Stuck. Trapped. Denied.
Somehow, a striped yellow piece of metal became her biggest nemesis. She sat in her car too upset to process a response. She was more disappointed than anything. “Stuck down?” She said with a blank stare.
“Yes ma’am.” The pale-faced teenager looked around nervously.“ It’s mechanical, so maintenance has to fix it. I called them already.”
She was still calm, even though there was no chance of her getting to her luncheon.
“Look, I am really sorry. The repair guy said he has to come back from lunch, so not ’til 1:15 or so.” She looked at her phone to confirm her fears. “You could call a cab.” The young clean-cut boy with the name tag that said Billy had to be new. She never saw him here before. This would be a rough day for anyone. She understood.
“Nah, I’m already late. This isn’t your fault.” She gave him an honest smile.
Another car pulled up behind her. The lights were really bright and the car looked too long. She sighed. “Hey, you’re Dana!” A voice came out from inside the car, when she looked at it, it was a limousine.
Dana waved at the back of the car as one of the doors opened.
“Hi, I’m Samantha. My father Terry is here too! Hop on in!”
The inside of the limo was a light tan leather interior. There was a big-screen T.V and a minibar.
She recognized him from the picture in the meeting room. Dana smiled, brushing back her shoulder-length blonde hair.
“I’m Terry Vasquez, I am glad to finally meet you. Interesting circumstances.”
“Yeah, hello. I just wanted to thank you for inviting me out to lunch.”
“We don’t have much, crackers and booze it seems.” Terry smiled.
“I am game.” Samantha laughed.
“This caught us all off guard,” Terry said and pointed at the parking gate. “But I can double down and make your head spin even more. We are offering you the open personnel manager position with HR. You haven’t applied yet, and no is a fine answer, but out of everyone here, you have wonderful communication skills and suburb attendance.”
“Sounds like we need to talk benefits and pay.” Dana laughed and shrugged. “Here I was looking forward to making small talk at lunch.”
Their laughter was broken by yelling. Dana opened the door.
Dana saw him around the office, she didn’t remember his name. The balding middle-aged man continued shouting. “ Don’t lie, just open the #%*@! gate. I could open it with a hammer! And some idiot left their car here too?”
She couldn’t make out Billy’s response it was muffled. The man continued to yell. Dana waited for him to stop as she stepped out of the limo. “You’re on company property and will follow company policies,” Dana spoke in a very firm tone one step short of yelling.
“Lady, don’t…”
“I am the HR manager, this is all recorded. Maintenance was already called.” Dana stood her ground. She allowed him to respond. Crossing her arms.
The man clearly wanted to say more, instead, he walked back to his car.
“No better man or woman for the job I see.” Joked Terry. “Any doubt in my mind would be gone..”
“I wanted to yell at the booth attendant too, but that is not how I am. We all think about acting like that, it takes a special type of jerk to go through with it. And they always remind me why I don’t act that way.” Dana grinned as the others nodded.
Never give up on life, never give up on love.
That’s it. That’s all.
-Nathan Hall