Temporarily Employed by Vicki Batman

Author:Vicki Batman [Batman, Vicki]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Contemporary, Cozy Mystery, Small Town
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Published: 2014-11-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

I spent the remainder of my weekend in recovery. I stayed up late, captivated in reading a mystery about a murderer in the horse business. As a result, I overslept. I hung out at my apartment and caught up on normal activities like laundry and ironing. And, in case of a surprise Mom visit-slash-inspection, cleaned the bathroom.

The low-key aspect of Sunday primed me well for work on Monday. Highly energized, I settled at my desk and observed Opal as she opened the day’s mail. She selected an envelope, examined the return address, and then flipped over the envelope. Her letter opener sliced with great ease through the paper. She extracted each document, stapling the envelope to the back of the letter, and set the documents in her sorted piles. The majority appeared to be intended for data entry, aka me.

Eeney, meany, miney, moe, I thought as I watched her. One for Lester. One for Opal. One for me. I will have plenty of claims to enter, files to file, copies to make. “Hey, Opal,” I said, admiring the way her letter opener cut the envelopes.

“Yes, Hattie.”

“Where did you get such a sharp opener? It slices thru the paper effortlessly.”

“Oh.” She twisted the item in question. “This ol’ thing?”

She bestowed an admiring look as if the opener resembled an eighteenth century Turkish dagger. “Yeah.”

“A few years ago, Lester gave these to clients as a complimentary gift for doing business with Buy Rite.”

“Can I have one? All I have is this ol’ thing.” I showed her the one I’d found in my desk drawer. It resembled a flimsy miniature saw.

“I’m sure the one you use is perfectly serviceable.” Rising, Opal gathered my mail pile and, without ceremony, dumped the correspondence in my inbox.

“Gee, thanks,” I said with sarcasm.

“You’re welcome,” she replied sarcastically.

Picking up the first claim, I went to work.

****

A couple of days later, I consulted my phone calendar, checking my appointments for the rest of the week. For Saturday, I’d made a notation next to seven p.m. I clicked for details.

Oh, holy hell. I can’t believe I forgot this party. I am in deep doo-doo. I knew better than to R.S.V.P. for two.

The parents of my boss formerly from Tuckers were throwing a big bash to announce their son’s engagement. This to-do required me to wear a little black dress, and for my date—darn, how could I be so stupid—a suit and tie.

This event mandated an escort. I frowned, thinking OhmyGod, what am I going to do? Because of my current Nundom status, where would I unearth someone at the last minute? I couldn’t ask Jenny as she already had a date for it, a big one. So did Kella and Maggie.

As I searched for a solution, I rubbed my forehead. Then, like Jeannie from her bottle, Ask Allan popped out. My toes bounced a tap, tap. The idea wasn’t awful. And the more I considered him as a solution to my dilemma, the more I liked it. Better than a good idea, it was an extraordinary one.

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