“Good morning, Madison dear, how are you today?”
Swallowing down the anxiety I always felt walking through their side, I smiled down at the seventy-year-old, white-haired woman who loved red lipstick and handled the front desk. “Good morning, Ruth.”
Ruth had worked for the company for the past thirty years but had recently dropped to part time. She hadn’t officially announced it yet, but she’d hinted she was ready to retire. I’d almost cried, knowing their side would make me take over her job rather than hire someone new.
I enjoyed working for Evaline, but she was a close family friend of the man heading the alarm side. So she had no qualms with sharing me and still expecting me to keep up with my current responsibilities. Her trust in my abilities was forty percent comforting, sixty percent frustrating.
“How’s the little one?”
I smiled, loving how Ruth still referred to my son as little. It was nice to know someone else didn’t like him growing up. “He’s good, thank you.”
I passed through the lobby, inwardly cringing at the prospect of walking by a certain desk that faced the hall. The one and only hall leading to my side of the building.
I turned the corner and didn’t even try to hide my heavy sigh when the desk sat unoccupied. My relief was staggering. But I made sure to speed up anyway, taking advantage of his absence. He never took a day off, so he was hiding around here somewhere. I had no intention of running into him if I could help it.
Tossing my purse under my desk, I signed into my computer, spinning my chair in circles aimlessly while I waited for it to log me in.
“Madison, is that you?” a soft voice laced with a hint of a southern accent called out.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Can you come help me with something real quick?”
“Give me a second to log my time and then I’ll be right in!” I stuck my leg out to stop my chair’s motion and sat up straight, pulling up my timecard form. Double clicking on my email icon next, I cringed at the number of unread notifications.
“How was your evening?” I asked, making my way toward her office. “Want me to start coffee first?”
“Yes, please! Will you grab my prints while you’re in there?”
“Sure.” It was just Evaline and me down here, but there were three offices, so we’d spent a day transforming the office in-between us into our official break room. I’d brought in a mini fridge I’d owned since high school, and she brought in a fancy coffee machine.
She couldn’t offer me more than thirty hours a week or pay more than minimum wage, but I still considered myself lucky. Sometimes when we were slow, she even looked the other way and let me study.
Inhaling the aroma of the brewing coffee, I grabbed an orange off the table, snatched the papers off the printer, and marched into her office.
“Oh, honey, that skirt looks good on you.”
“Thanks! I found it at the thrift shop downtown last week. I snagged my hose when I climbed into my vehicle this morning, but I didn’t feel like going back in to change into pants.”
“If anyone ever figures out how to make a cheap pantyhose that doesn’t get runs every time I sneeze, I’ll die a happy woman.”
I laughed, sinking into a chair and handing her the printed documents. Evaline was crazy, but I adored her. As blond as could be and coming in at barely five foot tall, she was a petite woman all the way around. If I looked up “delicate” in the dictionary, I was pretty sure Evaline Grayson would be a synonym.
“What can I help you with this morning?”
“I need help figuring out how to set up an account on a website, but we’ll get to that in a second. I actually wanted to tell you, Jim and I were talking this morning, and he has a few new jobs he’d like you to do.”