Chapter 2
The man was tall, dark, and very suave. He was in his early forties, and Loretta knew he was well-versed in insurance adjustment. Jerome Doan was her last hope for this kind of job. Loretta had been to countless other insurance offices prior to coming to this one, and Reveler's was her final chance.
She had been ushered into his office by the man, personally, who had come out rather than merely ordering his secretary to send her in. She immediately realized he had been told she was good to look at, and he was trying to make an impression on her as a man, just as she was trying to impress him as a competent worker. In all the other insurance offices she had rejected any advances made by some of the men, primarily because she hated men, but also because most of them were either bald, fat, skinny, or in some way unattractive. Jerome Doan's only unattractive feature was that he was a man.
For the first time it occurred to Loretta that the only way she was going to get the job was to play up to the man and let him think he might get somewhere if he hired her. Once she had the job and proved her competency, even if he fired her for not coming across, she would at least have a record she would be able to show to some of the insurance companies that had previously rejected her, probably assuring her of a job with at least one of them.
The office was plush, and Loretta sat in a chair by the side of the huge desk as the tall, handsome, black-haired man sat behind the desk and asked her the same perfunctory questions all the others had asked. When it was all over, he leaned back in his tilted chair and said, "We might have a place for you, Miss Byrne. It depends more on your attitude than anything else. I like the way you feel about people in general. However you have a rebellious spirit, and to be quite frank, we need people working for us who can follow orders."
"I can follow orders," Loretta insisted, smoothing her hands over her green skirt, trying to tug it down.
"May I suggest you and I discuss this further at lunch."
Lunch! It was the first test. Loretta knew if she turned him down, she would lose the job. But what harm was there in having lunch? After all, they would be in a restaurant.
"Very well, sir," she nodded. "Lunch! Where?"
"I'll meet you in front of the building at one o'clock. By that time most of the employees will be back from their own lunch, and we'll have a leisurely time of it."
"Certainly," Loretta agreed, smiling a plastic smile.
It was almost eleven when she left the man's office, an office in Forest City on Long Island. Yes, she had left West Virginia as quickly as she had been able to do so, and now, with some money she had saved while working her way through college, and after college working in a dress shop for five years, she had come to Forest City where her mother would never find her, and her step-father would never again have the opportunity to preach to her as he had done for eight years following his rape of her. He had preached a lot, but he had never again put hands on her. She had made certain of that.
The avenue had a lot of stores, and she window-shopped for the next two hours. Then she returned to the Reveler's Building.