We Interrupt This Date (6 page)

I would rather have remained standing. The
chair he indicated was hemorrhaging wads of cotton stuffing, which
would look like hell plastered to my navy slacks. I could tell it
was going to wobble—one of the wheels was missing.

Odell glared until I sat. Then he half-hopped
to lift himself onto his over-sized desk. A taller man would have
perched on the edge, at least one foot on the carpet. But Odell’s
legs dangled over the side, his feet not touching the floor. Even
so, he'd achieved what I figured was his goal. He was now taller
than I was. Height advantage to Odell, score one to nothing.

“When did you plan to give notice?”

“Give notice?” I winced. I was making a habit
of repeating what he said to me—in the form of a question. T.
Chandler used to do that and it drove me crazy.

“If my niece didn’t need a job, I’d really be
in a bind. I have too much to do around here to handle your work,
and then I find out you’re walking out on me.”

I cleared my throat. “Odell. Mr. Hoganboom.
I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about.” Only a tiny
lie.

“Word has reached me that you’re going into
business for yourself. Ghost hunting.”

Word had reached him? He made it sound as
though a disembodied voice had whispered in his ear when we both
knew the information had come from Patty’s big mouth.

“No, of course not--it isn’t happening. I was
totally not myself last night when I drank too—never mind. That
whole ghost hunting thing, it’s just a joke.”

He steepled his stubby fingers. “What are you
saying?”

“Joke,” I said. “Meant to be funny, not meant
to be fact. I have no intentions of quitting this job.” Yet. First
I had to find a new position.

“I expected you to deny everything. But my
trusted source has told me you’re fixing up an old mansion,
trolling in tourists to look for ghosts, all that woo-woo stuff.”
He held his hands up and waggled his fingers. “I’ve already found a
replacement for you. My niece Brenda finally left her no account
husband and moved here from Atlanta. She’ll be at the shop in the
morning to take over your office. I’ll give you a week to get her
trained.”

“You’ll do what?” This couldn’t be happening.
I sat wobbling in the chair, my head spinning, and my thoughts not
making sense, until the smug-faced Odell slid off his desk and
pointed to the door.

“You’re fired,” he said. “Dismissed as of
next Wednesday. Go.”

My mouth turned into the Sahara Desert. Score
a million to nothing Odell. How would I pay my bills?

I didn’t remember getting up and walking back
to my desk. I simply found myself in my own chair, dark tornadoes
of thoughts whirling through my mind. Fired? That was something
that happened to bad employees, wasn’t it? My face burned and my
stomach felt like it was full of sour milk every time I thought of
the scene in Odell’s office. I was reminded of a time when I was in
fifth grade, and the teacher told me in front of the whole class
I’d done the wrong homework assignment. I’d gone home and thrown up
all over Mama’s new couch. Thank goodness the plastic cover had
saved it from ruin.

I stared at my computer monitor until my
nerves steadied. I would speak to Odell and explain about the
misunderstanding. I had bills to pay and a house to maintain. A son
in college. I couldn’t be out of work. My sister DeLorean was the
screw-up and I was the responsible older child. Everyone knew that,
even Mama. Especially Mama, who relied on me for everything.

Then why was I sitting here after my boss
fired me? I had to convince Odell to change his mind, make him take
me back even if I had to crawl across the floor to his desk and beg
for mercy and swear I wouldn’t insist on the raise he’d promised.
And I’d sign an oath that I wouldn’t quit without giving him at
least six months notice.

God, how humbling. I barreled down the hall
to his office before I lost my nerve. I had to hover in the doorway
until he got off the phone with someone who wanted to pawn his
wife’s jewelry while she was away visiting her mother. The slime.
The customer, not Odell. Though he could pass for slime.

“What?” he said, banging down the
receiver.

“Mr. Hoganboom, I really need this job. I
don’t know why you won’t believe me when I say I’m not starting a
ghost hunting business or any other kind of business or not leaving
for another office or joining the French Foreign Legion. Please
give me a chance to--”

“Do I need to make out a pink slip?” He
snorted at his own joke. “You do a decent job training my niece
Brenda, and I’ll put in a good word for you if somebody calls me
for a reference.”

“I can prove it’s a misunderstanding about
the ghost hunting. All you have to do is…”

His niece. Click. The light came on. I’d
started to ask him to call Veronica to verify that I wasn’t going
into business with her. It would be a huge waste of time. The truth
was, Odell had been in a bind wanting to help his niece and he
didn’t want to pay two people to work in the office. Patty’s gossip
had given him the excuse he needed to give my job to Brenda.

“Never mind. I believe I understand the
situation.” I gathered my tattered dignity and marched back to my
desk with my chin stuck out in front of me.

What was I supposed to do? I fought down
rising panic. The job market wasn’t too great right now. In fact it
was horrible. As if that wasn’t bad enough, how would it look on my
resume when I admitted that I’d been fired? I knew I didn’t have to
say that. But they were bound to ask why I’d left my last position.
How could I smooth that one over? The job interview sites on the
Internet gave lots of advice about how to ace an interview, but I
suspect that only worked if you could pull off the business speak
they touted.

“Hmm, Ms. Caraway, so you’ve had one employer
in the past twenty years. The job lasted ten months and then you
left. Why did you resign from your former position? What have you
been doing for the last six months other than looking for a new
opportunity?”

“Well, you see, I’ve been trying to better
myself through a series of self-actualization exercises that will
enable me to move up in the corporate world. I plan to be a great
asset to potential employers and help them achieve their goals and
resolve business issues within a new paradigm shift.”

I almost gagged. Sure, that little speech
should get me hired in a flash.

Even if I made up a plausible excuse, they’d
know I wouldn’t leave a job before I had another one, not with jobs
scarcer right now than gold coins lying in plain view on King
Street. Blinking back tears, I put my fingers on my keyboard. Just
because I was fired didn’t mean I was going to sit here for the
rest of the day and feel sorry for myself.

Odell finally left for lunch, the engine of
his SUV rumbling low and deep outside my window as if the macho
sound could make up for his whiney voice. Patty waited until he
cleared the parking lot before she threaded her way between shelves
and fetched up in my office doorway. Silver earrings the size of
saucers dangled from her ears and a matching necklace that must
have weighed five pounds hung around her neck. She was wearing an
ankle length dress tie-dyed in the blue and yellow colors of an
Amazon parrot.

“I swear I didn’t mean to tell on you. When I
said you were leaving to start a business, Odell had a total fit.
He kept waving his short little arms around like the flippers on an
upside down turtle.” Her expression didn’t look nearly as
apologetic as I thought it should. She pulled the front of her
dress away from her chest and fanned herself with her other hand.
“It’s sweltering in your office. How do you stand it? Listen,
sweetie, I can do you a tarot reading if you want. Give you an idea
of how your ghost business is going to work out. Hey, stop looking
at me like I stabbed you or something. You were going to leave
anyway, right?”

I bit my lip. She could stand there cooling
her chest in my office that was hot because the window was stuck
shut and Odell wouldn’t let me have a fan. She could say she was
sorry when she wasn’t, having already forgiven herself, when here I
was out of a job and in danger of losing everything.

A surge of anger rose toward my throat and I
fought it back down. After all, I was the one at fault, I was the
one who couldn’t keep quiet last night.

“You’re right.” I forced a smile, showing my
teeth. “No harm done.”

“Of course not. The Universe knows what it’s
doing, it always does. You’ll see when the money starts rolling in
from that new job. When’s your last day?”

“I have a week. I’m supposed to train Odell’s
niece to take over.” I hoped she liked rude phone calls from
customers with cash flow problems.

“I’m going to miss you.” Patty leaned over
and gave me a hug. “But who needs Odell, anyway? Stingy. Attitude
problem. Drives a car that’s five sizes too big for him so he can
compensate.”

“Gee, you think so?”

Patty read at least one self-help book a week
and was forever giving me psychological sketches on everyone we
knew. I had little faith in her skills, but her lectures on topics
such as the inner enabler crossing paths with the classic energy
vampire usually made for interesting conversation.

She wanted me to go to lunch with her at
Sticky Fingers, but I wasn’t in the mood for ribs. I wasn’t even in
the mood for lunch. After she left, I got myself a cup of coffee
from the “break room,” a large closet at the back of the store with
a coffeepot and a broken microwave crammed into a corner next to a
box of paper towels.

Then I logged on to the Internet and started
my job search with the online newspaper ads. I found only three
positions to apply for, and two of those asked for legal office
experience, which I did not have. The other said someone with a
good phone voice was needed immediately in a vet’s office. I
supposed my phone voice was as good as anyone’s. My fingers
shaking, I punched in the number.

“I’m calling about the receptionist
position you advertised in the
Post and
Courier
.”

“Right, that ad is pulling a ton of responses. Before
I decide if I should have you come in to fill out an application
and talk to the doctor, tell me a little bit about yourself. Do you
have receptionist experience?” The female voice on the other end of
the line sounded like it belonged to someone who was pursing her
lips between each sentence.

I glanced at my desk searching for
inspiration. Once a customer had come into my office and paid in
person. Another time, someone had stood in the doorway and asked if
Odell was around.

“Sort of,” I replied. “In my current position
I’m responsible for answering the phone and doing the billing as
well as dealing with customers who drop by.” Both of them.

“Okay, you work in an office; good for
you. But do you have
veterinary
office experience? Dr. Turnbill specializes in reptiles and
he likes to hire people who are used to handling
animals.”

“No, but I love animals and I learn fast.” I
could even learn to love snakes and lizards if it got me a job. “My
mother has two Chihuahuas,” I added, then clamped my mouth shut so
I couldn’t say anything else stupid.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t see any point in
letting you come in. We have a number of better qualified
applicants.”

Better qualified applicants? Somehow I
doubted the streets of Charleston were overrun with reptile
handlers who had office experience. But unless I decided to stake
out Dr. Turnbill’s office and speak to him when the dragon manning
the front desk left for the day, I wasn’t going to get the job.

I sat back with a sigh. It had taken me six
weeks to find this job and that was back when the paper carried
three times as many ads as it did now. I could apply for the two
legal office positions--assuming the gatekeepers who controlled
access to the applications would let me--and hope for a
miracle.

If there was only me to consider that’s what
I might have done. But I couldn’t forget my son. Even with his
scholarship, money from his father, and a part-time job, Christian
needed my help.

I turned sideways to face the phone. I glared
at it like it was my mortal enemy. When it didn’t burst into flames
or melt into a wad of gooey black plastic, I gave up and dialed
Veronica’s number. Her voice mail answered with a cheery, “Veronica
is unavailable. Please leave a message.”

“It’s me. Susan. I, uh, had second thoughts
about the job.” And third and fourth thoughts. “If you still want
me, I’m ready to go ghost hunting. In fact, I guess I really need
the work.” There, I’d committed, even if Veronica’s offer wasn’t my
first choice.

I felt curiously employed now, even though I
worried that Veronica might have offered the position to someone
else. Once she makes up her mind to do something, she forges ahead
like a bull on its way to a willing cow.

But she’d said she’d give me a couple of
weeks to think. Surely that meant she wouldn’t look for anyone
yet.

As it turned out, I needn’t have sat biting
my nails between invoices. She called me back twenty minutes after
lunch hour ended. I wasn’t supposed to take personal calls on
company time, but what was Odell going to do, fire me?

“Got your message. I didn’t expect you to
change your mind so soon.” She sounded cheery and out of breath. I
imagined she was running from one real estate closing to
another.

“It’s a long sad story, though you’ll
probably laugh when you hear it. I’ll tell you all the horrible
details when I see you again.”

“Tell me now. I can’t stand the suspense.
Come on, Susan, I have an appointment in five minutes.”

“I’ll give you the condensed version, then.
My date was, as you predicted, a disaster. I got a little tipsy,
tried to one-up him by bragging about my new ghost hunting
business, and Odell fired me when Patty told him I was
leaving.”