Page 12 of Wish I Were Here
This is the weirdest day I’ve ever had, and that’s saying a lot for someone who grew up with a literal clown. It’s not even eleven in the morning, and already I’ve swapped clothes with my neighbor, had my potty training history trotted out for my boss, and come alarmingly close to making out with my doorman.
I need to wrestle this day back under my control. I head for the door to the building, ready to go upstairs, finish my syllabi, and find my dad a new job. But at the last second, I peek over my shoulder just in time to watch Luca sink gracefully back into the Town Car to continue his errands with Mrs. Goodwin and Sal. A strange longing tugs in my chest.
I actuallydoneed some new work clothes. Maybe they’re going near the mall?
But as I turn around to call out to Luca, my knee bumps something sharp and heavy. I feel it toppling sideways, crashing to the sidewalk, and I slap a hand against the building’s wall to keep from ending up on top of the pile. “Ouch,” Imutter, clinging to the brick. When I’ve managed to get my feet under me, I turn around to survey the scene.
You have got to be kidding me.
FedEx boxes litter the sidewalk. I’m sure the driver dumped them here because nobody was at the front desk to open the door and receive them. And now they’re scattered almost to the street, where anyone could wander by and take one.
With a heavy sigh, I bend over to pick up as many boxes as I can, balancing them in one hand while I try to fish my key out of my purse with the other. Oblivious, Luca pulls the Town Car out into the road with a loud zoom, not even bothering to put on his turn signal first.
Which clearly goes against the traffic laws.
Today I take the stairs. It’s not only because the elevator is on the fritz again, although it is. Or because I’m wearing brand-new work clothes, although I am. And it’s not because I’m carrying a travel mug and I’ve learned my lesson about coffee stains.
Although I have.
It’s because today is my orientation for my new job, and I am determined to be one hundred percent in control of this day. This means leaving absolutely nothing to chance, or the whims of bus schedules, or irresponsible doormen.
Especiallyirresponsible doormen.
With any luck, I won’t even have to see him in the lobby. It’s a little before seven in the morning, and Luca doesn’t start work until eight. I plan to be sitting in the human resources department, calmly waiting for my meeting, before he even parks the Lincoln Town Car in front of the DeGreco building for the day. And just in case anything should go awry, I’ve built in a comfortable cushion of over two hours before my orientation starts at nine.
As I descend from the eighth floor to the seventh, I hear someone shuffling up the staircase beneath me. I round thebend and come face-to-face with Sal. He’s holding on to the railing, hand shaking slightly, and slowly pulling himself upward, step by slow and laborious step.
“Sal!” I exclaim. “Are you okay? You look exhausted.” I swear under my breath, damning Luca for not getting the elevator fixed correctly when it broke a few weeks ago. It’s gone out twice since then. This is a building full of older people. What was he thinking letting it go on like this?
“You shouldn’t have to take the stairs. I’m going to give Luca a call right now and demand he get Dante in here to fix the elevator today.” I sigh. “Again.” So much for not having to deal with irresponsible doormen this morning. But I’m so angry that I don’t even mind that this is disrupting my carefully scheduled morning. This sort of thing is exactly why I built in a cushion in the first place.
But before I can pull out my phone, Sal waves a dismissive hand. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”
“Of course I’m worried about you. What floor do you live on?”
“The eighth,” Sal says, pulling himself up another step. “But I enjoy walking. It keeps me young.”
The eighth is my floor, too, a level above the one we’re standing on. I turn around, taking Sal’s arm and helping him up the next step. “At least let me walk with you.”
Sal chuckles. “I’m not going to say no to a pretty girl offering to take me out for a stroll.” He gives me a wink. “And lucky me, I get to hold her hand and everything.”
We inch our way up the flight of steps, and soon, we’re standing in the hallway flanked by a row of apartment doors.“We must be neighbors.” I point to my door. “That one’s me.”
“Yep,” Sal says with a nod, like he already knew that. I guess people talk. Or maybe he’s seen me around, though he didn’t look familiar when I met him a couple weeks ago in Luca’s car.
“Let me just make sure you get into your place okay.”
Sal waves me off again. “No, no. I’m fine. You’ve got an important meeting to get to.”
I blink. “How did you know that?”
Sal hitches his chin in my direction. “Why else would you be all gussied up this early in the morning?”
I glance down at my outfit. I’m wearing a black-and-white-patterned top tucked into a black pencil skirt with the hopes that if anything should drip, spill, or splatter, it won’t show stains. Plus, I have a spare outfit in my bag, just in case. I probably should get going, especially because now I’ll need to stop in the lobby to call Luca and give him a piece of my mind about the elevator. “If you’re sure you’re okay.”
Sal reaches into his pocket and pulls out a butterscotch candy. “For luck,” he says with a wink.
I can’t help but smile. Just like Mrs. Goodwin wishing me luck before my big meeting a few weeks ago, I’m happy to know someone’s rooting for me, even just a little bit. I was so busy going to school and working for the past decade that I never had a lot of time to make friends. When the students in my program were going to parties or meeting for coffee after class, I was headed to my job. And I don’t have any other family except for Dad. We had dinner two days ago, like we do every week, but we were still brainstorming how to findhim a new job, and mine never came up. Or, well, to be more accurate,Iwas brainstorming how to find him a job, andhewas busy changing the subject. And anyway, mathematics is not really something that interests him.
