"Bob, it's Rosemary. Happy Valentines! Hey, how you doing? I'm back in town and you said if I was ever in the area you had that job open for me. Do you still have it open?" Ginger said to an answering machine two days later. "I'm at home with Alex. Call me." She hung up the phone and picked up the newspaper, looking through it for the classified section. Behind her, her brother Alex was watching television in a ransacked home. Ginger had gotten there that morning and the first thing she did was call her old friend Bob. She dated his brother�a long time ago�he was her last boyfriend before Zac. When she graduated from high school they were still in touch and he said if she ever needed a job he needed a secretary at his law firm.
Ginger called Alex ten minutes after her and Zac broke up and he wired her the money for a bus back home. The next morning she left on the bus with a suitcase full of things and never looked back. The rest of her possessions were back in Tulsa and she gave them all to Jess, knowing she wouldn't be able to travel with them.
"Alex, do you want me to clean the house? This place is a mess," Ginger said, making a face at the filth that Alex had been living in since she left. She wouldn't be surprised if it hadn't been cleaned since the last time she was there.
"Knock yourself out," he said. He let out a large belch and she made a face.
"Always nice to be home," she said.
"How long are you staying here? You're not supposed to be here and I could go to jail."
"Don't worry, Alex," Ginger said. "I won't be here long. As soon as I get a job and get the money for an apartment I'll move out. You don't have to worry about me. I'm cleaning your house."
"I'll give you the money for an apartment as long as you get out of my hair," Alex said. "Rosie, get me a beer."
"Don't call me Rosie," she said, giving him a look. "And it's ten o'clock in the morning!"
"Hey, I gave you money to get here. I'm giving you a place to stay until you can get a job. You should be grateful."
"I am grateful," she said, opening the refrigerator and grabbed a beer. "And I told you I'd pay you back. It's just going to take some time."
"Where's my beer?"
"Right here, moron," she muttered and handed him his beer. She tied her hair back and reached under the sink for her old cleaning stuff. It was all still there�pink rubber gloves and everything she needed to keep the house in order. She grabbed her gloves and started to clean.
An hour later the phone rang and Ginger ran to pick it up. "Hello?" she said, blowing her hair out of her face. She'd barely started cleaning up the kitchen and she was afraid she'd never get upstairs.
"Rosemary?"
"Yeah," Ginger said.
"Hi. It's Bob."
"Oh, Bob! Hi! How ya doing?" she asked.
"Great. How are you?" Ginger looked around. Her brother was asleep in front of the television, his empty beer can tipped over, his mouth wide open. She crinkled her nose.
"I'm�I'm alive. That's all that matters."
"So you're still interested in that secretary job, are you?"
"Yes," she said. "Very much so."
"Great. Can't find good secretaries these days. You're hired." Her eyes grew.
"Just like that? No interview? Nothing?"
"Hey, do you want to go through all of that or do you want to work?" he asked. She smiled.
"Thank you, Bob, you don't know how much this means to me. I really need a job."
"Don't. Even if things didn't work out between you and David, I'll still take care of you."
"I have a problem, though," Ginger said.
"What?"
"I'm pregnant."
"Okay. How far along are you?"
"Just a month. I'm not due until September."
"Well that's plenty of time for you to settle in. I don't really need a secretary; I can do that myself. It just really helps out if I have one. I don't mind. You want maternity leave? I'll give it to you."
"Wow. Bob, you are a lifesaver."
"Hey, I'm getting paid more than I know what to do with it all! I might as well help out an old friend. When can you start?"
"Um�as soon as possible."
"Well, how about Monday? That's in two days. You've got the weekend to yourself."
"Great. I will definitely be there."
"I'll be waiting. Law firm opens at nine, be there around eight-thirty. I'll show you the ropes."
"Okay."
"Do you know where the place is?"
"Yeah."
"Even better. I'll see you then."
"All right. See you." She hung up the phone and smiled widely to herself. Things were starting to look up. Alex, across the house, woke up and blinked a couple of times.
"Whoa. Who was on the phone?" he asked.
"My boss. I'm starting work on Monday," Ginger said, dropping to the floor and beginning to scrub it again. The tile had a year's worth of footprints on it and it was really hard to clean.
"How soon can you be out of here?"
"I probably won't get paid for at least two weeks, standard procedure." Alex groaned and Ginger heard it all the way across the house.
"When you're done cleaning we're going to get you an apartment of you own. And I better be getting paid back!"
"You will, you will," Ginger said, smiling.
"Good. I don't think I could stand two weeks of you." Ginger mocked him silently and continued to clean the floor.
Monday morning Ginger woke up at seven o'clock in a shotty apartment about twenty minutes away from her work. It wasn't very large, just two bedrooms, one bathroom, a living room and a kitchen, but it would do. It was all Alex would pay for and Ginger couldn't help but be grateful. What she remembered of Alex was not what he showed her these past few days. He gave her money, a place to stay, and got her back on her feet when he could have just left her abandoned in Tulsa to fend for herself like Zac had.
She took a shower in her own bathroom, using her own water and her own towels. It felt wonderful. She didn't have much of anything. She slept on the floor with a blanket and a pillow from her old room, and dried herself with a towel she stole from Alex's place. As soon as she got paid, she'd start paying Alex back and get herself some furniture. At the moment she had a few boxes and an alarm clock that she convinced Alex he didn't need (he had one of his own anyway).
She hadn't had the chance to go to the store so she didn't have any food. Alex had given her a bit of money to go grocery shopping. So far she owed him about three paychecks, but he would never know if she kept a bit for herself and gave him the rest. She decided not to eat breakfast, and just got dressed and left. She wore her tennis shoes because she was walking today (she didn't have the money to waste on the bus or on a cab) and had her heels in her purse.
She arrived at the law firm promptly at eight-thirty ready for a day's work. Bob met her at the door and brought her inside. "Well, there's not much to this place," Bob said. "This is the lobby. There's not much to it. Water fountain over there, snack machine. Nothing much. We're on the third floor." He went to the elevator and pressed the button. The doors opened and they stepped inside. Bob pressed the button for the third floor and they waited. "This is the elevator. They kindly put mirrors on the walls so it makes it seem bigger." Ginger smiled. She looked at Bob. She hadn't seen him a long time and he hadn't changed much. He was tall and built, although he was kind of chubby around the waistline, with a full head of brown hair and a mustache. His eyes were brown and kind, and they always seemed to have a friendly sparkle to them.
When the doors opened again Bob stepped out and led Ginger down the hallway to a door on the right. He opened it up. "This is my office. It's not that big but it brings in the money so it'll have to do," he said. The room was a bit small with two long couches against the wall and a table with magazines evenly spread out on it. There was a bookcase with a number of books in it and two plants. There was a desk against the wall near the door that led into what Ginger concluded was his office.
"This would be your desk over here. You can get one of those little nameplates if you like. Frankly I can't spell your name or I would have gone ahead and gotten you one." He sat down at her desk. "You'll basically be answering the phone, giving me messages if I'm not in, scheduling appointments and doing, you know, secretary stuff. It's not hard. This is your computer, I'll show you how to work the scheduling program. It'll seem confusing now but once you get used to it, you'll wondering why I'm paying you what I'm paying you for doing such an easy job. You've got yourself a little notepad her for messages and such. The phone is simple. Pick it up, either take a message or send it into me using this button." Ginger looked over at the buttons he was pointing to. "If you feel like it or if you need to, you can put a person on hold with this button. Dial nine first if you want to make an outgoing call, dial 8 if you want to talk to me. When a client comes in you'll tell me about it first and I'll let you know if he or she can come in or if I'm busy. I'm sure you know what you're doing." Ginger nodded. "All right. Come into my office and I'll show you around in there." Ginger followed him through the wooden door and into his office.
It wasn't much bigger than the waiting area. There was a desk that was larger than hers in the center, many books in the bookcase on the back wall, and two chairs sitting in front of the desk. There was another chair in the corner. His desk had a phone, a computer, and a desk lamp. His office had a large window on one wall and his various degrees and honors on the other. Looking back, the waiting area had a window too, just not as large.
"This is my office," Bob said. "It's not much either. Chairs, my desk, books�and that's about it. That's the tour. We can get pretty busy around here but usually in the mornings we don't have a lot to do. I suggest getting a Game Boy or something like it to pass the time until the afternoon rush." Ginger smiled. "Well, you ready to start?"
"Yeah," Ginger said. "Yeah I am." Bob opened the door and let her out. She walked back out into the waiting area and sat down at her desk. She leaned back in her chair, looked around, and smiled.
Ginger got home at five-thirty. Bob was right; once she figured out how to use the computer she began to wonder why exactly he needed her. She was sure a lot of it had to do with her need of a job, not for his need of a secretary. He had just been nice in offering her a job and she began to wonder how permanent a job like this was.
She went up the stairs to her second-floor apartment and as she was unlocking her front door (still amazed that it was her front door and nobody else's) someone from the apartment across the hall opened her front door and stepped out. She saw Ginger.
"Hi!" she said with a chipper tone. Ginger unlocked the door but didn't go in.
"Hi," Ginger replied.
"I'm Jane," the woman said, extending a hand to Ginger. She shook it. "Did you just move in?" Ginger nodded.
"Yeah. Rosemary," she said. "Nice to meet you."
"You too." Ginger glanced at the woman's stomach. Jane noticed. "Oh, yeah, I'm expecting number two in July."
"Yeah," Ginger said. "Expecting my first in September." Jane looked at her.
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Honey, why are you moving in this dump if you're expecting a baby?" Ginger looked around.
"Would you like to come in?" she asked. "I don't have any furniture so you can't sit down�or anything to drink for that matter�or cups�"
"Sure." Ginger opened the door and Jane followed her inside. "Wow, you really don't have anything." Ginger nodded, closing the door.
"Yeah. I just broke up with my fianc�. It was really bitter and I had no place to go. My parents are dead and my brother�well my brother actually ended up being in the one who wired me money to come back into town and paid for this apartment, but he's not exactly the most desirable candidate for the person I wanted to take care of me."
"How old are you, dear?"
"Eighteen. I'll be nineteen in March."
"Oh, honey. I'm sorry." Ginger nodded. "So how are you holding up? Do you have a job?" Ginger nodded again.
"Yeah. Yeah I started today. An old friend of mine is a lawyer and said he needed a secretary, so I jumped on the opportunity. I�I think it's going to be okay. I was a little scared over the weekend; I mean all of this just happened recently. I just broke up with him on Wednesday, came into town, got this place on Saturday and now I'm working."
"What are you sleeping on, dear?" Jane said, taking a look around the empty apartment. Usually when people move in they have boxes to unload and furniture to bring in, but all Ginger had was the suitcase in her room, a couple of towels, and her "bedding," the blanket on the floor and the old pillow.
"The floor," Ginger said.
"Oh, you're pregnant! You shouldn't be sleeping on the floor! I have an air mattress you can use until you get yourself a bed. That should be the first thing on your list. You don't need a place to sit down until you have yourself a bed." Ginger reached in her purse and took out the pad of paper she'd taken from work. She put it on the counter and, sure enough, the first thing she had written down was a bed.
"What do you know?" Ginger said. "It is."
Bob was also right in saying that the place was boring in the morning. She'd taken the pad of paper and began making herself a list of everything she needed�nothing she wanted, just the things she needed. It was pretty long at the moment and she was sure it wasn't near finished. "What are you eating for dinner?"
"I don't know," Ginger said. "I haven't thought about that yet."
"Come over to my place," Jane said. "Me and Austin always end up making too much food for us and Dylan, my son. You can get the air mattress and you can count on us whenever you need something, honey." Ginger smiled.
"Thank you," she said. "That really means a lot to me."