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I caught sight of my boss out of the corner of my eye. Feeling rich after depositing my paycheck, I decided to splurge on an evening out. I called up one of my old friends from college, someone I hadn’t been able to see since hooking up with Marcus.
She was thrilled at the invitation and we met up at the Olive Pit, a fast-food type Greek restaurant in a trendy part of town. I walked into the place, dressed in one of Mariah’s outfits. After trying them all on, I sorted them by professional appearance, style and color. I hung them all up in my tiny closet and spent a good amount of time just admiring them.
There were ten outfits, easily double my wardrobe in a single donation. I picked a short, flirty purple dress and matched it with a pair of suede boots that I had been carting around since before I was homeless. I felt like I had arrived. I was back on my feet and making bank at my swanky new job.
I was out from under Marcus and free to set my own schedule. I had enough money on my debit card to buy groceries and gas, with a little bit left over to spend on fun stuff. It was my first real dinner date in a long time. I was looking forward to seeing Ari, catching up, and filling her in on everything that was going on with me.
We were over the top excited to see each other. As soon as I laid eyes on her, I realized it had been too long. I gave her a hug and we chatted while the server plated our meals. It was a to-go restaurant but they had some tables. The big difference between dine in and take out was that we received our fare on actual porcelain plates.
I got a salad and a chicken kabob. It wasn’t too healthy though, because the salad came with fantastic dressing that I poured all over the plate. Ari got a gyro with French fries. She was a tiny little thing and wasn’t particularly worried about calories.
“So, you look fabulous,” she began, settling into her seat.
“Thanks, you do too,” I replied. I decided to neatly skip over the whole homeless escapade. If I could forget the whole thing myself, I would have. “I got a new job.”
“That’s great. Where are you working?”
“For Brockton Clothing,” I shared. “I’m a secretary.”
“Oh?” Ari seemed confused. Being a secretary didn’t track with my bachelor’s degree. “I thought you would have been in broadcasting by now.”
“It’s a little bit harder to break in than I thought,” I allowed. That was true to an extent. It was certainly hard to break into your chosen career when you had to worry about where your next meal was coming from. “I might go back to it, but I’m really enjoying where I work at the moment.”
“That’s great!”
“What about you? Have you landed on your feet?”
“I’m also not working in our field,” she said with a grin. “I’ve been waiting tables.”
I tried not to act too surprised. “That’s good work.”
“It is,” she agreed. “And I’m going to night school.”
“What are you studying?”
“I want to get my master’s in business,” she answered. “And then I was thinking about opening my own restaurant.”
“That is not at all journalism,” I laughed.
“Not at all,” she replied. “But it keeps me busy. I think I was studying journalism because that’s what my parents wanted.”
Just then, I looked up to see Nate walking in the door. I glanced back down at my salad, almost embarrassed to be caught outside the office. Then I reminded myself that it was Saturday. I wasn’t goofing off on the clock, I was having dinner with an old friend.
Nate didn’t acknowledge me, so I felt awkward about standing up and saying hello to him. It seemed like we were just going to ignore each other. That was fine. He wasn’t exactly a friend, although I did feel like we were getting closer the longer we worked together. Maybe he just didn’t see me, I told myself.
Ari saw me looking and leaned over to whisper in confidence, “He’s hot.”
“That’s my boss,” I said absently.
“I can see why you like your job,” she teased.
I blushed, looking away. The street scene out the window suddenly took on new importance. There were a few cars parked out there and I focused on the way the afternoon sunlight hit their windshields.
“It’s not like that,” I insisted.
“Okay,” she gave up the chase, understanding that I wanted to drop the subject.
It was the first time I really noticed how attractive Nate was. Stopping myself from going down that path, I was reminded of my first impression. I knew he was hot. I had known it from the very beginning. I just forgot after spending so much time with him.
