Taking Back Mary Ellen Black

“I didn’t like the food there,” Amber said. “Can we get something to eat at the mall?”

As they climbed into the back seat, I fought the urge to drag them into my arms for reassuring hugs. “Sure we can. Shoe shopping always makes me hungry.” And so I’d blow the rest of my poker winnings and leftover VFW tips.

“I don’t want to eat here anymore,” Shelby declared, her bottom lip jutting out in a pout.

“That’s up to you two. Whatever you want.” And it was. Eddie hadn’t requested any scheduled visitation.

“I used to want to go home,” Amber admitted. “Back to our old house. Back to my old school, too. But there’re some neat people at the new one. They don’t care what you wear or where you live…” Not like the wannabe high-class neighborhood where we’d lived. “Some don’t even speak English,” Amber said, probably impressed someone talked less than she did; with her shyness, she usually spoke very little.

Shelby nodded. “Yeah, it’s okay.” And maybe it was. But they deserved more. And somehow I had to get it for them…for all of us.

CHAPTER I

Initiation

“Remember that I warned you how crazy it gets around here,” Jenna said Monday morning, before I had even swung my purse from my shoulder. No laced tea had mellowed her this morning. “People will yell at you. I will yell at you. Tell her, Vicki.”

The woman sitting as close to the desk as her swollen belly would allow nodded. “She can be a miserable bitch, worse than me with these raging pregnancy hormones.”

“You regretting the job offer?” I asked. My gut clenched with nerves. I’d been a lot more comfortable at the VFW.

Jenna, in a crisp, burnt sienna–colored pantsuit, shrugged as if it didn’t matter to her. But her dark eyes wouldn’t meet my gaze, wouldn’t let me see if she cared if we resumed our friendship, and that gave me hope that she did care. Maybe she was scared to let me know it. “You regretting taking the job?”

“No, not yet.” Because I wanted this opportunity for employment and friendship.

“You might.”

I shrugged, too, but my shoulders retained all the tension I was feeling. “You might regret it more. I don’t have any experience.”

She nodded, but her hair stayed in the perfect knot on the back of her head. “Well, hell, it’s worth a try, huh?”

I hoped she was talking about the job and the friendship. “Sure.”

“Vicki will show you the ropes. I’ve got a breakfast appointment.” She was gone before I’d yet to swing my purse from my shoulder.

“Here, I lock mine in the desk,” Vicki said, grabbing the bag from me. Since the front of the building housing the mortgage office was a wall of windows looking onto a street that had seen better economic days, locking up one’s valuables seemed like a wise decision. But maybe a cheap lock on a metal desk wouldn’t be enough. And the computers that topped each of the two desks in the outer office were openly on display. Those windows needed blinds.

And the plain beige walls needed some color, maybe some paintings with vivid hues. The soft gray, metal desks could use some vases of flowers to spruce them up and relieve the commercial look of the office. But it was an office, not a house. I couldn’t decorate it. I had to work in it…if Jenna still wanted me to. “Was she trying to scare me off?” I asked.

“No, just warning you. It gets hectic around here. Jenna’s at it around the clock. She’ll work you.”

I dragged in a quick breath. Would I be able to handle the job? But that didn’t bother me as much as Jenna’s hours. Why did she work so much? So that she wouldn’t miss Todd? So that she wouldn’t feel so alone? I had the girls. Did she have anyone?

“She’ll pay you well. That’s why I keep coming back after the babies.” Vicki fixed me with an intense, blue-eyed stare.

I smiled at her, hoping to relieve the tension. “So you’re warning me, too?”

She laughed but didn’t deny it. “It’s my job.”

“Understood. I just need to make some money right now.” Enough to get me out of my mother’s house, to get away from the West Side again. To make a life for myself and my daughters… And after my brief stint at the VFW and the butcher shop, I was used to temp jobs.