Point, Click, Love by Molly Shapiro Read Free Book Online

through them, making sure everything was in order, but noticed one problem: The copies weren’t double-sided.
    “Excuse me, but I asked for double-sided,” said Claudia with barely contained contempt.
    “I don’t think so, ma’am,” said the young boy behind the counter. “I have the order right here.”
    “I did. I know I did,” said Claudia, getting increasingly frantic by the minute.
    “Look, ma’am—”
    “Stop calling me ma’am!” shouted Claudia, prompting everyone in the store to turn and stare. “I’m barely twenty-three, for God’s sake.”
    “You asked for a lot of things … miss. Color, bright-white paper, three-hole punch … but not double-sided.”
    Claudia looked into the boy’s pockmarked face and quickly realized she needed to talk to someone else. “Let me talk to the manager.”
    The boy went to a back office and out came Steve.
    Steve wore one of those cheap polyester uniforms meant to tame and subjugate employees, but he wore it with a grace and confidence that said: “Yes, I’ll do this for now, but I’m not long for this place.”
    He walked out from behind the counter and went right up to Claudia, getting as close as he could without appearing intimidating. “Can I help you?”
    Claudia gazed up at Steve, who must have been at least six foot five, and decided that if she could not surpass him in height she would surpass him in volume. “I have to get these presentations back to my office in ten minutes, and you people completely screwed them up!”
    Steve looked at her patiently, taking a moment to measure his words. “Look … I’m sorry. What’s your name?”
    “Claudia!” she shouted, annoyed that this man wouldn’t get to the point.
    “Claudia. Let me explain something to you. I’m here to help you. I suggest that the next time you have a problem, you act nicely toward the person who has the power to help you. I would be happy to rerun this order exactly how you want it, and I will get it done as quickly as humanly possible. If you want to continue to waste time by arguing over whose fault this is, go right ahead. Otherwise, why don’t we just get started?”
    Stunned into silence, Claudia realized that this person had taught her something that could possibly change her life. At that moment, she decided that she had to see this man again. But while Claudia and Steve did see each other again and did ultimately get married, the lesson that he taught her that day faded quickly. No one, not even Steve, had ever bothered to explain the concept to her again. Instead, once Steve and Claudia started dating, he accepted her for who she was, embracing her faults—her temper and her stubbornness—and never once asking her to change.
    That was what Claudia appreciated most about Steve, but it was something that she often overlooked. For her part, Claudia wanted to change almost every aspect of Steve. That first day they met, at the local Kinko’s, Steve seemed destined for great things. But he never was able to fulfill Claudia’s vision of what he could be. Maybe that was why she found his carefully constructed virtual life so repugnant. Why couldn’t he live that way in the real world?
    Steve always held decent, well-paying jobs at marketing or pharmaceutical or consulting firms, but somewhere along the way any ambition he might have once had mysteriously disappeared.Sometimes Claudia wondered if her own quick rise to the top of her profession was the reason for Steve’s lack of drive. She went from associate to account executive to supervisor to vice president in less than a decade, switching firms every couple years as she searched for the most prestige and the highest pay and taking off only three months after the twins were born. Was Steve actually intimidated by Claudia’s success? Or did he look at her rising salary as an opportunity to goof off, lose his job, and never go back to work again?
    When Claudia met old friends and acquaintances around town,