HEIR from the STREET

CHAPTER 8

"WELL, WHAT DID you decide, sir?" The salesgirl assigned to Jon drew his attention away from his thoughts of revenge.

"Sorry, yes yes." Jon said, rubbing his temple, "What was it you said, again?"

"I was saying that the things you picked are limited editions from the designer. Are you sure you want to buy them?"

"Yes. I am." Jon said, nodding his head.

"Okay, sir." The sales girl said. She came out from behind the counter to get the items Jon had picked. On a normal day, with a normal customer and any other salesgirl, it should be another free salesperson – most likely her – that would be sent to fetch the items for the attending salesperson. But she wanted to avoid any other outburst from her colleagues so she went to get the items by herself.

She picked up the LV bag and Channel perfume from their respective showcases and walked back behind the counter.

Kim and her boyfriend, Rico, looked on with interest as the sales girl dropped the items on the counter and asked, "How do you wish to pay, sir?"

Jon looked lost for a moment before he said, "Oh, yeah. I have my bank card here." Kim gave a snorted laugh as he patted his trousers pocket.

As the sales girl collected the card, an uncertain look flashed across her face. "Are you sure you want to pay for this card?"

"Yes, is anything the matter?" Jon asked, raising his eyebrow.

"W-would you like to know how much your bill is?" She asked in reply.

Jon nodded without saying anything.

She tapped a small laptop in her front, took a deep breath and said, "They both sum up to 1.7 million dollars, sir."

Jon almost choked and for the first time that morning, he was unsure, "Um, o-okay… give me a moment to get the card."

"Holy smokes!" Kim let out a long breath. Her face was as red as a tomato. "Rico!"

Rico snapped out of the trance-like look he had on his face. He wiped his face and turned to Kim, "Yeah yeah?"

"Can you not see what is happening now? I want something like that now." Kim stamped her foot on the marble floor.

"What?" Rico could not believe his ears.

"I said, I want something –"

"Yeah, shut it. Shut it. I heard you." Rico snapped, waving his hands like he wanted to push away what Kim just said.

"So? Here, I want that one." She pointed at a bag hung on the wall. "And that one." She pointed at a pair of high heels, and even before Rico could reply to her, she turned to the sales attendant and asked, "Hi, do you have any other limited edition designer products."

"Um, yes ma'am." The young sales girl was unsure of the whole situation, she had her eyes on Rico as she replied, "We have them at the basement restricted section."

"Go and get them now!" Kim yelled.

"Stop this nonsense," Rico said, his deep voice, over shadowing Kim's.

"Please, Rico." Kim turned on her puppy eyes. "I want something too. It's unfair that Jon gets to buy something as expensive as that for his new girlfriend but my new boyfriend doesn't get to buy me something like that too."

"It's not my new girlfr – I do not even have a new girlfriend," Jon said, squeezing his face in disgust at the way Kim was behaving.

"I am not buying anything from here for you." Rico snapped. "And especially not something as expensive as that! You clearly don't deserve it."

Kim was stunned as Rico left her there. "I'm done here. This place is boring to me." He muttered as he stomped off.

Kim was angry at the way Rico embarrassed her in front of everyone and walked off but she did not want him to break up with her so she stomped off after him, "Hey, I cannot believe you would just walk off on me!"

Jon knew what was going on with Rico.

He simply can not afford even the perfume, he chuckled to himself. "He can not comprehend the prices." Jon said to himself. "It's simply too much for his low IQ."

"Here," Jon said, finding the card in his back pocket and handing it to the sales girl.

The sales girl had wild thoughts running through her head. She knew that an account with black cards like this can not hold more than 1 million dollars. From then, the owner would have to upgrade to a master gold card.

"A normal card?" The head sales attendant sneered and all the others laughed along with her.

"You broke poor rat." Another one of them shrieked.

Kim, who just stood outside the door, heard the laughing and jeering that she peeked back inside to see what was going on.

She saw the normal card on Jon's hand and realized that was the cause of the laughter and she joined in while Rico waited for her near his car door.

"I'm buying this," Jon said, picking up the small bottle of Channel Perfume from the counter and rubbing his fingers around the smooth edges.

"Yen, take the payment quickly before he breaks the bottle. These poor people are so unpredictable." The head sales attendant yelled to the young one attending to Jon.

Jon's blood was boiling but he kept his cool and just smiled.

"Okay, sir." She collected the card and put it in the machine. "Your pin, please."

Jon collected the machine. He typed in his pin and handed it back.

Kim's eyes grew wide as she watched the sales girl hit the green button and she held her breath while the transaction was being processed.

The shop was alerted with a ping!

The transaction was successful.

Kim gasped and her eyes ran from the machine to Jon who still stood in awe and then back to the machine in the sales girl's hands.

The sales girl would not believe that she just bagged this huge sale. The commission that would be given to her by the store would be enormous.

Rico could not begin to imagine that this "boy" had just bought something that cost more than his annual salary. He looked at Jon in a weird way through the glass.

The other shop attendants also stared at Jon. The man in a food delivery shirt and worn-out trousers had just bought something close to 2 million dollars.

Rico snorted and entered his car, slamming his door loudly and Kim hurried along, glancing back at the store multiple times as they drove away.

The sales girl was giddy with excitement as the packaged his goods.

"Now…" Jon said, smiling as he collected the fancy bag. "I would like some expensive pin-stripped suit. I need to replace these." He gestured with his hands at what he was wearing.

"Oh, we have those sir." The head sales attendants said, entering into the conversation now.

"Would you take me to the section, please?" Jon asked the young girl who had been attending to him all the while and completely ignored the head sales attendant who was laughing at him a few minutes ago.

"I can take you there, dear sir." Another sales girl said, rushing in. "Young Yen would not know the premium designs." She said flashing a fake smile at the attendant.

"Miss Yen?" Jon said, gently. "After you, please…" Jon gave way.

But the other shop attendants gathered around them, "Yen wouldn't know the fake from the original, sir…" "Yen might take you to the female or kiddies section, sir…" "Yen might not give you the one that will be the right fit, sir…"

Different degrading comments about Yen flew around and Jon was disgusted at the behaviours of these sales attendants.

A cough quietened the store and they all turned to see a well-dressed handsome middle aged man standing at the foot of the stairs. He had a hand in his pocket and an eyebrow was failed inquisitively. "What is going on here?"

Jon turned and walked towards the man, extending his hand in a handshake.

He was pleased as the man looked at him and did not show any displeasure or disgust or snobbish look. He just looked at Jon and approached with a plain face.

"I am Mister Marcus. The manager of the store. The ruckus down here attracted me from my office."

They both shook hands, and Jon started to explain.

"Well, I got here almost an hour ago to get some gifts for my friend and guess what." He paused for dramatic effect before continuing, "Your 'sales girls'..." He put emphasis on the 'sales girls' " … they did not acknowledge me as a customer. Apparently I look too poor to be in a store like this."

The manager gasped, "Did any of them say anything like this?"

"They might have as well said it. Their attitude said it all." Jon glanced back at them as they stood with heads bowed and hands behind them. "All except that young lady whom I later found her name is Yen."

"Ah, yes. Yen." The manager smiled at the girl. "She's new here."

"She attended to me very politely, regardless of her colleagues' behaviours."

Anger flashed in the manager's eyes as he looked at the other sales attendants as they hung their heads in shame.

"I am very sorry for what you experienced sir." The manager apologised very calmly. "I can assure you these ones will be duly punished."

Jon nodded and said, "I accept your apology."

"As for those ones?" The manager raised his voice so it carried all around the store, "Their monthly salary is cancelled for this month and their weekly wages are cancelled too for 8 weeks." He kept quiet and looked at them again, "All except Yen, apart from your commission and best employer of the month bonus which you will be getting, you will be promoted and that means an even bigger pay check."