"Here you go," Ellie Travis said to the well dressed woman on the other side of the glass counter as she handed her the small store bag continuing her purchase, "and thank you for shopping here at R.J. Nickels."
Ellie always felt a little silly saying that after every sale, but knew all too well that some supervisors were eager to write you up for not doing so. As her customer walked away from the counter, the short haired brunette took a moment to check her hair and makeup in one of the oversized mirrors. As she did so, she once again thought it incredible how some women were willing to buy a product, just because it had some celebrity's name on it. In the twenty-five year old's opinion, the cosmetics that woman had just purchased really weren't any better than the ones Ellie bought for herself at her local drug store at less than half the price.
Still, if some women weren't willing to spend a small fortune every week on overpriced cosmetics, Ellie knew she would soon be out of a job. Working the counter at the block long, midtown department store might not have been the greatest of jobs, but it was a job nevertheless. One that paid the bills and gave her enough flexibility to take some college courses designed to help her get a better position down the line. Plus, the job did come with some perks, including a generous employee discount, and while Ellie wasn't willing to buy her cosmetics here, discount or not, she did make use of it for clothes whenever she could. Despite having lived in Manhattan all of her life, there was no way she could dress the part, at least the image that television and movies projected, without it.
Glancing down the length of her counter, Ellie didn't see anyone else that needed help, so it gave her time to reflect on the state of her life. She would've been further along in her goals, she knew, if only she'd paid more attention back in high school, or even had a definite plan what to do afterwards. Unfortunately, if it wasn't part of her social life back then, few things merited her attention. Thankfully, those days were behind her now and while she still valued an active social life she tried to keep it in proper perspective.
The job, such as it was, was one thing she had going for her; having gone back to school was another. If she had to pick a third, Ellie would undoubtedly choose the nice two bedroom apartment that she lived in just a short walk from Greenwich Village. That she shared the apartment with three other roommates was something she usually failed to mention when she told people about it.
Sharing the five room apartment called for some compromises, she knew, the most interesting of which was when one of the girls had an overnight guest. Normally, Ellie shared one bedroom with Carol Murphy, and her other two roommates, Bridget Kelly and Alice Moore the other. If one of the girls was planning to have an overnight guest, three of them would use the larger of the two bedrooms, turning the smaller one over to the roommate with the guest. It was far from a perfect arrangement, since you really didn't always know beforehand if you were going to have an overnight guest.
Up until about a month and a half ago, Ellie didn't have to worry about any of that, because she'd had a steady boyfriend in David Graham, who worked in the store's delivery department. They'd met at a company function the summer before and it had been love at first sight. Okay, maybe lust at first sight, but love at eventually found its way in there as well. Or at least what she liked to think of as love.
Three inches taller than her own five six, David, who was also two years older, had the kind of body you normally associated with a professional athlete. Not surprising seeing, he'd been a high school jock who made the all city team his senior year. But high school and college football were two different things, and he dropped out of college after his freshman year when he was cut from the team.
And while he wasn't the brightest bulb in the box, Ellie had never gone for the intellectual type anyway. The twenty-seven year old blond was smart enough, funny and totally awesome in bed. In hindsight, Ellie sometimes though that it was because he was such a great fuck that it blinded her to other things that she might have otherwise noticed.
During the last month of their relationship, the subject of Ellie moving in with David began to occasionally come up. Usually just after they'd finished an exhausting romp in his bed. David would be all for the idea post coitus, but then his enthusiasm would usually fade come the dawn. Ellie didn't press the issue because, given the number of nights she slept at his West Side apartment, they were practically living together already. Eventually, she reasoned, he would come to realize it and make it official.
What Ellie never understood, however, was that David didn't see it quite the same way. In fact, his whole take on their relationship turned out to be quite different than hers, quite different indeed. It wasn't until the day of the electrical fire at the store that Ellie discovered how dissimilar their views actually were.
The fire had started in a storage closet a little after lunch and while there was no major damage or injury, the store had to be evacuated and the lingering odor afterwards precluded customers returning. When the decision was made just to close up for the rest of the day, it hadn't taken Ellie five minutes to close up her counter and head for the door.
A few of the other girls decided to make the most of the free afternoon and head over to Times Square, but Ellie had other plans. David had called in sick that morning and although he said he was feeling much better when she'd talked to him during lunch, she'd promised to stop by after work to be sure.
She'd had her cell phone in hand to call him, to let him know she would be early, but then decided to surprise him instead. She'd stop at the deli on the corner by his apartment and pick him up some soup in case he was still feeling poorly. If the opposite proved true, Ellie mused, well then, a nooner wasn't out of the question.
Soup in hand, Ellie used the key David had given her to let herself into the large apartment. Almost twice the size of the one she shared with her roommates, the rent controlled apartment still had his grandmother's name on the lease, which explained how a simple delivery man could afford to live there.
When she didn't find David in the kitchen or living room, Ellie left the soup on the kitchen counter and headed down the long hallway towards the bedroom, slipping off her loafers as not to wake him if he turned out to be asleep. If he was, she'd already decided to crawl into bed with him, if only to help keep him warm.
The door turned out to be slightly ajar and, silently peeking in, Ellie realized that she could've been wearing combat boots and it wouldn't have made a bit of difference. David was in bed alright, but not only was he wide awake, he wasn't alone.
"Oh God, baby," she heard David say, his voice just loud enough to carry to the door, "your fucking ass is so tight!"
"That's because your fucking cock is so big!" came the reply from a dark haired woman, who, like David, was facing away from the door, her features hidden.
Ellie didn't need to see her face, however, to recognize the heavily accented voice of Lola Sanchez, one of the floor supervisors at the store. Ten years older and thirty pounds heavier than Ellie, the twice divorced Latina had a reputation as something of a slut. Never one to give much credence to store gossip, Ellie had never fully believed it until now.
Without a word, Ellie had silently exited the apartment, but not before leaving her key atop a hastily written note on the coffee table in the living room. The note had simply said, "It's over." The two of them had not spoken since. In fact, David never even tried to call her to try and explain - not that there was any explanation that would've mattered.
"Well, it could've been worse," Ellie's best friend from the store, Carmen Silva, told her a few nights later as the two of them commiserated in a midtown bar after work.
"How could it have been worse?" a slightly inebriated Ellie had asked.
"David could've been the one with the cock up his ass," the thirty-nine year old Puerto Rican woman laughed.
Although she had laughed at the joke, Ellie had thought, if that had been the case, she might not have felt as bad as she did. Oh, she wouldn't have been happy by any means, but at least she might have understood the reason more. In all the times she and David had gone to bed, he'd never even suggested that he'd wanted to fuck her ass. It wasn't something that Ellie had done before, but that didn't mean she wouldn't have been willing to try. After all, considering the things they had tried, David knew she was far from a sexual prude.
David must've told some story to his co-workers, because it didn't take long for the word to get out that the two of them were no longer a couple. Ellie never bothered to try and find out what he'd said, but it couldn't have been detrimental, because soon after, a number of single and some not so single men began to drop by her counter with invitations that ranged from lunch to drinks after work.
All of which Ellie had turned down as nicely as she could. Some she told that she needed some time to herself, others that she wanted to just concentrate on school for a while. Some, she just simply said no to. Eventually, she got the message across and the invitations stopped. At least for a while.
