BACK AT WORK... surprises and changes (Part 137e)
Bebe scared
me as I came out of the bathroom Wednesday morning. In the few days
she’d stayed with us I hadn’t seen anything of her as she was still in
bed when I left for work. She had on a baby doll nightie top which she
was pulling down in front as she whispered my name. I could see a bit of
her panties on one of her thighs but that was all. She continued to
whisper as she told me that she would probably be leaving that day as
Pete’s brother had found a Summer cottage where the people only used it
on weekends. I had mixed emotions about her leaving. She hadn’t been a
problem and from what I’d observed and Elle had told me she got along
well with the kids before she went to work. Elle hadn’t complained about
having to drive her to work so it was all her decision. I'd been wondering so had to ask what happened to the furniture
from Sabrina’s house. She laughed and told me that Pete’s brother
managed to borrow a truck. When she mentioned Sabrina’s name I asked if
she’d made contact with her and she shook her head in a negative
fashion. I told her ”Good luck“ and continued on down the hall, resisting
the urge to turn around to see if I could garner a peek.
Each
morning there were always people gathered at the back door waiting for
the bank to open. It was like if they weren’t the first in line they weren’t going
to get their money. In any case, as I approached the gathered group I
couldn’t help but notice the tall woman with red hair. Getting closer I
recognized her as the one I’d helped on Monday afternoon. Thinking
there was more that I could do to help her I approached and made the
offer. The look on her face was completely different than the one I’d last
seen on Monday. She seemed relaxed and actually had a nice smile. After
asking I was almost floored I heard "I'm here for an interview". I can’t tell you about the look on my face but I do know I
was flabbergasted with her answer.
Soon
after I was hired I was tasked with creating job descriptions for the
entire bank. Because of my experience as a personnel technician with the
County Civil Service Commission it was agreed that I would
handle all initial interviews for positions with the bank. Hearing
that this woman was going for an interview that I hadn’t set up raised
some serious concerns. I had Hank let us both in and took her to my
desk. Since Trish had her fill out the application I’d not seen it and
had no idea what kind of experience she had. Once at my desk she
reintroduced herself as Moira and I did recall that as she spoke. I had
to temper my being upset with the situation with trying to be cordial to
her. I excused myself to go over to speak to Trish and asked her for
the application form. From the look on her face I could tell that she
knew something wasn’t right. She mumbled that Bette had it and I shot
back ”Why?“ There was no answer but she was astute enough to know that
she better go get it.
I made some mealy mouthed excuse to Moira
and tried to make conversation that didn’t give her a clue as to what
was going on. Trish was back in just a few minutes and as she handed it
to me I heard a very weak ”I’m sorry.“ A quick glance over the
experience section gave me the knowledge that she’d had some experience
as a bookkeeper. I explored that with her gleaning some more background
information about her as I did. There was no doubt that she could fit in
somewhere in the accounting department but that would have to be worked
out. I told her that I would be back to her by the end of the week for
another interview. At that point she asked about her appointment with
Bette. Not wanting to put the bank in a bad light I explained that I’d
been out of the bank the previous day and there had been some
miscommunication. I apologized and as I did I could see the hang-dog
look reappear on her face. I assured her that she would be called.
After
she left I was furious about what had just happened. But, with the
presentation being made at the Board that afternoon I had to move on.
Hobie wanted some rough charts made up on a flip pad for him to use and
that was my primary focus. I still hadn’t told Bret what was going on
and that had him bent all out of shape. The morning was not going well,
at all.
I was sequestered in the Board room making up the charts
and examples that Hobie had requested when the phone rang. It was Elle
telling me that Bebe was moving out and that she was taking her to her
new place. I’d told her not to call me at work unless it was some sort
of emergency and that news certainly was not an emergency. It was obvious Elle was
upset but I didn’t have time to pursue it right then and there. I just
reinforced the fact that it had been Bebe’s decision and that I had
nothing to do with it. As I’ve written a time or two in prior posts, I’m
a believer in ‘omens’ and after the last call I began to wonder if all
the distractions were there to send a message that the presentation that
afternoon would not go well. The distractions weren’t over yet!
Not ten
minutes later the phone rang again. It was Willie and he wanted to meet
me for lunch. You may not believe it but even after the frenzied effort
to make up a sample pair of ‘dribble panties’ for Willie the night
before I’d been so occupied at work I’d forgotten about them and about
the prospect of meeting up with Willie. It wasn’t quite noon and I still
had a few pages to go but I told him I’d met him at the hotel
restaurant because it was easy to find. It was still open even though
the rest of the building was closed. Willie said he could be there in
about a half hour. Looking at my watch and at Hobie’s notes I figured it would be close but that I could get it done.
I almost didn’t
recognize Willie. He’d gained quite a bit of weight. It was somewhat funny as my first thought
after seeing him was that he’d never be able to race his old sailboat in
that shape. We shook hands and he said he needed a drink. I declined
and asked about the sale of his cottage. The closing had been that morning
and his wife was already headed back to New Orleans. He told me he was
flying to Philadelphia for a meeting with a distributor at 4:30pm so we
had to eat quickly and discuss whatever it was that I’d wanted to meet him
about. He definitely wasn't the Willie I remembered.
To be continued...
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