Watching Damian play puts a lot of things into perspective for me.
Working for Steven, even kissing him, isn’t a terrible thing.
The worst part is what it could do to my father.
My phone begins to ring from inside my purse, and as I answer the unknown caller, a frantic voice begins streaming through the speaker.
“Becca! Thank God you answered. I’m screwed…I’m so screwed.”
“Who is this?” I ask, still not being able to place the voice.
The woman sighs. “It’s Rosalie. From work?”
Now the panic in her voice makes sense.
This is the same woman who ruined a full week’s worth of work for me in less than a day.
She’s the reason Steven and I had to stay late, but she is also responsible for that amazing kiss, so how mad am I, really?
“Okay, what’s going on?” I urge her to calm down and take a breath.
“I was here, trying to do a few things before Monday, and the printer wouldn’t work. I went on the computer and I thought I could fix it, but now none of the computers are working right. I think I broke something. Oh, God…I can’t lose this job.”
It’s somewhat comical to hear the panic in her voice. I’m sure it’s an easy fix. “Give me, like, twenty minutes and I’ll be there. Just, for the love of God, don’t touch anything else until I get there.”
Once the call ends, I holler for Damian, who isn’t too happy that we are leaving, but I use the we-don’t-want-to-catch-a-cold excuse and bribe him with extra movie time tonight before bed.
It works every time.
After we say goodbye to Tommy and his grandmother, we load up into the car and rush home.
I only have a small moment to explain what’s going on to my mom and ask her to watch him before I get back in my car.
Moments like this, I’m glad I live close to work.
Rosalie meets me in the lobby, and we catch the elevator up to the fourth floor.
She goes over exactly what she did, step-by-step, but it doesn’t make sense.
Everything she did wouldn’t have shut down the system.
We walk to the reception computer outside of Steven’s office, and I begin reading the error screen.
“You know,” I say as I exit the message and jump right into settings. “I shouldn’t help you after you messed up all my hard work.” Looking over at Rosalie, her eyes fill with regret, and she looks down at the desk.
“I know. I’m terrible at this job, but I’m trying to learn. This is only my second job ever…”
“Hey, hey.” I soften my voice and giggle. “I was only kidding. You have to lighten up a little, especially here. We can fix this, okay?”
Part of me feels for her.
I’d been there once upon a time, fresh out of high school.
I worked as a waitress and managed to drop at least two trays of food a night.
Surprisingly, they kept me on for two weeks before letting me go. I assumed I’d only last a week.
She has potential, but it takes time. “Ah,” I express. “Here’s your issue. Just a simple auto-reset to the system and you’ll be good. You just hit the wrong button when you were trying to print your papers.”
