Dark Plums by Maria Espinosa Read Free Book Online Page A

stand.
    â€œSwell, Adrianne. Five-thirty?”
    â€œYes, that’s okay.” Get him off the scent. She’d take another route home. “All right,” she repeated sweetly. Why she was so compelled by his urgency, she had no idea, except that she experienced herself now as a pure wave of energy, even as perspiration from her hand clung to the phone. “I’ll see you.”
    She hung up again.
    Irene handed her a kleenex. “You’re perspiring.”
    â€œJust too popular,” mocked Rose.
    Adrianne laughed again, on the edge of her abyss. Now she was paying for all those encounters she’d had before she met Alfredo. She felt as if she had betrayed him. He must never know about this incident.
    She had absorbed herself in typing the orders when her supervisor, Joyce O’Grady, came into the room. Joyce was a large, grey-haired woman in her fifties. Her skin was soft and pouched.
    â€œAdrianne, I need to talk to you alone,” she said.
    Adrianne followed the supervisor into her small office. Shelves at one end were heaped with fabrics in many hues. Swatches of brightly colored fabric and a multitude of papers covered the desk as well as part of the floor.
    â€œWhat do you want to talk to me about?” Adrianne inquired.
    â€œYou were late again today,” Joyce began.
    â€œI know. There was a subway tie-up.”
    â€œYou’re nearly always ten or fifteen minutes late. Last Thursday you were an hour and a half late.”
    â€œI’m sorry. I’ll try to do better.”
    â€œI’m afraid you won’t have a chance.”
    Adrianne swallowed, and her stomach tightened.
    â€œI didn’t want to fire you because you’re a nice girl. I tried to protect you, honey, I really did. But when Mr. Schwab spotted your latest mistake, he hit the roof. He told me I had to let you go.”
    â€œWhat did I do?”
    â€œ
This
!” Joyce shoved two torn yellow orders at her. One, written in Joyce’s large, circular hand, had red markings on it. The other, which had been typed and bore Adrianne’s initials, was crossed with large blue-inked X’s. “See here, August second.”
    Adrianne glanced at the original order and then at the ones she had printed, but at first both were blurs.
    â€œThe addresses match.”
    â€œYes, I know. Look at the quantities.”
    With her pencil, Joyce lightly circled both numbers which had already been marked. “The original is for one hundred and fifty yards of Midnight Pima, and your order is for fifteen hundred yards. Mistakes do happen, but this is inexcusable.”
    Joyce handed her four more pairs of orders. “Just look at the addresses and the quantities. They’ve been incorrectly copied, and they’re all signed with your initials.”
    Adrianne could not repress a smile. Somehow it delighted her to think of the commotion all the extra material had created when it was delivered.
    A smile escaped Joyce’s lips, too. “I’m sorry to see you go. I know you have a good heart, and the other girls in the office don’t treat you right.”
    Tears rose in Adrianne’s eyes. She liked this warm, motherly supervisor.
    Joyce added, “Let me give you a little advice.” She patted Adrianne’s wrist. “There now, don’t take it so hard. You’ll get a week’s severance pay. I tried to cover up for you. I wanted you to get at least twenty weeks in so you could file for unemployment. Don’t tell anyone I said that,” she muttered. “I want you to wise up,” she continued, clucking like a hen and settling invisible feathers around herself. “All those men who call you … a nice girl like you … all they want is to get inside your pants. Believe me.”
    Adrianne stared at the golden cross which gleamed on Joyce’s ample bosom.
    â€œFind a decent man who respects you, and marry him. You need some steadiness in