ArchivedLogs:Accounting - A Survival Instinct

Accounting - A Survival Instinct
Dramatis Personae Lexington, Melinda
In Absentia	2013-01-19 '
Location <NYC> Strand Books - East Village
The Strand manages to pack a whole lot of character into one bookstore, but they have a lot of space to fit it in. They advertise themselves as having eighteen miles of books, and whether or not that is true, it certainly is true that they have an enormous number of shelves packed into their rows and rows and rows of books. A book-lover's haven, this East Village landmark boasts an enormous collection of volumes of all types among their stacks, crammed into the narrow aisles. Well-known for their rare and out-of-print collection, they have many hard to find volumes tucked away in their labyrinth of shelves as well. Lexington is standing in the aisle stacked with books about accounting, business management and the like. He has on a dark blue mechanic's coat with ASE Certification patches on the chest and along the sleeves. Given the amount of patches sewn onto the coat, he's either very skilled, good at taking tests or an avid auto-enthusiast who thought they'd look cool. In any case, he has his hands in the coat's pockets and leans towards a Basic Accounting book. One of his hands slips from the pocket to touch the book's spine, his fingers running along it to tilt the book off of the shelf. Probably the only way to get the book what with how full the shelf is. He looks to his left and right to make sure he isn't blocking any other customers from getting through. There aren't too many people in the bookstore this early in the afternoon. He starts casually flipping through the book's pages. Melinda wanders by after a while, dressed in a yellow poncho sweater, with long cream colored sleeves sticking out. Her jeans give way to black knee high boots. She spies the section of books in the aisle Lexington is in and heads down, eyeing one or two of the accounting books herself. She waits patiently for a while, studying the spines as she waits, attempting to find /something./ When her eyes fail to find that particular thing, she says, "Excuse me," and attempts to go around and look more on the other side of him. Lexington looks over - then up slightly - at Melinda. With the book still in his hand and open to accounting equations, he gives her outfit a very quick once-over before stepping towards the shelf in front of him to let her go past. At the same time he closes the book and tries to return it to the shelf. He tries to force the books to either side of the empty space wider to make it fit. "All of this space," he says to Melinda over his shoulder, "And they still manage to have enough to need to stuff the shelves like this." "There are more books in this world than sense, all things considered, and that's only because they have multiple books on the same sense," Melinda scoffs at the crowded shelf quietly and glances back at Lexington. "So, have you found anything? I'm just dabbling and I'm not sure where to get started." She reaches up to finger 'Accounting for Dummies' but can't quite get it out of the press of books. Lexington leaves the book sticking out just enough so that he can easily grab it from between its similarly-sized companions. There are other books along the aisle that may or may not have been left the same way by Lexington. "And the same person that wrote several of those books," he says in agreement. "Well, it depends on what level you're at. I went to school for Accounting. Plan on going back to finish pretty soon," he replies. His eyes follow her finger to the 'Accounting for Dummies'. "I wouldn't go for that one. Mostly common sense." Which means he probably looked at it before Melinda's arrival in the aisle. "You're looking to do accounting for yourself or.. ?" "Got an assistant manager's position at my cafe." Melinda admits, wetting her lips. "The manager is tossing all sorts of new tasks at me. The one I'm having the most problem with is the accounting. I get it, but there has to be an easier way." She nods in the direction of the books and shrugs. "How about you? Promotion, or going out on your own?" Lexington thinks about the question for a moment. "I just want to finish what I started when I first chose to get my degree in Accounting. And maybe one day I'll get tired of working in icy or blazing hot auto shops and want to get a nice office job. Go work in Parts at a nice dealership or something." He shrugs. "You think your manager's testing you to see what you can handle?" he asks, crouching down to search for a book on a lower shelf. "Nah, she's lazy," Melinda admits, shaking her head and looking through the other catalogue of books. "I think she's burned out too. She'll probably move on, so I want to look good for the owner." She shifts her hair off her shoulder and crouches down a bit to look at the other row of books. "Okay, Mr. Accounting Student. What do you recommend for cafe management, especially in mind to the collection and redistribution of tips?" Lexington pulls a hefty book off of the lower shelf and stands. It has the words 'Management Accounting' in large font, with smaller font beneath, and has to weigh in at about ten pounds. "I figured. There's always one. Burned out or un-motivated." He holds the book out to Melinda with eyebrows raised questioningly. "Tips? That depends how the place works. If you have waiters, then I'd probably give a percentage of their tips to the, umm, coffeemakers. If not, then everyone will pool the tips together and distribute it equally after the shift is over." He offers an apologetic, "Never worked in the food industry." "Oh, well, here I was hoping that you might have had a quick class on it." Melinda shrugs and stares at the book. With great reticence, she takes it from Lexington and feels the weight of it. "Wow. A little light reading, eh?" Brows furrow as she glances back up at him, lips pursed a little. "Well, I guess, thanks for the recommendation." She flips the cover open and stares at the table of contents. There may or may not be some curses uttered under her breath. Lexington grins at Melinda. "You'd probably just want to focus on the Performance and Risk management parts in there." He turns back to the shelf and retrieves the book he was looking at earlier. "Or you could try this out and see if you can apply it to the cafe. And as far as the tips.. Come up with a few different options and have meetings with the staff and get their input on each." He slips his free hand into his jacket pocket. "Oh wait..." Melinda looks pale as he starts pulling more books out. "I was curious. I wasn't looking to revolutionize the system." Brows raise as she surrenders the huge, thick book onto the shelf. "I don't think I'd be able to get through a book this size, let alone two. I really appreciate the advice. I think... I'll just..." eyes return to the shelf, "I'll just stick with something I can read in a night or two and then work up from there to start." "Oh, okay." Lexington keeps the book in his hand. "I think I'll just stick with this, myself, to keep the rust off until I /do/ get back to school.. I'm Lexington, by the way. Lexington, Lex, Lexi. It's all the same to me." He offers his hand, looking fully into Melinda's eyes at the same time. He notices the difference in her right and left eyes and decides to keep his focus on her left eye so he won't offend her when she notices his eyes flicking back and forth. "Call me Mel," Melinda offers, extending a hand to take Lex's. "Nice to meet you, Lex. I just, I hope I'm not disparaging your chosen career. I admire people who are good at what they do, even if it's something that baffles me." She smiles a little and shakes her head as she draws in a deep breath. "I'm just really not that much of a math person." She reaches out and continues to search the spines of books. Lexington looks relieved and a bit foolish at expecting to get into some sort of a confrontation. "It doesn't bother me any. It's just a backup. If I'd've went to school to get a degree in underwater basket-weaving, I'd be in that section of the bookstore looking around. I just want to finish what I started." He glances down at the book in his hand. "I think its great that you're dedicated to your cafe even in your off time. Much respect." "Oh, it's rather a survival instinct," Melinda admits, pursing her lips. "I appreciate your admirtation, but you know? It never feels as simple as how you said it." She snickers a little. "Really? Underwater basket weaving? Really? Do you actually have an interest in that, or is that just the most ridiculous thing you could think of at the time?" Lexington laughs, shaking his head. "No interest at all. A supervisor from my old job used to use it to get some productivity out of some of my less motivated peers. In four years I haven't been able to think of anything more ridiculous so now I'm borrowing it from him." He fishes his cellphone out of his coat pocket, quickly taps the power button twice so the screen flashes, showing the time and a missed text message. His attention returns to Melinda after the brief interruption. "It truly is a survival instinct. Never thought about it exactly like that. In any case, it still feels good when you can look back and see what you've gained." Melinda nods and grabs a smaller book on management accounting and tucks it in the crook of her arm. She fishes in the back pocket of her jeans and pulls out a business card for a cafe. "Here. As appreciation for your advice, I'll buy you a free coffee or tea some time. If I'm not there, just present the card and tell'm Mel sent you." She scoots back to the other side of the aisle. "Have a good day and good luck with your continuing education." Lexington raises the card towards Melinda with a polite nod of his head. "Thanks. I appreciate that." He glances at the card. "You have a good one, too. Congratulations on the new position. I'm sure you'll do great. " After a quick wave of his hand, he heads off at a leisurely pace towards the opposite end of the aisle. "Thank you, and good day," Melinda replies, with a wave, and heads out.