Poppy

 

 

 

A wave of fresh brewed coffee washes over me like a caffeine scented tide the second the automatic doors glide apart in greeting, blowing the small curls back from my forehead.

I take in another deep breath, my whole body vibrating like I’d just sucked down five shots of espresso even though I’d barely had a sip of my coffee. Nervousness sparked through my body like little jolts of electricity, making it hard to breathe and see and move. I’d only ever been a waitress and the interview for that was just me walking into the diner and desperately pointing at the ‘now hiring’ sign. This would be the very first time I was asked about my skills and qualifications, all of which were doubtful at best.

In that one second prior to the magnificent black glass doors of the huge building flying open, my eyes met unwillingly with my reflection. My loose jeans and tight blouse were much more suited for a teen’s jaunt to the mall than for a ‘big girl job,’ as Miki had tactfully put it.

Great. What a boost to my confidence that was.

Anxiously, I shoot a look towards my watch as I pass by the coffee counter with a longing glance. The girl behind the counter meets my eye with a perky, inviting smile that makes me want to cry. I’d already wasted enough money trying to get a coffee. But, maybe it the interview went well I could reward myself with a take two…

The elevator dings happily at its arrival on the main floor, doors pulling apart as I weave my way in with the rest of the suited, classy people. In the sea of sheer professionalism, I couldn’t keep my eyes to myself. I must’ve looked deranged, staring at them all so inquisitively. But how did they get all the wrinkles out of their clothes? And how did the men shave their faces so closely?

It was fascinating. Or maybe I’m just easily entertained.

The elevator rocketed upwards so quickly that I stumbled with the vigorous jostling of the floor beneath me. While the others looked particularly nonplussed about the shimmying and shaking of the metal box, I felt as though we’d left my stomach on that bottom floor with the happy barista. I clutched one hand over my tense abdomen, willing away the queasiness that made my cheeks go a sickly shade of pale. Though there was someone in the way, I shoved myself clumsily to the side so that I could grip the silver bar against the wall as if it would save me when this flimsy elevator inevitably catapulted through the very ceiling of the skyscraper and headed towards Mars. 

Just as I was contemplating my new life as an astronaut, the elevator slowed to an abrupt and unexpectedly graceful halt on the fortieth floor. Unwilling to wait patiently for my turn to exit, I all but hurled myself out between the doors, landing unceremoniously in a heap on the cool tile floor. The firmness of the ground was a welcome relief to the hell hole of the elevator shaft. There were a dozen huge windows placed elegantly along the tall walls and even from my spot on the tile I could see the tops of other smaller buildings that made me clutch at my stomach once more. I was not built for heights.

The people file around me impatiently, not even sparing a glance or a helping hand. I couldn’t help but think that I was perhaps not the first person to clutch the ground after escaping from the elevator.

If I actually did end up working here, would I eventually get used to those elevators blasting off with hyper speed? How were the other people so casual about it?

As I slowly began to gather myself once more, the heat of a frown bears down on my back. Lifting my head, I quickly find a woman with iceberg eyes and silky black hair eying me from a nearby desk. One of her ebony brows arches towards her perfect hairline as she stands slowly. Even in a simple but elegant long sleeve blouse and tasteful pencil skirt, she’s stunning. I’m totally straight, but the way she purses her lips disapprovingly almost made me reconsider it for a second. Were all the women in this place as lovely? I was never going to fit in.

“Good morning.” She murmurs with a clear of her throat, and even her voice is beautiful, “I’m Reagan Sherry, office manager here at our lovely corporation. Can I help you with something?” She speaks as though she’s reciting a grand script, though she stifles a yawn at the end.

As I gaze up at her in awe from my crumpled position on the floor, her cool blue eyes sweep over my high school appropriate attire, thin arms folding over her chest.

 “Yes!” I gasp hurriedly, climbing to my feet with the grace of a newborn giraffe and smoothing my hands over my shirt, “Poppy Lewis. I’m here to interview for the receptionist position.”

The woman’s manicured eyebrow twitches and I can already see the rejection forming in her eyes. Like hell I was going to give in this easily though.

 “I’ve brought a few copies of my resume in case you need them…” I frown, digging through my purse for the folder I was so positive I’d stuck in there last night though my fingers only grazed across old lipstick tubes and cough drops.

Damn.

Maybe it fell out when I went back to the apartment…

“Oh, erm, well,” I stammer, swinging my purse back to my side and turning back to the unimpressed woman, “I seem to have misplaced them-”

“It won’t be needed.” The woman interrupts, managing to arrange her face with a tight lipped smile, her crimson lipstick shimmering beneath the florescent lights of the office.

No. No. No.

I wasn’t going to be turned away this easily. I couldn’t. I absolutely had to have this job.

“I may not have any professional office experience, but I am such a hard worker! I pick up extra shifts at the diner all the time and I do have a bachelor’s degree from the state college and-”

“Like I said.” The woman once again cuts like a steely knife through my rambling, her eyes shifting away as if she’s looking for help though no one is bothering to watch us, “That won’t be needed.”

“But why?” I cry out shrilly, hating how very much I sound like Miki in this moment.

I could almost see my Dad’s grimace and scolding words at my whiny tone - that’s no way to get a big girl job, young lady!

“Mr. Price, who would typically run the interviews, is not in the office at the moment.”

“But…” My head spun, thoughts whirling up like a frantic hurricane, “But I came all this way.”

“I do apologize.” Reagan offers with a smile that is anything but apologetic, “We’ll have to reschedule.”

“I took off from work today.” I continue blankly, swallowing the thick lump of my throat, “I missed an entire day of pay to come out here and interview for this job.” I couldn’t afford to take another day off, especially not when they reschedule things last minute without any notice.

The woman clears her throat once more, my invitation to leave the office but I stand firm.

“No, this is unacceptable.” I whisper, shoving a lock of hair that has sprung free of my tight bun out of my eyes, “I’m not leaving until I have my interview.”

The woman’s face pulses with irritation, her mask of a smile cracking across her tan face, “I’m not sure if you heard me correctly but your interviewer is unavailable and we will have to do this another time.”

“You’re the office manager here, can’t you just do it?”

Reagan slams a hand on the desk beside us, making me and the woman seated at it jump a foot off the ground.

“No, I can’t do it.” She whispers, ice blue eyes churning like a furious storm, “Only Grant Price has authority to interview new hires.”

For a moment I almost lose all my nerve and back down in the face of her irritation, but then I notice that we’ve begun to attract attention. Some people have stood from their desks, watching our interaction with lukewarm curiosity as though we’re the afternoon matinee of an insipid show.

It was too late to cow down now. I was either leaving with a job or with the help of security.

“Ms. Sherry, I understand that this may be a disruption in your day, but I absolutely cannot leave without this interview. I deserve that simple respect.”

“Do you?” She shoots back with a scathing frown as I only nod, planting my hands resolutely on my hips.

We stare each other down, her long painted fingernails drumming irately against the desk of the main lobby receptionist. A vein throbs on the side of her head while she debates calling security. Just as she sighs deeply and reaches towards the phone on the desk, a man approaches and lightly wraps his fingers around Reagan’s elbow.

“For God’s sake, Reagan, give the girl the job.” He hisses with a sweep of a hand through his grey hair, peering at us from behind thick glasses, “She’s making a scene and we don’t need the bad publicity.”

Reagan jerks her elbow from his hold, glaring at him as he continues on his path towards the elevator before her furious eyes narrow back on me.

For an excruciating sixty seconds, she only continues to stare at me in stark, grave silence. Then she flicks her hair over her shoulder, glancing down at the woman seated behind us at the desk.

“You heard my father.” Reagan mutters with a roll of her dark lashed eyes, “This will be our new floor secretary.”

“Thanks, Ms. Sherry!” I cry excitedly as she turns her back and walks away. She moves with such grace that had her heels not been clicking on the tile, I would have thought she was floating along with invisible wings, “You won’t regret this, I swear!”

The woman pauses in the doorway to an office, one hand resting along the firm frame as she slowly turns to gaze at me from over her shoulder.

“I’d better not.” She warns sternly before gliding around the corner, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

 

~~

 

Miki grabs another cheese coated fry from the plate while Jane refills our coffee cups, her grey eyes watery.

“I just can’t believe you’re leavin’ us, sweetie.” She sighs with a little sniffle and a shake of her head.

She bites her lip, more tears bursting in the corners of her eyes as wipes her nose, “The diner will hardly be the same without you livening it up every day.”

The diner is small and cozy, each of the booths constantly filled. No music plays, instead, the only sound is the happy chatter of content guests. It’s not like I ever got rich working here, but the clients and the staff were like family - Jane especially. The forty something year old had taken me under her wing the moment she’d heard about my parents. Plus, we got a pretty heavy discount on food and drink here. On days when I just couldn’t pull together enough cash to put any real food on the table, I could always bring Miki here to get her fill.

“Babe,” David frowns, flicking the curly fry lightly from between my sister’s fingers so that it splattered in a yellow smear on the table, “Don’t you think you’ve had enough.”

Before I can say anything, Miki rolls her eyes, snatching the fry back up and taking a stubborn bite while glaring into the eyes of her boyfriend.

I shift in my seat uncomfortably, the plastic squeaking beneath me. When Miki offered to take me out on a congratulatory dinner date, I hadn’t anticipated it to include David. Then again, there was rarely a time they weren’t glued to one another. They got along as well as two cats in a bag, but Miki insisted they loved one another.

I’d been hoping to use this as a time to talk about what had happened this morning, but clearly that wasn’t going to happen.

“So, how was school?” I ask, struggling for conversation as Jane plops down two roast beef sandwiches and a patty melt for David. It was difficult enough for Miki and I to connect lately, David’s presence wasn’t helping matters much.

He and my sister exchange what they think to be subtle smirks, making my fingers curl into fists below the table.

“You did go after I caught you at home, didn’t you?”

Bubbles of irritation began to foam inside my gut as I lift my chin and try to remain calm. Across the diner, Jane’s eyes lock with mine as she refills a couple’s water glasses, her brow creasing slightly. She could read me like a book. I’d told her all about the strain between Miki and I since our parents’ death, she’d wrapped me up in her thick, warm arms and promised me it’d get better someday.

“Listen, Poppy,” David shrugs with a mouthful of patty melt, wrapping an arm around Miki’s shoulders as she giggles and leans into his embrace, “Mikayla is about to graduate. That’s an accomplishment all in itself. Doesn’t she deserve a little free time to… play and stuff.”

The way he said ‘play’ made me want to vomit.

My teeth ground together, lips going taut. Miki glances between myself and her boyfriend, enthralled by the way he stands up for her.

“Mikayla has plenty of time to play when she’s not in class.” I seethe, still struggling to remain calm.

David shrugs, his black shaggy hair falling into equally dark eyes, “All I’m sayin’ is I didn’t need high school to be successful.”

“What?” I gasp, heart falling into my chest. As though it weren’t enough that David was nearing 25 and dating my teenage sister, now I find out that the dude is a high school drop out?’

“I quit when I was a sophomore. Miki should be proud of what she’s achieved.”

Turning my hasty attention towards the eighteen year old, I somehow manage to spit out my words quickly, “You’re living under my roof and you’re going to follow my rules. That includes going to class every day until you walk across that stage for your diploma.”

As soon as the words leave my mouth, I know I’ve made a grave mistake.

David’s eyes light up at the very minute that Miki’s go an angry dark. Perhaps if I’d been a parent longer than two years, I would have known not to issue a threat like that. I was doing the damn best that I could manage, but this time that wouldn’t be enough. I’d tried this same exact strategy when Miki told me she was dating David, and look where that got me.

“You know, Poppy, you’re right about that.” David pipes up with a grin so happy it makes me want to throttle him. He turns slightly towards Mikayla, grabbing her hand into his own, “You should move in with me, Miki.”

“Excuse me!” I bellow, slapping shocked palms on the table so roughly that my coffee cup shakes and spills brown liquid in a splash across the table, “She is absolutely not doing that!”

Miki lifts her chin, her blazing gold eyes locking on mine with a stubbornness far greater than my own, “I’m over eighteen, Poppy. I can do what I want.” Her lips twitch into a smile and I know she’s going for the kill, “It’s not like you’re my mother.”

David nods and gives the girl a tight squeeze, planting a kiss on her temple as though Miki had just stood up to a long time bully.

Every single one of her words is a knife plunging straight into my aching heart. I know perfectly well I’m not her mother, I know perfectly well that we lost a beautiful soul in our Mom. But I have tried so damn hard to provide for my sister. I’ve done everything I possibly could to make her happy.

And now I was losing her to a man with a haircut like a muffin and beady eyes.

She smiles at me, savoring her victory and the hurt in my eyes. Mikayla is not a bad girl and she is not cruel. But right now, she’s angry and frustrated and taking it out on me. 

“Miki, I’m sorry.” I backpedal hastily, but I know full well that Miki won’t back down from this. When her mind is made up, it’s made up like a concrete wall.

 “I accept your apology.” Miki responds coolly, giving a sharp little nod to David and beginning to scoot out from the booth. The plastic sticks to her slender legs, squelching loudly until I feel that everyone in the diner is watching with judgmental eyes.

Before she can escape, Jane rushes over with a whole cherry pie in her hands.

“Y’all looked like you could use some pie.” Jane murmurs with a cheery grin and an uncomfortable dip of her head before she dashes back behind the bustling counter.

“You’ll excuse me if I haven’t got the appetite for pie.” Miki huffs resiliently, “I’ll be over in a few hours to pick up my things.”

There’s not a single word I can say or a thing I can do as Mikayla takes David’s hand in her own and guides him from the diner. As they leave, the bell on the door chimes with a loud, obnoxious perkiness that makes tears swell in my eyes.

Today was supposed to be the best day ever, but now it would be marred forever.

Jane reappears as they leave, sliding into the seat beside me and letting me collapse into her arms.

“Sweetie,” She whispers, clutching me tight and rocking me back and forth, “That girl will realize her mistake soon enough.”

I’d done all this for Miki, and now she’d be gone.