walking papers alone in a place like this

#WALKING PAPERS ALONE IN A PLACE LIKE THIS MOVIE#
#WALKING PAPERS ALONE IN A PLACE LIKE THIS FREE#

It’s the first time in a long time that they are profligate. Every time she goes out on a call he gets a twenty off the top to spend on whatever he wants.

#WALKING PAPERS ALONE IN A PLACE LIKE THIS MOVIE#

She buys clothes, gifts, movie tickets, beer. But her crisp fifties and twenties and hundreds are paying for groceries, gas, dog food, and their whole summer vacation. Yes, he’s paying the mortgage and the property taxes and whatever balance is on the credit card every month. She finds another day job – something clerical that is a little below her – because she can’t stand the thought of her in-laws thinking she’s leeching off her boyfriend. It’s important to her that this doesn’t affect him or their relationship in any major way. And her rule: condoms always, from now on. “Just don’t make me drive you anywhere,” he stipulated later. She’s also maybe a little too honest with her boyfriend, who didn’t really believe in this career transition until she walked out the door in a short skirt and lace tank top that first night. She shoves the most boring, regular parts of herself right in their faces: gardening, mortgage, layoff, skiing, dog. She tries to stop being so open, but can’t she likes making them know her. She aims to treat all her clients with the same level of friendly customer service for which she was valued for at city hall, which means she’s often too honest about her real life. She is entertained by these assertions, but not flattered. And how they all tell her she’s beautiful and special and not like a hooker at all.

Pretty quickly she got used to how old men kiss – each one different and already locked deep in his ways. She knows because she’s always kept careful track she’s a natural bureaucrat. The count doubles her previous number of sexual partners. She’d like to see the look on his face if he knew.Īs of her termination date, she’s had sex with six guys who aren’t her boyfriend and netted about $1,900. No one’s done this to her she made the decision alone in her bedroom on a sunny Tuesday morning a month ago. She’d say, “You did this to me.” It’s not true. If she caught her boss’ boss alone in the parking lot right now, she’d say something to him.

#WALKING PAPERS ALONE IN A PLACE LIKE THIS FREE#

She’s such a high roller they throw in a free pair of black panties at the till.

Like her master’s degree, but cheaper and less time-consuming. And it’s good-looking lingerie – spiky black, lacy white, hot pink, burlesque red – which is important because it’s an investment. It’s the kind of place where the staff come into the change room to tuck cool fingers under the straps to ensure a good fit. Kelly walks out of city hall and down the street to a lingerie boutique. Tomorrow she’ll come in and collect the last of her plants from her desk, and that’ll be it. She leaves the book beside the dip, but takes the $10 gift card inside. To the half of the people in the room who haven’t been retired, relocated, or outright canned, he says a cheery, “Well, have a great summer.” He likes to take his six weeks of vacation all at once, she’s heard. Her boss’ boss gives them all a self-help book as a parting gift. She’s the only one whose ties – pay, pension, and benefits – will be entirely severed. But considering that the budget got axed by 30 per cent, the fact that she’s the only one who will be applying for EI strikes her as ludicrous. And some of the clerical staff will move to the mailroom. A few others will fade into early retirement, where their pensions will supplement some part-time work. And it’s while she’s standing there beside the veggie platter, listening to her boss’ boss laud the team he just gutted, that she counts some faces and realizes that in the end, really, she’s the only one going. She’s so angry that it doesn’t really sink in until the last three days, when there’s cake and retirement speeches, that her work buddies will be gossiping without her from now on. She dead-eyes the HR reps from her seat at the front, too pissed off to listen, then sends emails hours later requesting clarification about what the hell she’s supposed to do about her pension. After she gets her official letter, she has to go to meetings where counselors give out leaflets on grief. The people who are staying are, on average, angrier than those who will be leaving. The departmental mood swings adolescently from anger to depression and back, taking everyone with it. No one can be bothered to work, standing in wilted clumps around the office, turning heads like deer at passersby. It’s probably the union that’s responsible for that. Walking papers Honourable mention, creative writing contest (fiction)īy Violet Gartner 11 min read Share Illustration credit: padlaversusmoij via Flickrįor whatever reason, city hall gives Kelly’s department four months’ notice before the layoffs.

Walking papers alone in a place like this