During Gina's first week at Casella and North, she had been sent to take a class on the IBM Selectric Typewriter. That she had used it at her prior job didn't seem to matter; everyone had to take the three-day course. Also attending the school that week had been Kellie. She of course was also quite familiar with the office machine, having been using it for years, but had signed herself up for additional training on the new Magnetic Card Selectric Composer that was just coming into use.
During the half week at the school, Gina found the older woman to be, not only friendly, but also a fountain of information about the company and the people who worked there. Nothing derogatory, of course, well, not too much so, but just things she thought it would be helpful for the younger woman to know.
They had lunch every day, which made Gina a bit self-conscious since Kellie always insisted on picking up the check. A situation the younger woman tried to rectify on the last day, when she practically grabbed the check out of the server's hand, only to pale when she saw that their single meal cost more than her lunch budget for the week, and that was without a tip.
"Is something wrong?" Kellie asked when she saw the look on Gina's face.
"I didn't ... I mean, it's so much," Gina said with obvious embarrassment.
"So what, the company's paying for it," Kellie offered, confused by Gina's reaction to the bill.
"What?"
"The company pays for your lunch when you go to class," Kellie expanded. "After all, coming here is a requirement of the job. Didn't Joan tell you that?"
Gina shook her head no.
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"Then I'm also guessing that she didn't tell you that you can also put in for travel expenses," Kellie said, having no doubt as to the answer. "A train token might only be seventy-five cents, but it's still an extra four fifty in your pocket at the end of the week."
Kellie knew well the game the office manager was playing because she'd done it before. She deliberately didn't tell new employees that they would be reimbursed for lunch and travel, knowing full well that, even if they found out about it later, few would've wanted to get on her bad side and put in for it. That gave her more petty cash to dole out to her favorites, those supplicants willing to kiss her ass and tell her how great she was.
Thankfully, executive secretaries didn't fall within Joan's province so Kellie was free to tell the stuck-up bitch to go fuck herself, which she had done on more than one occasion. This time, however, she decided to forego herself the pleasure lest it come back to hurt Gina. Instead, she suggested to Gina that she again let her pay for lunch and that she'd not only put in for reimbursements for the meals, she'd add on Gina's travel costs to her own, letting the younger girl get back what she had spent.
"In fact, why don't I just give it to you now to save time?" Kellie said, reaching into her purse and taking out a five-dollar bill. "I'll just round it up when I put in the paperwork," she added before Gina could start to look in her own purse for change.
Kellie couldn't remember the last time she'd actually put in for petty cash, but Gina didn't need to know that. Also, in her purse was a company credit card, with which she could charge pretty much anything up to five hundred dollars before anyone would have the nerve to inquire about it. She'd never abused it, taking that fact as a sign of the trust Mr. Bernstein had in her.
"I want you to promise me that, in the future, if you have any questions about anything in the company, you'll come and ask me about them," Kellie told Gina after checking her watch and noting that they had to get back to their respective classes.
"I promise," Gina said, thankful that she had at least made one new friend at the company.
-=-=-=--=-=-=-
"Kellie?" Gina said in surprise as the older woman reached for another small stack of envelopes to feed into the machine.
Pausing in her task, Kellie turned her head in Gina's direction, a smile appearing as she recognized her. She switched off the machine, allowing her to safely turn her attention away from it.
"Gina, what are you doing here?" Kellie asked.
"I was just about to ask you the same thing," Gina countered.
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"Well, it's Friday and, snow or no snow, the Bernstein Bulletin has to go out," Kellie said, holding the stack of envelopes in her hand a bit higher for emphasis.
The Bernstein Bulletin, as Gina had learned soon after she'd started at Casella and North, was a financial newsletter that Abraham Bernstein put out each week and that clients paid a great deal of money to receive. With over two thousand people on the mailing list, it brought the company a significant income every week.
"But why are you mailing them out?" Gina further inquired. "Isn't that what the mailroom clerks are for?"
"One of the government projections that Mr. Bernstein wanted to include in this week's letter was delayed, so I didn't get to print it out until after four," Kellie explained. "Since I can run the machines down here as well as they can, I didn't see any reason why they needed to hang around and wait for it. I just told them to leave me the key to the postage meter and I'd drop it in the lock box when I was done."
Even with her limited experience, Gina knew there was much more to it than that. The average bulletin ran five pages, and the Xerox copier, which thankfully could sort the pages into the proper order, could only make twenty-five copies at a time. Then the pages needed to be folded and fitted into pre-addressed envelopes. The folding was done by machine but they had to be stuffed into the envelopes by hand. Finally, they were run through the meter which printed the proper postage on them and sealed the envelopes. From there it was just a matter of dropping them into the open mail sack reserved for just that purpose.
Gina smiled, thinking that had been an extremely nice thing for her friend to have done. Most anyone else, and to be honest, considering the circumstances, she would probably have to include herself, would've just dropped the report and left it for the mail clerks to handle, storm or no storm.
"So, what are you still doing here?" Kellie then repeated. "I would've thought that, living all the way out in Queens, you'd have taken off hours ago."
"No, such luck," Gina replied. "They wanted someone here to answer phones and since I'm the low woman on the totem pole, here I am."
"No one wanted to volunteer?" Kellie asked. "That's surprising, I would've thought that Donna or Carol would've at least offered. After all, they share an apartment only a few blocks from here."
"Excuse me, what?" Gina replied, surprised in her voice.
"Donna Walsh and Carol Briggs, you've met them, I'm sure, lovely girls." Kellie continued. "One or both of them usually stays when there's bad weather."
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"I don't know them well but I've met them," Gina replied, picturing the two thirty-something blondes in her mind, "but no one said anything about asking for volunteers. Joan just told me that I ..."
"... that you were the one who had to stay," Kellie said, completing the sentence.
"Exactly."
"She was supposed to ask for volunteers first," Kellie added. "It was part of the memo from the partners."
"Shit!" Gina exclaimed under her breath.
'I know she doesn't particularly like you, but have you done something lately to really piss her off?" Kellie asked.
Gina hesitated, then decided that there was no reason not to tell Kellie. She quickly recounted what happened the night of the Christmas party, only to be interrupted before she could finish by the sound of the older woman's laughter.
"Oh, how I wish I could've been the one to walk in on her," Kellie said as she regained control.
"Why do I have the feeling that you're not surprised?" Gina asked.
"Well, it's not exactly a secret," Kellie explained, "at least not to those of us on the ninth floor."
"So, she's been doing that for a while then?" Gina further asked.
"Honey, if you'd come in five minutes later, you'd have probably found her bent over old man North's desk," Kellie again laughed, this time not so hard. "Joan Hendricks has been spreading her legs for him since she was part of the secretarial pool; that's how she wound up as office manager. You didn't think she got where she is because of her superior management skills, did you?"
Ever since that night, Gina had wondered about precisely that, so it was nice to have her suspicions confirmed.
"And from what you said about the way Mr. North reacted, I see now where her antagonism towards you comes from," Kellie explained. "You committed the unpardonable crime of catching North's attention, and therefore can only be seen as a threat to her position."
"Good God, as if I would ever ... yecch," Gina exclaimed, the image of Randolph North's cock sticking out of his pants flashing through her mind. "I couldn't even imagine it."
"Well, Joan can," Kellie stated. "She can't help seeing every other woman through the prism of her own presumptions, and it's unlikely anyone is ever going to convince her otherwise. I can't prove it, but I know of at least two girls she probably harassed until they quit."
"Fuckin' bitch!" Gina roared; this time loud for her voice to have carried to the outer hall. "I mean ... I apologize for my language but..."
"No, you're right, she is a fuckin' bitch," Kellie chuckled.
"So, what am I supposed to do, let her hound me until I finally quit?" Gina asked in exasperation.
"No, if for no other reason than I wouldn't like that," Kellie smiled. "I think she's gone a bit too far this time, disregarding a partners' instructions, but that's a matter for the future. For now, how are you planning to get home?"
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"I'm guessing that I'm not," Gina replied, explaining how the buses would have stopped running by the time she got to the end of the subway line, stranding her in the middle of nowhere. "I figured I'd just find the least uncomfortable place in the office to sleep, and then try and head home in the morning when things start running again."
"That sucks," Kellie noted, "and I doubt there's an empty hotel room in the city right now. Do you have any friends who might be able to put you up for the night?"
Gina replied that, other than her ex-boyfriend, she knew few people in Manhattan, and they had all been more his friends than hers.
"Wait, didn't you say a few weeks ago that the two of you were still on good terms?" Kellie asked. "Is there any chance that he'd let you stay at his place?"
Good terms, Gina had thought at the time, was a diplomatic way of saying they'd fucked each other silly -- which, she had to admit was definitely good.
"I ... er ... I actually already tried that," she replied.
"And?" Kellie asked.
"David already has company for the evening," she said.
"Oh," Kellie said, thinking that was disappointing but, from the way Gina had described her ex-lover, not unexpected.
"Well then, I guess there's only one thing left for you to do," Kellie concluded. "You'll just have to come home with me."
-=-=-=--=-=-=-
Kellie, Gina remembered, had an apartment down in the West Village. She had never been there, but was familiar enough with the area to know that, if they left in the next half hour, they' should still be able to make it there before the buses stopped running. The alternative would be to take the less convenient train and walk a half mile from the closest station.
"Kellie, that's very generous of you, but..." she started to say.
"No buts, and no time wasted arguing about it," Kellie said firmly. "You're coming home with me and that's that. Now, give me a hand with the rest of these envelopes so we can be on our way."
"You're sure it wouldn't be a problem?" Gina asked, realizing that, despite their weekly lunches and a few shopping and museum trips they'd shared, there was a hell of a lot she didn't know about her office friend. In fact, she didn't even know if Kellie lived alone, although Gina assumed that if there had been a roommate or something, she would've mentioned them.
"Yes, I'm sure," Kellie smiled, "and if it helps you make up your mind, I have cable."
Gina laughed, amused at the way Kellie said the last phrase, like an adult telling a child that they have candy.
"Cable?" Kellie repeated, thinking that was one of the things she really missed since moving back to Queens. "Do you have HBO?"
"Of course, and a few other stations," Kellie smiled. "In fact, there's even a porn channel on there, although I have no idea where."
"Well, if you have porn, how could I say no?" Gina again laughed.
Between the two of them, it only took about fifteen minutes to run the rest of the envelopes through the meter and deposit them into the waiting mailbag. At the last second, Gina remembered to add the check for the telephone company, which was the purpose for her having come down here in the first place.
"Do you keep a change of clothes here at work?" Kellie asked Gina as, after dropping the meter key in the lock box, they exited into the corridor.
"Not really," Gina replied, thinking that all she had in the bottom drawer of her desk was a spare set of panties.
"That's okay, we'll figure something out," Kellie replied as they reached the elevator.
They managed to reach the bus stop down the street from the office without much trouble, but the trip down to the West Village took more than twice its normal length. Still, they were lucky to have made it at all as, once they'd reached their stop, the driver announced that he was taking the bus out of service due to mechanical problems. Anyone going any further was now on their own, since there was no bus after his.
Holding onto each other's arms, they navigated the last block, carefully traversing the already refilling paths that had been shoveled clear only a short time before. At one point, Gina nearly slipped on a hidden bit of ice, only to be caught at the last moment by Kellie.
"Careful -- a trip to the emergency room isn't how I'd like to spend the evening," Kellie warned.
"Is it much further?" Gina asked.
"Actually, we're here," Kellie said triumphantly.
The building before them was massive, and even in the snowfall Gina could see that it stretched almost the entire length of the block. Shifting her gaze upward, she couldn't even see the upper floors, but trying to do so was enough to make her a bit dizzy. Later she would learn that it was nineteen floors tall.
The small area around the front entrance had been more recently cleared, so they made it into the lobby without further incident. Glancing into an alcove off to the left that was filled with rows of mailboxes, Gina wondered aloud how many people lived here.
"Well, I can't give you an exact count," Kellie replied as they stepped over to a standing desk where a doorman stood, "but there are over two hundred and fifty apartments."
"Wow," Gina said, trying to imagine what the rent was like for the smallest of them, and at the same time wondering how much an executive secretary made, to be able to afford someplace like this.
"Good evening, Miss Winters," the white-haired sexagenarian in the dark green uniform said. "Glad to see that you made it home safety."
"For a little while I wasn't sure I would, Arthur," Kellie said with a broad smile, "but we're here now, and that's what's important.
As she shifted from I to we, Kellie thought to introduce her guest.
"Arthur, this is Gina Giordano, a colleague from work," she said. "Gina found herself stranded here in the city by the storm so I brought her home with me."
"Nice to meet you, Ma'am," the doorman said with a smile and a twinkle in his eye. "Any friend of Miss Winters is always welcome."
"Thank you," Gina said.
As they moved away and headed for one of the elevators on the far wall, Gina happened to glance back over her shoulder and saw that the old gentleman was actually checking her out as she crossed the lobby. It didn't really bother her -- after all, men did it all the time and to be honest she liked it -- but this time it seemed different. It almost felt as if he knew something that she didn't.
"I'm on the eighth floor," Kellie said as, in response to her summons, the elevator door slid open and she guided her guest inside.
-=-=-=--=-=-=-
"This is awesome," Gina said as she stepped into the living room of Kellie's apartment.
A small five by five foyer emptied into a twenty by eight living room, the walls and ceiling of which were all a flawless white. To Gina's left was a small kitchenette, complete with an oven built into the wall and a countertop range. Sharing walls with the kitchen space and the living room was, Kellie pointed out, the bedroom, and off to their left was the bathroom, complete with a bath/shower combination, a small sink and a commode. On the outer wall of the living room was a long-oversized window which, if it hadn't been obscured by the snow, would've provided a nice view of the Empire State Building off to the Northeast.
"I know it's not that big, but it's home," Kellie said as she dropped her keys on the counter top and began to take off her coat, hanging it on one of the hooks by the door. "I've never needed that much space."
As she moved further into the room, Kellie added that there was also a laundry room down in the basement and an open sundeck up on the roof, one that provided a panoramic view of Southern Manhattan and beyond.
"Of course, today's not the day to take you up there to see it," she quipped as she directed Gina to hang her own coat beside hers.
She showed Gina, first the bathroom, and then the bedroom, which also had a large window that on clearer days would've filled it with bright natural light. Much of the space was taken up by a twin sized bed, with the opposing wall filled with a row of built in cabinets.
"Well, now that you've had the grand tour, what say we see what we can whip up for dinner?" Kellie suggested.
"Now that you remind me, I'm famished," Gina replied.
For something Kellie just whipped up out of leftovers in the refrigerator, Gina thought it was one of the best meals she'd had in months, especially when her hostess brought out a really great bottle of wine to go with it.
Rather than squeeze in around the small table in the kitchenette, which despite being advertised as a table for two barely sat one comfortably, Kellie produced two folding television trays that allowed them to eat in the more spacious living room. They talked about a variety of topics as they ate, refilling their glasses twice during the course of the dinner.
"I'll say it again, that was really good," Gina said as she pushed her now empty plate just a little further away from her on the tray, signifying she was done.
"I'm glad that you enjoyed it," Kellie smiled, having finished her own meal a few minutes before. "So, what would you like to do now?"
" You said you had HBO, right? We could watch a movie," Gina suggested.
"You're not tired?" Kellie asked. "I know it's not that late, but it's been a long day."
"You know, I probably should be, but I'm not," Gina replied. "I feel like I could stay up half the night."
"A movie it is then," Kellie replied. "Just give me a few minutes to clear this all up and ...."
"Oh no, not this time," Gina interrupted. "You sit there and enjoy your wine; I'll take care of it."
It took only a few minutes to clear the dishes, since all Gina really had to do was scrape them off and load the dishwasher, setting it to run overnight. As she did, Gina added that to things she missed. Her parents' house had been built before most modern appliances had come into use, and while her father had upgraded most of the kitchen, a dishwasher had seemed to him a frivolous expense.