, getting a bit bored now.
“Paper bag’s fine.”
“Yeah. There you go.” Bob handed the cheese to the customer
with the usual look on his face that he gets when he finishes a project.
“Thanks very much. Bye.”
“Goodbye!” Shouted Bob as the customer walked out of the
store, “Hope to see you soon!”