Almost A Wife

Oh, for goodness’ sake! Of course she could get in an elevator by herself!

She walked toward it. Hesitated.

Started to punch the button. Didn’t push it.

She’d feel pretty foolish if someone walked down the hall and saw her just standing there…headed neither up or down. This paranoia about elevators was not only silly, it was darn inconvenient!

But…Didn’t everything come in threes? That time at her old apartment, then three weeks ago at the bank…

Well, only five stories. Her smart pumps had low heels and she had plenty of time. She found the stairwell, swung through the door and started down. The exercise would be good for her legs.

She had plenty of time to think as she made her way down, step by step. She’d check the want ads more carefully, though it appeared to be nothing in her line there.

What was her line anyway?

Business, of course! She had her MBA to prove it. Training, experience.

Okay! Okay! Where does that get you if there are no job openings! Maybe she should get on the list of some employment agency, sign up for one of those job placement seminars. Do something, or pretty soon she’d have to put in for unemployment benefits. She hadn’t bothered to do that because she’d thought by now that something would have turned up.

Good, At last she was on the first floor. Gratefully she reached for the door.

It didn’t budge.

She shook it, but it held fast.

First floor. Security? No access unless you had business.

That was stupid. That bank of elevators was plenty accessible to anyone.

Well…Someone had to come near that stairwell sooner or later, and she would bang on that door until somebody heard her.

Ten minutes later, the door was opened by a woman in a chic tan coatdress, a smart leather purse slung over her shoulder. She shook back her sheath of smooth blond hair and stared at Lisa. “What were you doing in there?”

Lisa touched a finger to her own sleekly cropped hair, adjusted her own smart shoulder bag. “Thought I’d walk down for the exercise. A big mistake. I didn’t know they locked this door.”

“In some buildings. For security I think.”

“Funny kind of security. Anyway, thank you for letting me out. I could have been there forever,” she said, smiling as she walked away, head and shoulders high.

When she reached her apartment, and opened the door, she heard the vacuum cleaner humming.

Joline. Her weekly cleaning lady, one of the splurges that accompanied the big salary. Oh, she had felt so grand. No more scrubbing tiles, changing linens, dusting. All she had to do was water her plants, and arrange fresh flowers when the gang was coming over or she had a date.

Well, she wouldn’t be having a gang over anytime soon. Most were from work, and she had another agenda now. And Chris, the guy in accounting that she’d been dating, had transferred to Seattle three months ago. He must have seen the downsizing coming.

At any rate, she’d have to do her own cleaning now. She’d put off telling Joline because she’d been so sure she’d have another job by this time. Now…She deserved notice, too, didn’t she? Two weeks? A month?

“Come and have a cup of coffee with me, Joline,” she said when the woman had finished her chores. “I’m afraid I have a bit of bad news for you. For me, anyway.”

“Thank you. I could do with a cup of coffee, and I’m glad to take a load off my feet for a spell.” Joline, who was rather heavy, settled herself in a chair by the coffee table. “But…bad news? I don’t like the sound of that.”

“I don’t like it, either,” Lisa said, as she poured coffee. “I hate to say it, but I can’t afford you any longer.”

“Oh? I’m sorry. I like working here. You’re not as messy as most.”

She didn’t ask why, but Lisa explained anyway.

Joline was sympathetic. “That’s a shame. Goodness, I don’t know what’s happening these days. Mr. Taylor, on the fourth floor, gave me notice last month. He lost his job and had to take one in Lodi. Much less pay, he told me. Times are getting tough.”

“Yes,” Lisa said, thinking she might have to move to another area herself. She’d hate to leave the city, her nice apartment. Then another thought returned…notice. “Would two weeks notice be fair, Joline? Or would you prefer severance pay?”

“Oh, honey, you got enough problems. Don’t worry about me.”

“Are you sure?” Lisa was relieved, but she wanted to be fair.

“Sure I’m sure. I know how it is when you lose a job. And, to tell the truth, I’ve got more than I need. I turned down three jobs just last week.”

“You did?” Lisa whistled. “No downsizing in the cleaning industry, huh?”

“You can say that again. And you can set your own pace, pick and choose.”

Lisa listened with idle curiosity as Joline elaborated. “You’re your own boss, set your own wages. Like I charged old Mr. Jenkins double ’cause his place was a pigsty. And you can charge an arm and a leg out in the Heights and the Cove.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. But you got to drive all the way out there, and you get plumb wore out climbing them stairs.”

“Stairs?”

“Oh, you know. All those Victorian houses got them winding stairs to the second floor. No. I couldn’t stand that. Even if one house do pay more than three apartments. Mrs. Smith called me yesterday, trying to get me to come back. I told her no, sirree, not me.”

Lisa stared, her interest perked. Set your own pace. Your own price. An arm and a leg in the Heights with all those stairs…Stairs.

No elevators!

Anybody could clean a house.

She calculated. Set your own price? An arm and a leg?

Just temporary…while she was looking.

“Joline,” she said. “Could you give me a reference?”

CHAPTER TWO

HE HADN’T seen her again. Not in the two months since he’d been at CTI.

That was strange. She got off on the same floor. Must work for the company.