FINISHING OUT THE YEAR... Peggy (Part 146h)

FINISHING OUT THE YEAR... Peggy (Part 146h)

By the time Elle got away to the mall it was close to 11am. I’d told Bret I’d be at the bank by noon which didn’t give me a lot of time to dig out the panties I wanted for Peggy. I had time as far as getting them to her was concerned because she was under the impression I had to order them. However, I wanted them ready to go when I deemed it was the right time. As I did with the panties for Joanie, I wrapped the box with brown mailing paper to simulate that they’d been shipped. I knew I had some space in the lower drawer of my desk to hide it so, until I actually gave them to Peggy my mind was free to concentrate on work.

The teller counter renovation had hit a snag by the time I got there. I won’t go into it except to say I didn’t get home until after 8pm but at least the doors could open on Monday morning. Bret continued to oversee Peggy’s work and had given me good reports, especially on the day ending ‘proof’. Errors were minor and didn’t affect the overall bank proof so I was leaning more and more towards moving her to the drive-up window. However, the timing of it had to be just right.

Christmas was on a Sunday which, for a bank holiday meant it was celebrated on Monday. When the doors were locked on that Friday night the bank was in good shape as far as preparation for the conversion was concerned and we could concentrate on the year end ‘busy period’. Driving home I felt good about the whole situation, including Peggy, which meant I could concentrate on having a good Christmas with the family. I’d worry about all the rest on Tuesday.

I’m sure you’ve all used, or heard, the cliche, ‘the calm before the storm’. That was Tuesday. It was one of the slowest days I’d experienced since joining the bank. Hobie even commented on it telling Bret and I that it didn’t portend well for the rest of the week. I’d come up with the staffing schedule for the conversion which was to take place over the weekend and at 4pm there was a reminder meeting. Everybody had been given plenty of warning about having to work Saturday, Sunday and on New Year’s day and we’d been able to mute most of the negativity to it by promising that they’d get time and a half pay PLUS an additional half day vacation for each seven hours worked. The hours for Sunday were to be from 10am (for church) to 6pm for those who wanted to go out on New Year’s eve. For New Year’s day itself starting time was 10am. The ending time was open because we had to have everything done and the figures checked back so we could open Tuesday morning. Albie, from the service bureau, projected that without telephone transmission line problems we should finish the input by the time we quit on Sunday evening. That would leave us all day Monday to check all the account balances against the computer printouts. As I said, we were able to cut short most of the complaining... but not all. Hobie was present at the meeting and when Janet started in he cut her short, taking her aside to keep her displeasure from influencing the others.

As the meeting broke up I asked Alice and Lillian to come to my desk for a little ‘pep talk’. Basically, it was to tell them not to “freak out” when they saw the lobby filled with people. I remember Lillian having a puzzled look on her face as if to say “why am I a part of this conversation?”. I excused Alice and motioned Lillian to have a seat. Lillian, when seated, was a panty voyeur’s delight. On the occasions I’d seen her sitting she never had her knees together and with the short dresses she almost always wore there was a nice white triangle to view. But... that was not my intention (Honest!). It was to tell her that she would become a lobby teller starting the next day. I don’t think she could have opened her eyes any wider than she did with that news. After a bounce or two (interesting!) in the chair she asked about the drive up. That’s when I told her Peggy would fill the position. But, I told her not to say anything to anybody, especially her, that I was going to do it. I asked that she be in a little early to get settled into her new space and she then bounded off. I was just praying that she kept her mouth shut.

As Peggy was about to leave I just sidled past her and asked that she meet with me at 8:30 the next morning. I told her a little lie saying that Elle had called and there was a package waiting for me at home. Her face lit up with a smile and said she’d be at my desk, waiting. The last part of my plan was to bring Bret up to date on moving Lillian and Peggy. I’d run the idea past him with a less than favorable response. That’s why I waited until it was almost complete to let him in on it.

He sat there listening to my reasoning for the moves with a blank look on his face. Peggy had been involved with the school savings program for over two weeks and had been the relief drive-up teller that whole time. She’d had no real problems at the end of the day and there was no reason why she should have any moving forward. I told him that I was going to tell her that I needed to move Lillian out to the lobby and all she was doing was filling in for her just like she did at lunch and for breaks. Bret just sat there, expressionless. When I couldn’t get a rise out of him I got up, said good night, and headed for the door. He, definitely, was not a believer.

Peggy was waiting for me when I arrived and it wasn’t yet 8:30am. The easy smile that had returned to her face after the move was still there. I’d decided to get the panties out of the way first and pulled the box from the drawer. To make it realistic, I tore the brown paper away and handed her the box. She started to open it but stopped and looked at me. “You never told me how much they were!”. I told her the price was still on the panties and she could figure it out herself. (I think they were around $1.89 a pair at that time... less than $2.00 for sure) Then she peeked into the box. Some of the other employees were starting to filter in so I told her to wait until later. She was in the process of saying “Thank you...” when I interrupted and said something like “Oh, by the way... you’ll be filling in for Lillian”.

To be continued...