by Laura Domino
“Do you need help finding a book?”
“No. I have a book already, and I’m willing to see what you have that may be helpful. But I wonder if you have other resources available.”
“Like what, for instance?”
She’d already asked. Maybe he didn’t understand. “Do you have information about a language tutoring service?”
He answered as expected. “No, but I could help you look up more books.” She could’ve called to get that answer. That would’ve been a more effective use of her time.
Optimism didn’t always pay off. Hard work was the answer. “Thanks, but no.”
Benita wandered away from the desk. It was already October, so she couldn’t enroll in the university’s Spanish course. Too late in the semester. But she needed private tutoring, not a class full of slow learners. There had to be a way to become fluent more quickly.
She scanned book titles as she strolled by a clearance rack of older titles the library had for sale. Nothing caught her eye. Too bad. The trip had been a total waste.
With a strong grip on the heavy door, she hurried out. She would have to stay up late studying Spanish until help could be found.
Other women depended on her to get this promotion. She was their example. She was the girl-power candidate for the job. If she didn’t lead the way for others to follow behind her, how would they have the confidence to push past their own barriers? How could she let them down?
Then she thought of Trish.
Tomorrow at church, she could ask Trish to help her. They became friends soon after Benita had moved to Fulton Ridge. She didn’t know why she hadn’t thought of her sooner.
Chapter 4
Adam’s phone alarm blared a siren-like sound that almost made his head explode. He frantically reached for it and turned it off. “I didn’t set the alarm!” His own yelling didn’t help his head feel any better.
His mom’s footsteps sounded a staccato beat in the hallway. She popped her head into his room. “I know. You forgot, so I set it for you last night. Good morning, honey. It’s Sunday. Time to get up.”
“Mom.” His head was in no mood.
“I know. I’m so nice.”
Her voice was nice. Her hair and makeup were nice. But setting his alarm for him was not nice.
“Get up. Time to get dressed.” She was already in her church clothes, a black and white dress. Her silver earrings glinted in the sunlight coming through his half-open drapes.
“Have fun at church.” He rolled over and pulled up the covers to his shoulders.
“No. You’re going. You’re going to church with me today. Remember?” She walked over to make him face her. “We talked about this.”
“I thought it over while I was asleep.” He rubbed the crusty corner of his eye. “I decided against it.”
“Adam.” Although she only whispered, her tone was intense enough to shatter glass. Her gaze was hot like a welder’s torch.
He threw his elbow over his eyes.
“Don’t hate yourself for the rest of your life because of your bad decisions.” Her utter frustration with him made her voice sound more serious than he was ready to deal with at this hour.
If he was silent, she’d think he was already asleep again. And then she would leave him alone.
She sighed. “If you won’t go to church, then at least do something. Do a good deed. It won’t get you to Heaven, but it’s a step in the right direction. It might be just the baby step you need to get turned around.” She moved a strand of hair off his forehead. “Go make a new friend. Or give someone a compliment. Just do something nice for someone today. Please?” She waited. “Adam?”
“Mom.”
“Yes, Adam?”
“You look nice today.”
“Really? Really, Adam? Your eyes aren’t even open.” She marched out of the room.
When he heard the back door bang shut, he looked at the time on his phone. Mom didn’t usually leave this early. She could be meeting a friend. Or she probably just needed to cool down before church.
Adam sat up in bed. He really did feel awful. It wasn’t last night’s beers as much as it was his own conscience.
He put his phone down and scratched his wiry chin. He could find something nice to do. What could it hurt?
Mom usually went to the food bank once each month with a bag of items to donate. It didn’t bother her to buy one or two extra items while shopping for herself. The bag of donations built up slowly over the month. When it was full, she dropped it off.
The plan seemed simple enough. The nut doesn’t fall far from the tree. He’d go pick up some groceries to donate. Cans of vegetables would be a good choice. Some baked beans? They weren’t expensive, and everyone needed to eat more vegetables. Of course, chili would be good too.
This good-deed-of-the-day thing was going to be easy.
XOXO
Red lights near the church had traffic backed up in all directions. The pedestrians crossing the street slowed things even more. Benita decided parking in the grass lot beside the historic First Church of Fulton Ridge, its bright white steeple shining in the sunlight, would be easier and faster than looking for a spot on Fourth Avenue.
Pausing to let a family cross the street in front of her, she searched for an empty space in the corner of the lot. If she could get that close to the street, she wouldn’t have to walk in the grass. And she hated walking in the grass. It wasn’t like she wore gym shoes to church.
Her friend Trish, who often sat by her, dashed after the family and followed them across the street. She waved at Benita.
Benita waved back and then looked for more stragglers. Seeing that the road was finally clear, she pulled into a coveted space in the grass lot. She grabbed her purse, locked her car, and carefully tiptoed her way to the concrete. Then she hurried into the building.
As she entered the cool, bright sanctuary, a woman handed her the small folded program that listed the church’s community announcements. With a brief word of thanks, she headed toward her favorite row and slipped into the pew beside Trish. “Hey.”
“Hey, Benita. Thanks for not running over me.”
“You’re not usually outside. Are you just getting here?”
“No. I brought cookies to my Sunday School class. I ran the container out to the car so I didn’t forget to bring it home.”
The pre-service organ music softly played, saturating the atmosphere with graceful attitude-enhancing reminders in the lyrics of the oft-sung hymns, even though no one was singing.
“Cookies. Yum. Special day?” Benita put the program in her purse and placed it on the thick red carpet near her feet.
“I made the announcement. I wanted to make sure the kids were eating cookies when I told them I’m leaving.”
“What? You didn’t tell me.”
People sitting nearby turned to look, frowns blaring like car horns, warning them to be quieter.
“Sorry. I thought I did.” Trish whispered a little more quietly. “I’m leaving a week from Friday.”
“No. I need you. I was going to ask you to tutor me in Spanish.”
“Really? You’re learning Spanish? Why?”
“I’m going to win the promotion to my company’s office in Spain. I’ll need your help to prepare.”
“Aww. I wish I could, but I’ll be busy getting my house all packed up. But congratulations!”
“Thanks.”
The organist started the intro to the first hymn, and everyone stood.
“So you’ve sold the house already?”
The entire congregation began the first verse of the hymn.
Trish leaned closer so Benita could hear, “We have an offer pending.”
Benita felt the sadness of her discovery draping over her shoulders like the weight of a winepress, bearing down on her dreams and almost crushing them. With Trish gone, she would miss both her company and her tutelage.
No one else she knew could help her practice her Spanish.
Maybe this setback would be just the thing to make her stronger.
Chapter 5
The full weight of Monday pressed down on Benita, and she felt it like never before as she stood in line to order her habitual coffee before work. Normally, she had everything just like she wanted it when she left on Friday, but not last Friday. After the big announcement, she attempted a little work but was distracted. Robert’s voice kept ringing in her ears after he left.
The weekend seemed like such a waste if she didn’t get some of her work done away from the office. But that was her normal game plan. Now that she had a promotion to win, she had to step up her game. In order to beat Robert, she had to produce her usual exemplary work and figure out how to compete on another level. She could figure out his weakness and show her strength in that area, or she could figure out her own weakness and build up her skills in that area. Maybe she’d do both.
This was the moment for her to hit a breakthrough idea, the kind of genius idea that would help her win and not put her behind.
If she worked at the business part of the job during normal work hours as well as the life part of the job, she could be fully prepared to win. Learning Spanish would help her make friends in her new home town in Spain.
Robert would easily make friends there just as he had here when he was hired last year. He fit in pretty quickly. But he also had a supportive family who managed the non-business details of their move.
There would have to be something that filled that gap for her. But what? She didn’t have a supportive family like he did.
That didn’t matter. She could succeed on her own.
Before she left her office Friday evening, she hadn’t been thinking about a short-term promotion competition. She’d been focusing on the big picture. She finished all her weekend work and did some online research for her life in Spain after she got the job. Having created a spreadsheet at home to track possible needs in one week of work in Spain, she had a clearer picture of how to prepare. She had a list of questions to answer in the coming days. More research to do after work.
And now that it was Monday, there was much to do when she got to work.
She took a breath and stood just a little straighter. This was her quiet time. Standing in line to get coffee was the perfect time to focus on things she could accomplish quickly. There was only one meeting that she knew of today—a snoozer. Maybe she would assign a few quick tasks to her intern so she could get prepared for that meeting.
Benita’s gaze swept over the crowd in the coffee shop. It was amazing how many people looked like Monday morning zombies. Either they weren’t awake yet or they were enjoying the last few seconds of mindlessness before pressing into the high-stress environment known as work.
Benita didn’t need to stare off into nothing. She was excited to begin the competition for her promotion.
The woman behind her raised her voice, interrupting Benita’s thoughts. The sharp tone and harsh words indicated her sour mood. Whoever was on the phone with her had done something wrong. Too bad she wasn’t the quiet, staring-off-into-nothing kind of person they all wanted her to be.
Benita tried to regain her calm. She focused on the paperwork and meetings. That reminded her of her commitment to her team. She could mentor Gail and Dee and help them become more than they could imagine. She could raise their expectations.
She could be the ringleader at work, not the lion to be tamed.
Two people stood between Benita and the barista. Usually the coffee line was a good place to stand, quietly thinking and planning, but the whiny woman behind her made it unbearable. Many of the patrons stole glances at her. No one wanted to get on the woman’s bad side.
Benita adjusted her backpack in order to make it not so noticeable that she was turning around to peek at the woman.
Just as she thought. The woman didn’t care that she was disturbing everyone. She was really into her conversation, head down, free hand waving to emphasize her points, and lost in her own world.
And the one-sided conversation seemed to be truly that. One-sided. The other person rarely had a moment to speak.
Benita couldn’t imagine, from what she was forced to listen to, that any sane person would’ve gone on that long about something. The problem seemed so minuscule, especially for first thing in the morning. The workday hadn’t even begun for some people.
Finally, it was Benita’s turn at the counter. She gave her order, paid, and stepped to the side while the woman behind her ended her conversation, if she could call it that, and ordered her drink.
Benita whipped out her card, gave it to the cashier, and looked at the woman. “I am paying for your drink. I am being nice to you. Maybe you could pay it forward and be nice to someone else today.”
The woman’s expression of shock was all the reward she needed.
XOXO
A deep breath, blown out slowly, was one way to begin the morning. It was Monday. A new week called for a new perspective.
For Adam, coffee was also needed. Yes, this morning, coffee was an absolute necessity. Even if he didn’t have any the rest of the week, he had to have coffee on Monday morning.
He checked the drawer by the coffee maker. Nothing. He opened the large dark cabinet doors, one by one. Nope. Nothing hidden there. The pantry would have a bag of beans. Grinding up new beans would be a great beginning to his day. But the pantry was bare. No coffee in the house.
That meant he would be forced to see what life had to offer at the coffee shop downtown.
Adam shaved and made his hair look halfway decent. He ran his fingers through it again. It was way too long. Unseemly. He should get a haircut on the way to the coffee shop. Then no one would mistake him for a homeless guy.
A pad of sticky notes on the kitchen counter sparked an idea. He grabbed a pen and composed a response to the questions Mom would surely have when she found him gone this morning.
I’m at the coffee shop.
His mother would faint when she came out to find his note. Better to leave her surprised at the fact that he had started living again than let her call the police when she couldn’t find him either in bed or in front of the TV.
He was out to do the day’s good deed. She was right. It did feel good to help others. And that was bound to happen as soon as he let himself see the world from the vantage point of someone else’s shoes.
Poor people needed help getting daily meals for their children. Adam never knew a day of hunger. He could help them. He’d been raised to be considerate. Lately, he’d been his own worst enemy. A nightmare of a son. He used to be friendly and kind, but that was when he had a brother.
He’d fallen far in his grief.
Adam drove to downtown and parked. As he strolled down the sidewalk, the breeze whispered against his face. Taking his mother’s advice was much better than what he’d been doing. He was eager to change his attitude—just a little tweak from bad rebellious to good rebellious.
The street was filled with people dressed in drab gray and black suits. This was the perfect place for him to be rebellious. Rebellion against dark is light, so he would bring a bright smile to the dark world of business. He was the perfect person to cheer up the miserable, mindless drones. He turned to a woman seated at the window of a cafe and waved at her as he passed by. She acted surprised, but not disappointed. He kept his smile and said hello to a young man passing him in a hurry. No response.
That was okay. He reassured himself that he was leaving his self-destruct mode behind. His effort was going to be worth it.
Opening the door to the coffee shop, he saw the short line. Great timing. He ordered, paid, waited, and breathed the coffee-scented air. When he heard his name above the noise of the coffee machines and blenders, he took the warm paper cup and found a chair where he could do some people-watching as he sipped his froth-topped coffee.
His chai
r was near the door. Cool blasts of air hit him as people entered and exited. So many different kinds of people and so many different kinds of coffee.
One woman got on her phone and fussed at someone incessantly. She got a lot of attention, and she wasn’t even aware.
The woman in front of her seemed on edge about it. She was mesmerizing. So gorgeous.
He remembered he hadn’t done his good deed for the day.
Yesterday, he’d bought groceries to donate to the food bank. The plan was to take the bag down there today and drop it off, but he could do that tomorrow. He suddenly had a better plan for today.
What had his mother said? Compliment someone. He could do that.
Standing there, waiting for her coffee, she was the picture of confidence. Her clothes made her seem very professional, very conservative but not prudish. Her short black hair was straight but well-styled. What does a woman like that want to hear in a compliment?
Her shoes? He looked down, but he couldn’t see them. At the moment, there were too many people in the way. Women liked it when people complimented their shoes, right?
She got her coffee and moved quickly through the cafe. The woman was almost out the door before he got in front of her.
He gave her his best smile. “Let me get that door for you.”
“Thank you.” She paused with an uncertain tilt to her smile, probably making sure the door wasn’t going to accidentally smack her as she moved through.
And she was gone.
The shoes. He’d forgotten to compliment her shoes. He hadn’t even gotten a good look at them.
Adam stepped out to the sidewalk into the humidity, the blast of heat knocking him back to his senses. What happened to his plan?
Of course, he hadn’t seen her shoes. Her face had captured all his attention. Who looks at anything else when in the presence of a woman that stunning?