She reached fort the answering machine they used during the off-hours, but before she could set up, the door to the office suite opened and Susan rushed ih Shoot. She’d been trying to get out of herebefore that woman got back. As usual, Susan was in a hurry and had that look on her face that meant she was about to bark some order. Charmaine stood and made a point of slinging her bag over hershoulder to signal that the day was over for her…
« Oh great » , Susan said, approaching Charmaine’s desk. « you’re still here ». Charmaine didn’t know what kind of perfume Susan wore, but it mustbe expensive because its rosy scent clung to the woman all day long. Charmaine’s own perfume, or cologne to be more precise, lost its fragrance almost as soon as it left thr bottle. « I was just aboutto leave thought »
« Did you finish typing the budget report ? «
« You said you didn’t need it till Monday afternoon. »
« I know. But it turns out from this meeting I just left that I’ll needit first thing Monday morning. Can you stay a while and finish it fort me ? «
No, no,no. Type it yourself. She had a child to go pick up, food to cook, bills to check on, a husband to lay out. Theonly decent part of the day was going to get her son in the evening, seeing his eyes light up when she picked him up from the day care center, playing with him while dinner cooked, putting him to bedat night. Besides, the day car centrer would charge extra of she was late picking up Kenny, and she just managed to make the payments as it was. Now she had this TV bill to pay. You’d think a womanboss with children of her own would understand these things. But of course Susan wouldn’t. Susan could afford to pay the baby-sitter for an extra hour or two. Or her loving, dutiful husband could pickup the kids. How could she expect this WASP princess to understand ?
Charmaine dropped her purse on the desk. It look a lot of restraint to keep the ressentment she felt off her face. « I guess…