“You’d better be speaking of yourself,” their supervisor returned the insult. She pushed passed Sam before Slinky could think of another insult and was soon out of sight.
“God, I hate her,” she grumbled as Sam stepped out. The elevator doors were allowed to shut and they were left alone in the parking lot. “So you wanna drive or we walk?”
“How far is it?”
“A couple of blocks. The neighborhoods aren’t really that rough, but it is kind of a long walk.”
“I’ll drive then.” Sam pulled out her car keys and jingled them in the air. “It’s the least I can do for the free food.”
“Don’t thank me yet, you haven’t tried the food.”
They both laughed as they walked to Sam’s car. The trip was uneventful and they were soon seated at a small but comfortable corner table in a small but comfortable restaurant. The atmosphere was quaint and the food was worth the price. As soon as the waiter had left with their orders, however, Slinky got down to her questions.
“So what’d you and my dad talk about, anyway?” Her curiosity was nearly killing her with the long wait.
“Oh, just some juicy gossip,” Sam teased. Her friend pouted and she swore she heard a whimper. She sighed and leaned in close. “You promise not to tell anyone in the office?”
“Cross my heart,” Slinky promised as she crossed a finger over the right side of her chest.
“That’s the wrong side.”
“Oh, sorry.” She crossed the correct side.
“And you won’t tell your dad I told you this?”
“Is it that bad?” Slinky asked in some surprise.
“Just promise.”
“All right, I promise.” She made sure to cross the correct side of her chest. “Now are you gonna tell me or do I have to beg some more?”
“He said my job was kind of like a training position for Winkle’s job.” Slinky gave her a blank look, and she sighed. “It means if Winkle is ever fired, I get her job.” Her friend’s mouth dropped open.
“Are you serious?” she asked after a short pause.
“That’s what he said. Have you ever heard who’s supposed to take her place when she retires?”
“Retires?” Slinky snorted here. “We all just suppose she’s gonna die on the job and we’ll have to bury her in the supply room.”
“There’s gotta be some sort of system for promotion,” Sam persisted.
“Come to think of it, the person you replaced was someone who’d been there for a while,” Slinky mused as she leaned back in thought. “Before I came, anyway, and I’ve been there for almost five years.”
“Five whole years, hunh?” her friend teased.
Slinky faked a hurt expression. “Hey, it’s been a long five years.” A sudden thought struck her. “We never did find out exactly what, or who, she’d done, too. She went into Mr. Richards office, you know, the board man, and when she came out she looked kind of dazed. I tried to get out what had happened, but she never really did like me so she kept her mouth shut. I can’t think of a reason why.” Here Slinky gave a comical face and her companion rolled her eyes. “Anyway, five o’clock came around, everyone left, and when we came back the next day all her stuff was gone and Mrs. Witch said she’d been fired for misconduct.”
“And that’s it?” Sam inquired. There just seemed to be so much information missing. “No warning? No other explanation?”
“Nope. I tried looking around for some more juicy gossip, but all my usual wells were dry.” Slinky paused for a moment as their drinks were brought, but then quickly continued. “There was some rumor running around that she’d fooled with one of the guys on the board, but I could never even get a name or how long it’d been going on.”
“So what we have here is no clue how the company promotion system works, who goes where, and what happened to the last person to have my job?” Things weren’t looking good for their answers, but their question list was getting longer.
“Pretty much.” Slinky drooled out the mouth when she saw their plates coming. “But can we talk after we eat? I’m starving.”
“Yeah, sure.” Sam didn’t have much of an appetite now, but she pecked away at her food. It was delicious, and especially more so that it was Chinese, her favorite type of dish. Her friend noticed Sam’s lack of appetite.
“Come on, cheer up,” Slinky encouraged through a mouthful of pork fried rice. “We’ll figure this thing out. It’s not like your life depends on it or anything.”
“I hope not…” she muttered into her pork chow mien.
“How about we go out for drinks after this? That might cheer you up. I know this great place a few blocks down that serves the best pina coladas.”
“Nah, I’m pretty tired. Long week and all. I’ll be glad for my first break from it.”
“Yeah, weekends are almost pretty fun,” Slinky teased. She dropped her fork into her food and wistfully looked off into the distance. “Sleeping in until it’s the drinking hour, staying in your pj’s until you go out for some more drinks, and stumbling home and taking a nice cup of alcohol to help you sleep.”
“And when does the drinking hour start?” Sam wondered with a smile.
“Oh, any time after twelve, and you know it’s always after twelve somewhere in the world,” her friend solemnly informed her.
“Sounds like your liver’s going to collapse by the time you hit thirty,” Sam teased with a laugh. She was starting to feel better already.
“Who wants to live that long? I’m aiming for twenty-eight,” Slinky proudly proclaimed. “Then I’ll have all my suiters attend my funeral and I’ll will them all my fine collection of assorted shoes.”
“Is it that large?”
“Nope, but each one can take a single shoe to remember me by. I’m sure there’ll be a lot of crying, too.” Slinky dramatically swooned and crossed one of her arms over her forehead. “And they’ll all say how tragic that such a charming, gifted, beautiful lady could die so young.”
“You sure this is your funeral?” Sam wondered. She pushed aside her empty plate and snickered as her friend gave her a friendly whop on the arm.
“Some friend you are. I should just leave you here.”
“I wouldn’t recommend it,” she countered as she glanced at her watch. It was already nearing seven. “It’s getting kind of late, and I’m your best bet to getting safely back to your apartment.”
“I guess I’ll take that as an apology,” Slinky accepted as she led the way to the cashier. She paid their bill and Sam took her back to her apartment. Slinky paused as she stepped out of the car and ducked her head back inside. “You wanna come in for a little while? I’ve got some drinks in the fridge we can share.”
“Nah, I need to get some sleep.” She really was exhausted, and she wanted some time alone to think about what had happened that day.
“All right.” Slinky didn’t think she’d go to sleep, but there wasn’t much point in arguing. Her stubborn friend would only get irritated. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”
“Yep. Later.”
They waved goodbye to each other and Sam drove back to her comfortable apartment. She threw her jacket, purse and the bag of her dirty clothes onto the kitchen counter and collapsed onto the couch. It was nice to smell the things that were so her rather than him. She kicked her shoes off and stretched out her legs. Her body was relaxed, but her mind was turning this way and that. She actually had to get up and grab a pen and paper to write all the information down into a list.
“Let’s see…” she mumbled to herself. She checked each of them off as she read down the list. “The person before me just up and disappears, Mrs. Winkle really hates me for having this job, and Davies specifically asked to have me hired, which really pissed Winkle off. That leads me to the big question about the boss. I swear to god he’s trying to get me pregnant.” She wasn’t on the pill right now, but if this was going to keep up she was seriously considering the expense. The only problem was it took three months for the stuff to kick in, and she had a bad feeling he wasn’t going to stop his advances to wait for that long.
Sam mused over these few points for over an hour before she finally gave up. She really didn’t have enough information to make any judgments. All she had were theories, and some of them were as wild as the pregnancy one. She opted for bed rather than staying awake any longer, and walked into her bedroom to change. Her apartment had a single bedroom with one and a half baths. The full bathroom was connected with the bedroom, so she considered it a master bath, what with the full tub and shower. Since she didn’t know many people it was only right that she spoil her personal living quarters.
Moving into the bedroom and tossing aside the bag of her dirty clothes to throw into the hamper, Sam glanced out the full windows. They had a decent view of a clean street two stories down, and she could even see some of the night sky above the buildings. This caught her attention and she slowly glided over to the tall glass. The moon was mostly full and, with help from the street lights below, the city was awash with light and shadows. Sam put her hand against the cool glass as she wondered about her relationship with her employer.