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herding Luca toward the door.
“What are you doing? He hasn’t had time to eat his breakfast.”
“So what? He’ll be fine. I have places to be. If you want me to give the kid a ride, it’s now or never,” he said, sounding irritated with me already.
I hurriedly grabbed an extra banana and stuffed it in Luca’s backpack to eat on the way there. I knew I shouldn’t be surprised by Alek’s behavior, not after we had been together for this long, but sometimes his selfishness and abrupt behavior still shocked me. I had been raised to treat people with respect and to be kind and open-hearted unless someone gave me a reason not to be. Aleks, on the other hand, immediately treated people with disdain and hostility, and it always made me feel like I had to work to earn his respect.
Sometimes, I believed that I deserved better than Aleks, but maybe this was all someone like me deserved. I had run away from my family when they didn’t approve of my pregnancy and was trying to build a new life in the United States. Aleks had found me when I was literally on the streets. I had him to thank for a roof over my head, but that was all.
Sighing, I put on my old and worn coat, threw my purse over my shoulder, locked the door, and headed to the bus stop to begin my day.
The bus ride to the ski lodge was calm as usual. I said hello to some familiar faces then sat in silence until my stop. As I walked into the lodge, I reached into the pocket of my coat to retrieve my name badge, but it wasn’t there. I checked again and discovered a hole in the pocket.
“Well, that’s just great,”I said under my breath. Then I started to laugh because this is so typical. Of course, I would have a hole in my jacket pocket. That was exactly the sort of bad thing that happened to people with my luck.
I went to my manager’s office first because I wasn’t supposed to work without my badge. I knocked, and Harry called from inside, “Come in!”
I pushed open the heavy wooden door and stepped in. I didn’t see Harry right away because he was hidden behind a mountain of paperwork taking up his desk. He stood up and smiled at me over the top of the pile. “Oh hello, Katya, what brings you into my office this fine morning?”
“Good morning, Harry,” I said. “I came because I need a new nametag. I thought my badge was in my pocket, but apparently, there’s a hole in my pocket and it fell out…I was wondering if it would be possible for me to get a new one?” I winced a little as I said this last part, not sure if I was going to get in trouble for losing my first badge, or if it would cost me anything to get a replacement.
Harry laughed, and I prepared for the worst. He was laughingat me.I just knew it. He probably thought I was a fool for losing my nametag, and after showing up the day before with my dumb excuse about a stain on my uniform, he was probably totally sick of me and my lateness. But then he smiled warmly and pulled a label maker out of his bottom drawer.
“That’s no problem at all,” he said, getting started on my new tag. “Why don’t you have a seat while we wait for this to print and dry?”
I walked tentatively into the room, and Harry moved some of the paperwork aside so that we could actually see each other as we sat down.
“So, how is Luca doing?” he asked. “I haven’t seen him in a while. You need to bring him around more.”
“Luca is good. Thank you for asking, Mr. Sutton.”
“Now Katya, we’ve been over this,” he said. “Mr. Sutton is my father. Please, call me Harry.”
Looking down to hide my embarrassment, I quickly said, “I’m sorry, Harry. I forgot.”
“No worries.” He chuckled. “So, aside from Luca, how is everything else? Are you still dating Aleks?”
“Yes,” I said, sighing unintentionally.
Harry raised an eyebrow and looked at me worriedly but then seemingly decided to let it go. “Well, since you’re here, I have a favor I’d like to ask you,” he said.
“Of course, Harry,” I said, a little confused. “What can I help you with?”
“I was wondering if you could change your cleaning schedule around a little bit. I know you’re supposed to do floors 2 and 3 today, but I have a friend staying on the fourth floor and I think he could really use some help getting his room in order.”
I nodded. “Sure,” I said. “You’re the boss. I’ll take whatever route you want me to.”
He smiled. “I appreciate that. But I also have to warn you, before you say yes right away, his room is pretty messy. My wife was there yesterday to help him with his 6-month old daughter, and she said it was… well, to be frank, she used the word pigsty.”
“I get it,” I said. I remembered what it was like to be a new parent, how easy it was to let things like personal hygiene and household duties fall to the wayside. “And it’s nothing I can’t handle.”
“Thanks, Katya. It means a lot… Also, I know this might be a little strange, but while you’re there, do you think you could try to give my friend some advice? He’s a single dad and he’s been running on fumes lately. I’m worried about him. I normally wouldn’t ask you to do something like this, but I figured since you know what it’s like to be a young, single parent, you might be able to help him out…”
I wasn’t exactly thrilled by the idea of talking to a stranger about my struggles as a single parent, but then again, it would’ve been nice to have someone to give me advice when I had a six-month old back home and was only getting a couple hours of sleep a night. I smiled politely at Harry and said, “Sure. I’ll try to talk to him if he’s there.”
“Thank you,” he said. “And because I know the room will be a wreck, you can look forward to a bonus on your next paycheck. Seriously, this means so much to me, and I know it’ll make a world of difference for my friend.”
“It’s no problem at all. I am happy to help. It was not that long ago when I was a first-time single mom. I was scared to death.” My mind started to wander back to that time, and I heard myself saying something without even really thinking about it. “There were so many nights I cried right along with Luca because I was so frustrated.” The words fell out of my mouth before I could think better about saying something so personal to my boss, and I felt my face redden. I always talked too much when I was nervous, and now I was going to get myself in even more trouble at work.
