Working Hard, Or Hardly Working... [Open]

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Nils's Furnishings and Woodwork LTD. had never been the biggest or most glamorous independent furniture business in London, nor was it destined to be. With a reasonably average sized shop, tucked away behind other industrial units within an estate, its workforce of five – including the owner and manager – made it one of the smallest on site. In spite of this, they never seemed short of trade. There was always something to be done, whether it be repairs, new projects, custom furnishings that needed blueprints drawing up, materials and other such stock that needed ordering... The latter of the two, the owner happened to be juggling at the moment. Ingrid's four workers had taken their lunch break, leaving her behind the counter of the shop unit; she had to man that, as well as deal with the stockists on the other end of the phone, and on top of that, she had a set of chairs to design for a suit who'd come in early that morning and asked for something sleek and modern to match his new pine wood table – why exactly he hadn't bought pine wood chairs to go with it, and was asking Ingrid for moulded plastic ones, was completely beyond her, but she didn't argue the matter with him; there was no point. The best she could do was create a design that would coordinate with what the man had described of his table. She was so engrossed in both her blueprint sketchings and the conversation on her phone, tucked between her shoulder and chin (one hand holding her paper down and the other drawing out a curved shape that only vaguely resembled a chair at this point), that she almost failed to acknowledge the little ting of the shop's door when it had opened. She glanced up at the customer, and nodded once – the most she could do right now. Hopefully all they'd want is to take a look around, and wouldn't need her for anything whilst she was still trying to place that order...

LAIKA OF GS!

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The Dane entered the shop with a large grin etched upon his face,  he returned the nod with the woman at the desk as soon as he made eye contact and looked out into the store. It was fairly easy, his objective,  all he needed was a new table to complete the look he created in his little apartment. Only thing was...he had no idea where they were,  Mathias's smile fell as scanned the room for something, an indicator to lead him to the tables. He couldn't find it. Just a bunch of other furniture that looked nice, but wasn't what he was looking for.
 It was a little irritating, the fact that he couldn't find what he wanted. This is something to complain about, but Mathias decided against it for now and tried to search again. He wandered around the store for a good five minutes until he finally found it--the table's section. The smile took it's place once again on his face and now his table hunting  journey may now begin. He was impressed with the wide variety of tables, he might spend more time here than he originally planned. He walked over to a well furnished wooden table and tapped his finger on it's surface. 'Must be Mahogany...' He thought to himself.  But once again, it wasn't what he was looking for. Mathias wanted a glass table, something that would give his room a sleek and classy look. He did enjoy a cozy feel, but with the new move he decided to change things up. He sighed, none of them...called out to him...maybe he wasn't looking hard enough...
  The blond haired man grew found the search bothersome, This should not be this difficult. This store just did not have what he was looking for and that bugged him, it was the only one closest to his home. Before he concluded it was in his best interest to leave, he decided to ask one of the workers to help him out. He looked around the store and found it...a bit empty, he couldn't find anyone with a name tag anywhere, were they all on break or something? His only option was to bug the little lady at the front desk who seemed to be engrossed with something else, he almost felt bad for having to interrupt her, but he would feel really bad if he didn't have his table. With that, the man playfully swaggered over to the the counter and slammed his hands down upon it to get her attention, then proceed to lightheartedly tap his hands onto the counter, creating a short, catchy tune . He relaxed and leaned onto the cluttered counter, his chin rested into his hand. "Yo. I need some assistance, so..." He cocked his over in the direction of the tables. "Oh and uh...most furniture stores or stores in general have workers that come to the customer, y'know, to ask them if they help so they don't have to walk all the way to the front or walk around at all...just sayin'..." He said, knowing his little hint will help this fine establishment be the best it can be...and tend to his needs quicker. He looked up at Ingrid expectantly.

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Her attention back on the blueprints, Ingrid continued her conversation with the stockists, her voice slightly dulled – she didn't want the customer to be put-off by her being on the phone, though she couldn't exactly hang up and ask to call them back at this point, either. Scratching her pencil into the paper in front of her, she started to shade in the backs of the chair design... Perhaps they'd benefit from a cut-out part there; it might make them look a little more appeasing and unique to the client... Her eyes peered over at the man walking around the unit for a moment. It appeared he was halfway between taking a look around and somehow managing to get lost amongst the furniture set out – but the latter may have been that he was searching for something specific and couldn't find it... If he was just prepared to hang on a moment, then she'd be able to help... Customer service at the stockists decided, at that moment, that they needed to check her order over elsewhere, and so they placed her on hold. As soon as the line clicked and the repetitive elevator music started, her brow creased slightly. Great, so they were going to keep her on the phone longer... How frustrating. Huffing through her nose a little, she lowered her pencil back towards the blueprints, but before she could touch the two together – slam. The sudden noise surprised her a little; in an otherwise quiet atmosphere, she wasn't expecting it. Her expression didn't register as shock, though – rather, irritation... There was the blond guy, the man that had been wandering around for the past few minutes... Leaning on her counter with his back bent and his chin on his hand and... She had to take the phone away from her ear when he started talking... Couldn't he see she was on the phone? Her frown became more prominent, very quickly. “Mnh. Sorry.” She replied. She supposed she could understand what the man was saying; with everyone else on their break, she couldn't juggle so many tasks at once, but he did have a point – what frustrated her was that he was leaning over like that. She didn't feel the need to go into detail, nor argue about it, though. “Just a moment.”

LAIKA OF GS!

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  "Of course.." He leaned off the counter and stood straight. Hands in his pockets, he took a few steps back and allowed her some space. He stood...somewhat patiently as he waited for her to put away her things and leave the counter so she can assist him. "So uh, I was looking for a table  for my apartment, nothin' too fancy just a little one that sort of puts my living room together, ya know? Completes the look." He started to walk back to the table's section of the store, reguardless if she was following right behind him or not, he just assumed she was. "Anyhow, I want it to be...not necessarily retro but close. No, no no! Actually, I want something modern but not too modern." He stopped walking and rubbed his chin in thought. "Or should I go traditional?" He muttered more to himself than Ingrid. "Modern...traditional...modern...traditional..." He weighed the two options and took his time, carefully sorting out the pros and cons from each. One small misjudgment of a piece of furniture, one small mistake can throw off the whole theme he was trying to create and just make his home look tacky or...just freakin' atrocious, and that was something Mathias really wanted to avoid. Seriously, he didn't want to look like he had crappy taste. So it was very important he chose the right table. He clapped his hands when the final decision was made. "Got it!" He turned to her and announced "I'm getting a glass table. Wait...what about a stained glass table? Can that even work? Those kinds of tables look better outside, huh? Out on a patio or something? And to be honest a lot of them do look a bit tacky but I think  it could work at my place, I mean, it won't look bad 'cause I can pull it off...or what if I can't?"  He looked and talked to her as if she had been in apartment plenty of times,  he even waited for her thoughts on the matter. Once he realized the lack of sense he was making, his expression changed and he shook his head with a slight chuckle. "Know what? Just show me to the glass tables and i'll see what I'm working with." He smiled inwardly at the progress he made. Hopefully this place has what he's looking for.
 

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Even when she'd finally gotten through to the stockists and had placed her order – which eased her mild sense of annoyance – she didn't put the blueprints away. However, she did walk around the counter to assist the customer, who seemed to take little time once she'd hung up the phone in telling her exactly what he wanted. Not really much of a problem, she supposed, as she followed after him, her arms folded around her middle. Most of the time the guy was talking, Ingrid stayed quiet. She let him have the 'should I go modern or should I go traditional' argument with himself. In all honesty, it wasn't the first of the kind she'd heard. But once that was all said and done... He wanted a glass table? Well, that wasn't a problem either. Without much knowledge on the room he was going to be putting it in herself, she could only make suggestions based upon what he was going to tell her he wanted. “Glass... Mn.” She paused. 'Putting glass tables outside isn't a good idea...', she thought to herself, but said nothing of the like aloud; it wasn't like that was the reason he was looking for one, after all. So, instead, she simply nodded a little. “Over here.” The glass tables were kept a little further on, at the other end of the table section. Glass wasn't a material that featured prominently in the shop – there was only one guy on the team that was qualified as a glass worker, and his job in that respect mostly consisted of filling the empty frames of cabinet doors with panels of glass. Come to think of it, this guy was being quite specific in what he wanted, so she wasn't entirely sure the ones they had would be what he wanted. Still, she could always take another commission on, if he was willing to wait for it.

LAIKA OF GS!