I got to help this amazing couple at work. It was just pure chance, but I was who they walked up to. They said they wanted jewelry cleaned and that they had a hold they wanted to check on.
Let me set the stage. They were a couple in their fifties or so, he was wearing motorcycle leathers, he had skulls rings, tattoos; he was bristly and unshaven. She was dressed to the nines, full length dress, platinum blonde, $500 shoes, nails, all of it. The cognitive dissonance looking from one to the other was staggering.
She thought she needed to get her ring cut off, but I walked her through the best way to see if we could salvage it and we were able to get it off. I put it into the shop to be sized up, and then we got to work.
He handed me a solid gold pendant he’d been given from a mobster that was Jesus’ face with rubies for eyes and a ruby and diamond crown of thorns. (Dear god why didn’t they use any stone but rubies for the eyes?) And then they had me get their hold from the back. It was about 5k worth of diamonds in her ring, and an even thousand for his. It was for their 30th anniversary.
They left smiling and happy.
Today I had to call her and tell her that her ring couldn’t be sized up without destroying it, and that I’d have to specially order his ring in his size or we’d destroy that too. It’s a nerve wracking call to make, people can get so angry about bumps in the road.
But she just laughed and called me a dear. She came in bringing a small bottle of champagne for me and my girlfriend and we picked out a different ring to house her diamond. She radiated charisma and charm the whole time.
After a while she realized she didn’t have her car keys. She went outside to check on where she’d left them. After investigating she blithely came back in and asked for a step ladder so she could get through her sun roof as it turned out she’d locked her keys in the car. I loaned her one then she went and heisted her way headfirst into her own car while wearing a sundress. It was fucking hilarious and amazing.
While we were shopping afterward she was all sunshine, bubbles, and shoe recommendations. She told me that had brunch coming up with a frenemy and she needed her new ring to really hold its own.
Near the end she got quieter. She looked at me and told me she had almost gotten divorced from her rakish biker man. That she had filled out papers and everything. A new paramour had literally bought her a god damn house. But she realized she was still madly in love with him, and they had to make it work. And she told me they had to have a lot of talks, and communicate, that they’d allowed themselves to drift apart and that they made a choice to come back together.
I was obviously just hanging on her every word. I was walking her to the back to pay by that point and she hugged me, thanked me, and then turned her smile back on. Without missing a beat she turned and instantly overwhelmed my customer service rep by telling him she’d gotten in through the sunroof of her car without flashing anyone.
