Mariah Santana walked out of her office thinking she was going to go home and have a nice night with her boyfriends “Ben & Jerry” when she literally stumbled onto a mystery that she was destined to help solve.
Mariah loved her job in the call center, but she also knew that she was not going to go anywhere with her career. She was not afraid to speak her mind and this often times got her into trouble not only with her co-workers, but with management as well. While Mariah knew that this was a huge problem; she also knew that she couldn’t do anything about it. This was how she was made, a Sagittarius who did not have the ability, most times, to think before she spoke. Unfortunately this caused many hurt feelings and misunderstandings.
As she was getting off the train she realized that she had to stop and get some of her favorite Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food before she could change into her sweats and spend another night on the couch wallowing in her life and the downward turn it had taken since her fiancé, Lance, decided he needed to run off to Las Vegas with his message therapist, Inga, for a quickie marriage. Mariah knew that was what sent her into her latest downward spiral and she couldn’t find a way to crawl out of it. Just the simple fact that his name was Lance should have told her to run the moment they met, but he was sensitive and seemed to always know what she wanted; Mariah couldn’t help but to fall in love with him. Then, just as the wedding plans were being finalized she received the email from him that he and Inga were in Vegas and had been married the night before. That was one month ago, and since the moment she got the email she hadn’t left the house except to go to work and the grocery store for fresh ice cream supplies.
Mariah walked into the neighborhood grocery and went straight to the frozen food section, with her internal radar already zeroed in on its target. She grabbed two pints thinking that this would mean she wouldn’t have to stop the next day for another fix; as she went to turn from the food case something shiny caught the corner of her eye. Mariah placed her ice cream in the basket and opened the door again, carefully so as not to draw any attention to her self and reached towards the back of the case for the object that caught her eye. She carefully pulled out what looked to be a diamond and platinum bracelet. Mariah held it up close to her face to get a better look and then placed the item in her other hand so she could turn it in to the courtesy desk; she knew someone would have to be looking for something as valuable as the item she found.
As she was walking towards the self checkout lane her cell phone rang, and in her haste to answer; still hoping above all hope that Lance had come to his senses and was coming back to her, only so she could dump him she told her self hopelessly. It was her mother calling to make sure Mariah was taking the train to visit her Grandmother the next day. Mariah listened to her mother complain while she scanned her items, paid with her debit card, and bagged her items to head home forgetting all about the bracelet that now was sitting on the bottom of her Vera Bradley Tote Bag.
Mariah unlocked her door and dropped the groceries and her purse in the kitchen checking her voicemail to see if anyone had called. There were no messages so she headed to her room to change into her sweats and decided that Ben & Jerry were to be her dinner companions for the night.
She was curled up on the couch under her favorite blanket and half way through her first pine when Mariah remembered the bracelet. She jumped off the couch and grabbed her tote dumping the contents on the table, shooing her cat, Rajah, away from the junk looking for the bracelet. She found it trapped inside an ATM machine receipt from a month before; the mess reminded her that she needed to clean out her purse and maybe switch to a larger one to hold everything she thought she needed to bring along every day. Mariah put the bracelet on top of her entertainment center and went to get her new bigger tote bag and switched all her belongings, temporarily forgetting the need to find the owner of the bracelet.
Hours and a pint and a half of ice cream later when Mariah sat at her computer for a little internet surfing she remembered the bracelet again and called the police department to ask what she should do to look for the owner. They informed her that no one had reported a missing bracelet and they took her information in case a call did come in. The officer also explained that if the bracelet was not claimed in thirty days then Mariah would be the owner of it by default. Mariah knew that she didn’t have that kind of luck and she was sure the owner of a diamond and platinum bracelet was certainly frantically looking for it.
Mariah decided that in order to expedite the owner’s imminent retrieval of the bracelet she would place ads in the lost and found, both in newspapers and online, and also made use of a website call Craigslist where she could post an ad about the bracelet and if anyone was searching for it they could contact her through the site. Mariah’s weekend was uneventful and the following weeks were equally as mundane; just Mariah and her chocolate to get through the long nights and to help her deal with her boring job.
The thirty day deadline was fast approaching was fast approaching when Mariah received an email that seemed like it was coming from the true owner of the bracelet. She was crestfallen, she was beginning to think her luck had changed and she was going to be the owner of that beautiful piece of jewelry. The email stated the store where the bracelet was found and the date that Mariah had found it. She replied back to the person and simply asked them for a description of the piece, as she didn’t want some kind of con man taking it from her through deception.
The return email not only described the bracelet perfectly, but also included a picture that the owner had taken for their insurance records. Mariah knew that anyone who took pictures of their valuables had plenty of valueables to protect and she found herself a bit jealous that she wasn’t ever going to afford even one of the diamonds on the bracelet. It was determined that the person was indeed the rightful owner of the bracelet and Mariah made arrangements to meet the person at the coffee shop next door to the grocery where the bracelet was found. This was, Mariah had decided, the last true test. If the person was not at the coffee shop then they didn’t know where the bracelet had been found and she would be the rightful owner in seventy-two hours.
Mariah sat by the window as she had said she would and waited for the person to come in the door. The person had said that they would be carrying a bouquet of flowers, a thank you gift they insisted for her being honest enough to try and find the owner of the bracelet that had been a gift that meant the world to the owner. Shortly thereafter a woman walked into the coffee shop bearing flowers and Mariah could tell she was not from the neighborhood, she was dressed all in designer clothes, right down to her Prada bag and Jimmy Choo boots. Mariah knew then that this was the owner of the bracelet and rightfully so, she was so elegant she looked like she was born to be elegant.
The woman spotted Mariah and came to the table and asked if she may sit down, Mariah told her of course and the began polite conversation about the weather, politics, fashion, and other mundane subjects until Mariah just couldn’t take it anymore
“I have to know what you were doing in this neighborhood grocery store,” Mariah blurted out.
“I am a little embarrassed to admit it, but the store in my building does not carry my one true passion, Ben & Jerry’s Phish food ice cream and I had to have some. I was having a bad day and my assistant had just quit.” The woman, Melania stated
“Are you kidding me,” Mariah asked incredulous. “That is my favorite too, that is how I found your bracelet it was with the Ben & Jerry’s”
The ice cream discussion along led to the women talking for hours. They ordered lunch and got to know each other. Both women were quietly thinking that they may have found a friend they could trust. When the talk turned to employment Mariah spoke about her job in the call center with little enthusiasm but tried to make is sound like she was enjoying it. Melania looked Mariah in the eyes and told her that she didn’t need to lie, she could see that the job was not fulfilling. It was then that Melania told Mariah that she had a great idea, she asked Mariah if she would consider becoming her assistant.
The women moved on the discuss salary, benefits and the nature of the business. It turned out that Melania was the president of a chocolate company that had been in her family for generations. It turned out that Mariah’s love of chocolate could very well have saved her life.
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