Claire sipped her white russian. What to do… still crossing her mind. She just lost her job, but in the end she wasn’t too put down by it. “I am relieved” crossing her mind over and over again from every direction.
She heard a knock on the door and Ozzie jumped from the counter to the floors waiting in anticipation of another knock.
She discreetly turned over her coffee table like a speak-easy, putting her tray and bong into the massive drawer underneath.
She went to the door and looked through the peephole.
Oh my god… fuck, what could this be? It was Herman.
She had only gotten off the phone him less than two hours ago. She had been in a smoke-fueled daze sipping her caffeinated cocktail for this long… and now she seemed to be paying for it. She was only dressed in sweats and an old band tee. Slipknot, she’d had it since she was 11 years old.
She opened the door, holding Ozzie.
“Hello Herman. How are you doing? What are you doing at my apartment? I thought I didn’t need to come into the office again.” Claire said.
Herman rolled his eyes and nearly keeled over, two empty minis falling out of his jacket pocket. “My bad honey, let me pick those up. I came looking for you because I want you to know, I always thought you were so beautiful and deserved more recognition. Now even in my state I could see that, why don’t you give a poor man a kiss?”
Claire was disgusted.
“You’re drunk Herman, go home. I’m not your employee anymore this is wrong. You’re just giving me a compliment to catch up with how sorry you are, right now.”
“Well, well, fine there babe I should be going home as it is. I won’t have an office in a week.” Herman declared.
“You’re not the only one who lost their job, Herman. Toodleloo.” Claire tried to scrape her dignity. Back to smoke and white russian.
What an odd encounter. Herman was if anything a brisk boss with nepo-baby syndrome, never even made a pass at her.
Well, let that be my last embarrassing encounter of 1972 as it shall be.
There was snow on the ground. Such a rarity around these parts but it always made her think of her move from the sunny California where she was born through onto the desert then the lowcountry of South Carolina where there was an Arctic freeze and snow flurries were flying past on the way inside Walmart. She came from a military family.
It was almost the end of the year. She had spent Thanksgiving and Christmas with family but decided to save New Year’s Eve in case something would come up or she just wanted to be lazy and watch movies until midnight.
I could do anything… Claire thought.
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