3

She got out of the shower and looked through her closet for the right clothes to wear. Her nice button down blouse and a pair of slacks. On the floor of her closet were fourteen pairs of shoes to choose from and she chose her black leather ones with the hard soles. She never liked belts and despised tucking her shirt in but she could do it today. She placed the pin through the third hole easily and thought, “As it should be”. She sat down on the bed next to him and tightened the laces on her shoes and tied them. When she stood up to look in the mirror again he woke up and rolled over and looked at her from behind. She looked better put together than he’d seen her in some time and he told her she looked good. She just looked over her shoulder at him and then back to the mirror.

In the other room she grabbed her make-up bag and brought it back to the mirror and sat down on the floor. A little bit of powder on the cheeks with a brush and some mascara was all she ever had the patience to bother with and she knew that she didn’t need more. She zipped the bag shut and stood up and straightened the wrinkles in her pants on her hips and opened her eyes wide three times to keep the mascara on her eyelashes from sticking. He was still watching as she grabbed her coat and simply said goodbye to him. He said goodbye as she walked out the bedroom door and then listened for the door downstairs to shut.

In the car she pulled out a piece of gum and pressed fast-forward on the tape deck until she found Led Zeppelin’s “D’yer Maker” and then pulled out of the parking space and onto the road. Even though she had the urge to light a cigarette she didn’t. She had quit smoking four days ago and she was just starting to feel good about it. This morning the sun was rising as she drove down the highway and she began to think about how far she’d come and how she had this interview in the bag before they’d even met her. This much she was sure of. This was going to be the job to end all Einstein Bros Bagels jobs, all ice cream stands at the mall where men looked down her shirt when she bent over to scoop their Rocky Road. In this job she would help people and she would make a difference, similar to the difference her own counselors in rehab made in her life. She would make a difference and she would matter.