Nick woke up the next morning with an overwhelming feeling in the back of his mind that he had forgotten something. He tried to dismiss it while he waited for his alarm clock to sound, alerting him that it was time to wake up. After a few minutes of unsuccessfully attempting to fall back to sleep, he rolled over and glanced at the clock beside his bed. His eyes bulged when he saw that it was 8:30. He had to open the store in a half an hour! He suddenly remembered that setting his alarm clock was the thing he had forgotten to do. He quickly dismissed the thought as he scrambled to find some clean clothes to wear. He wasn't even going to bother attempting to take a shower. When he found clothes, he ran down the hall to his daughter's bedroom to wake her out of her peaceful slumber. Aside from taking care of himself, he had to get her breakfast and dressed before the sitter arrived.

He entered the room and stood in the door for a few minutes. He didn’t really want to wake up his sleeping angel, but he knew that he really had no choice. Ariel wasn’t cooperating; she just didn’t want to wake up. Nick glanced up at the clock and realized that it was almost a quarter to nine and the babysitter would be there any minute. He scooped Ariel out of her bed and carried her downstairs.

Once in the kitchen, he placed her at the kitchen table. “What cereal do you want for breakfast?”

“I don’t want cereal. I want waffles.”

“Honey, I don’t have time to make you waffles today. How about captain crunch?”

She started screaming at the top of her lungs. “I WANT WAFFLES.”

Nick sighed and turned to lean on the counter. He grabbed a bowl and filled it with milk and captain crunch. He placed it in front of Ariel and she immediately threw it on the floor. He rubbed his eyes in frustration. Just then the phone rang.

Nick answered his phone while keeping an eye on Ariel. “Hello...Oh, hi Tonya. Honey, don’t do that. Daddy has to get to work…What? You can’t be serious….Well, couldn’t you have given me some notice. How am I supposed to find a replacement at such short notice?” The phone call ended and he turned to Ariel. “Change of plans.” He said as he pulled a pack of poptarts out of the package. He handed them to Ariel and firmly said. “You will eat this, or you won’t eat anything.” Ariel nodded meekly and started to nibble on the poptarts. He began to run through the house, collecting anything he might need to keep Ariel occupied while he worked.

Finally, he had himself and Ariel ready to go. He glanced at the clock as he got into his car. He sighed. It was already 9:10. Providing there wasn’t any traffic, he wouldn’t arrive until close to 9:30.

He sighed in relief when he pulled into the parking lot. He parked in his usual spot and hoped that his morning from hell was over. He stepped out of his car and helped Ariel out. He grabbed the bag and walked to his store. He stopped short when he realized that he had a line of people standing outside his store. He noticed most of them checking their watch in annoyance. He realized at that moment that it was a Tuesday and that his new releases weren’t even on the shelf yet. At that moment, all he wanted to do was cry.

In attempts to ignore the unwanted glares from his customers, he picked Ariel up and walked quickly over to the door. He unlocked it and was nearly trampled as the crowd rushed through the door. He carried Ariel behind the counter and started to set her up with her coloring books as a customer started to complain about the lack of new releases. Nick pretended that he didn’t hear anything. In his frustrated state, he might have snapped at the customer and that wasn’t good for business.

He entered his stock room and carried out a box of newly released CD’s. He carefully set up the display in the front of the store and sorted the rest alphabetically by artist. Once that box was empty he had a customer requesting to pay. Nick made his way to the register and as he was ringing up the customer he heard a big crash coming from the entrance. He cautiously glanced over and found his daughter about to burst into tears and his carefully placed display scattered around her.

He finished ringing up his customer and walked over to Ariel who was still amongst the mess of CD’s. He scooped her up and led her back to the register collapsing into the chair behind him. His morning associate would be in soon and the first project would be to fix the display.

More customers came to the register. Some were complaining and some seemed almost understanding. Once his line died down he realized that his associate probably wasn’t coming in since his shift was supposed to start 30 minutes prior. He sighed for the umpteenth time that day. He left the counter and went back to his display and fixed it. After he placed the last CD back on the display, he wished that he could place his display in a plastic bubble so no one else could knock it down.

A couple hours later, Nick's day hadn't improved in the least. Not only had he been dealing with unruly customers all morning, but he was short-staffed and to call Ariel hyper was an understatement. At the moment, Ariel was running through the store, and the more he told her to stop the more she ran. Nick gave up on trying to calm Ariel down. He figured as long as she didn’t run into any more displays, everything would be ok.

Roxanne Martin walked into Waves Records. This was her first time in this store and the first thing she spotted was an unattended toddler running through the store. She rolled her eyes at how self centered parents of today were. She knelt down so that she was eye level with the little girl. “Hi, what’s your name?”

“Ariel.”

“Ariel, that’s a pretty name. I’m Roxie. How old are you?”

Ariel held up 4 fingers. “This many.”

Roxie smiled. “That’s awfully young to be wandering on your own. Where’s your mommy and daddy.”

Ariel pointed to Nick, who had a box balanced on a fixture while he stocked the CD’s. Roxie grabbed Ariel’s hand gently and led her to the back of the store where Nick was. Roxie cleared her throat loudly.

Nick turned toward her quickly, causing his carefully balanced, mostly full, box of CD’s to fall, and land directly on his foot. “God damnit, fuck, motherfucker, shit.”

"Wow, nice language!" Roxie shouted sarcastically right away.

"You just..." NIck sighed, looking at all of the CDs on the floor. "Never mind." He said, feeling doomed to have everything go wrong for him all day.

"Are you aware that your daughter is running around this store unattended? I easily could've snatched her up."

"Is that a threat?" Nick asked, getting defensive right away. "Ariel, c'mere." He said and Ariel ran to his side.

"No, it's NOT a threat... It's just that I hope you're aware of what a danger it is to not be watching your little girl. Not to mention the language you use in front of her... Do you really want her to run around using those words?"

"Listen, you don't understand..." Nick told her. Who was she to judge him? She didn't know him. He would've normally had Ariel safe with a baby-sitter and he would've been able to concentrate on his work. "My sitter called and cancelled on me last minute this morning..." He explained. "I'm trying to take care of my store. And I had Ariel setup over there, but she's 4 and she's not going to just sit in one place. I'm sorry she disturbed your shopping experience, okay?" He apologized, looking down at the floor. His appearance was pretty pathetic. He bent down to pick up the CD’s that were now scattered on the floor.

“Daddy, I’m hungry.”

“There’s some cheerios in the bag behind the counter, do you want them?”

“Cheerios? That’s what you expect her to eat for lunch?” Roxie questioned.

Nick sighed. “Are you just going to stand there and criticize me? I have no other worker here, I can’t leave to get her lunch, and Cheerios was really all I had time to grab.”

Roxie silently turned around and walked away. Nick stayed on the floor and held Ariel so she wouldn’t run off. He was very tempted to close his store for the day, but he knew that would be bad for business. He held her as he stood up. Stepping over the scattered CD’s he carried her behind the counter. He placed her on her chair and handed her the cheerios. He sat on the other chair and leaned against the counter. He could feel a headache forming, and his day was only half over.

He looked up as the bell over his door signaled that someone was entering. He noticed that Roxie had returned and was holding a McDonald’s bag. She walked over to the counter and handed him the bag. “Thank you. How much do I owe you?”

“Don’t worry about it.” She placed a business card on his counter. “You should consider hiring a nanny.”

He handed Ariel the Chicken McNuggets and her small soda. He threw the bag away. He stood up. “You stay here and eat. And when you’re finished, don’t move.” He left the counter to go back to the site where he dropped the box on his foot. He placed the CD’s back in the box to make it a little easier on him to put them on the shelf.

Two teenage girls started screaming at each other over a CD that they kept trying to grab from each other. Roxie glanced over at Nick to see how he would handle it.

Nick sighed. He placed the box he was working out of under the shelf and walked over. “Is there a problem here?”

Both girls started screaming at him at the same time. “Ok, that’s enough. I’m standing right here you don’t have to yell at me.” He took the CD from both of them. “Either, you figure this out like civilized human beings, or neither of you get it.” They looked at him in shock. “Now, one at a time, explain what happened.”

“She pushed me out of the way to grab the CD as I was about to reach for it.”

“She was just standing there.” With that the two girls started pushing each other and grabbing at each other’s hair.

Nick gently pulled them apart. “I think you both should leave.”

“I want the CD.”

“Honestly, I think if your parents knew how you were acting, they’d say you didn’t deserve it. So, both of you leave, and come back in a couple days. Maybe, I’ll have gotten more in by then.” Nick watched them leave and suddenly he was afraid of what would be in store for him when Ariel was a teenager.

“Nicely handled.” Roxie stated from behind him. Nick jumped and turned around. Roxie couldn’t help but laugh slightly. “After I gave you my business card, I was questioning why I would do something like that. But now, I think I made the right choice.”

“Thanks, I think.”

“I should also apologize for how I treated you before. I see now that you’re just having a rough day. Although, I must say, if I was having a day like yours…I’d be looking for a rock to hide under.”

“Trust me, I’ve thought about doing just that.” She smiled at him, causing him to smile in return, the first real smile to grace his face all day.

“I’m ready to check out.”

Nick nodded and led the way to the register. He rang up her purchase and soon she was on her way. Nick started to feel like his day was starting to get better. He looked over just in time to see one of his shelves collapse. He closed his eyes hoping that when he opened them, everything would be fine. No such luck.

That night, Nick sighed in relief when he walked into his house. Ariel was practically asleep on his shoulder, so he took her up to her room to get her ready for bed. He got her into bed and went downstairs to check his messages. He nearly had a panic attack when heard the message from his babysitter telling him that she had quit. He didn’t want to have another day like that day. He was becoming frantic and he didn’t know what to do. He then remembered the business card that was in his wallet.

He grabbed his phone and sat on the couch dialing. He waited for Roxie to pick up.

“Hello?”

“Uh, hi, Roxie?”

“Yes, who is this?”

“Nick, uh, Nick Carter.”

“I’m sorry, do I know you?”

“You gave me your business card in my store today, uh, in Waves Records.”

“Oh that’s right. What can I do for you Nick?”