He was suddenly rounding the corner and his eyes widened slightly when he saw me, his face flushing with embarrassment.  Giving me an uncomfortable smile, he walked up and stuck out his hand.  “Jefferson Wells.  I think we’re inventory buddies.”

I felt a pang of regret that I hadn’t moved further away from their conversation, but it was too late now.  So I shook his hand and tried to return his smile.  “Samantha.  Samantha Hollis.  Yeah, I think we are.”  I lowered my voice conspiratorially.  “I don’t know about you, but I have very little idea of what I’m supposed to be doing.  So if you’ve got any experience with this sort of stuff, it’s appreciated.”

That was only partially true—I had never done a massive inventory before, but it didn’t seem overly complex.  Just make a list of detailed notes of everything we found that could be easily understood by whoever needed to review them.  Still, it had the intended effect—Jefferson brightened immediately, seemingly happy to have found someone out-of-place like him.

“Well, I haven’t either, but I’ve seen it done before.  Basically we just go room by room on the floors we’re assigned.  List everything that isn’t a fixture by location and physical description.  My uncle will get the lists typed up and sent to the appraisers the county hired so they can provide an initial valuation of the items available to be auctioned off.  Then they’ll do a final valuation when everything is taken away to storage until they hold a big county auction.  Or maybe several with all this stuff.  Either way, our part isn’t hard, just boring.”  He glanced around the lobby nervously.  “I just…I don’t know what a lot of this stuff is.  Not trying to sound dumb, I just…well, I don’t know the fancy words for furniture and lamps and stuff, you know?”

I grinned at him.  “Well, I can help out there.  My dad ran a furniture store for a few years when I was growing up.  I picked up some stuff by osmosis.  You got good handwriting?”

He nodded.  “Pretty good, yeah.”

“Cool.  How about you write the list and I’ll tell you what to write.  How’s that sound?”

Jefferson was clearly relieved.  “That sounds awesome.”  He was probably only a few years younger than me, but he looked like a little kid in that moment.  Still, whatever the weirdness between him and his uncle, he seemed like a nice guy.

“Okay.  Well let’s grab some coffee or something and then head on up.  I think we’re starting on Floor Six.”

****