Bill and I are having a hard time right now making the bills. I knew for the sake of both of our sanity that I would have to get a job so I could help pay the pressing bills. The problem all started over a year ago when Bill decided that we needed a new car. If he had bought one we could afford, well we would not be in this mess. No, he had to buy a big new Mercury SUV it cost over $42,000. I wanted a nice little Ford Focus that was around $16,000. If he had bought the Ford when the water-heater broke and flooded the house we would not have been in such a bind when we had to replace all the carpet.
Any way the penny pinching was killing us both, for almost a year all the problems had even affected our sex life. How could I relax and have sex knowing that the man making love to me put us in this kind of finical position. The bills were two months behind and some were almost three months behind. Before the bill problem we never argued in the last 8 years of our marriage over money, now it is all we talk about this past year. I started looking in the help wanted ads, there where a lot of jobs out there. The problem was, every job I found all paid minimum wage. One ad caught my eyes it said “Are you willing to work hard? Do you want to make more than minimum wage? If so we will train you call now” and then of course it had the phone number.
Well I called and spoke with a nice friendly woman who gave me directions to the office. I asked her what the job was about and she would not discuss it over the phone. I went down there and I think the whole city was there for the opening. I waited over an hour just to see the receptionist. She handed me a standard application, which I promptly filled out. The when I returned it to her, she took my picture with a Polaroid and stapled it to the application. She told me I would be contacted if I was selected. I went home still not knowing what the job was about.
The sign for the office said “Celebrity Center” I went back home and decide to continue looking. Two days later I received a call to return to meet the Owner. I was told I was one of the five finalists for the position. I showed up right at 10 AM as instructed. When I went in another woman was walking out. I think I recognized her from the many women I saw the day I applied. When I was introduced to the Owner he introduced himself as Peter Long. I sat down and while holding my application going over it he said “It says here you are married and have no children, is that correct?’ I said, “Yes, I’ve been married now going on 9 years.
Then he asked me something I thought was strange, he said “tell me why you need or want to work” I guess what hit me was his saying “need” I wanted to tell him real nasty that I did not need to work, but I didn’t instead I said “Well times are real tuff right now, and if I don’t get a job soon we just may loose everything we have.” I did not want to go into detail, but he pressed me. “Why is that Linda?” I ended up telling him about the car, the bills and I must have gone on and on like a chatterbox.
When I finished he then said “The job pays starts out at $27.85 an hour, we pay time and a half for every hour over a 8 hour work day. Holidays we pay triple time and a half.” The numbers we were saying almost took my breath away. I said “doing what? I mean what do you do here? What would I be doing if you hired me?” He smiled and said; “Now that’s what I’m looking for a woman with a brain. Here at Celebrity Center, we are hired by the celebrities to host different functions for them. As well as all of the big Studios here in Hollywood. They contract us to make sure everything runs smoothly and they pay us well for doing just that.”
I then said “I am not sure that I am qualified for that, I mean I would like to but I never did anything like that in the past.” Peter said “Don’t worry about that I will train you and you will be the perfect host if you are picked for this job, I’ll call you, well I won’t call you, but one of my girls will call in the morning to let you know if I want you or not for the position. If I do hire you, I will need to meet with you and your husband before any finial decision is made.” I thanked him and drove home.
The next day the phone rang about Noon and the woman on the other end said “Mr.. Long would like to meet with you and your husband around 6 PM to offer you the open position, can you meet with him at that time?” I assured her we would both be there. When we arrived Mr. Long did not keep us waiting. He began by telling me that of all 783 women that applied that he has chosen me. He then told us the final decision rested on this meeting. He looked straight at Bill and asked, “How do you feel about Linda working here?” Bill said, “She can work where ever she wants too, I don’t care, just as long as it pays good.”
Mr.. Long then said “Bill, because of the type of business we have here, Linda may come to work in the morning and not get home until 1,2 or 3 AM, will that be a problem?” Bill said “Well she did say you paid time and a half so, I think it would be OK once and a while.” Mr.. Long then said, “Bill, it could be two or three times a week, we are very busy here, do you feel the time involved is it worth it to you two to have Linda to work here?” We both told him it was and that I was anxious to start. Mr.. Long asked Bill for his work number just incase of an emergency since I did not put it down on the application.
When the meeting was over Mr. Long said “Linda you have the job if you want it, be here tomorrow by 7 AM we will start your training then.” We got up and went sailing out of his office straight home. Bill kept talking about all the money I would make and how it paid almost three times his pay. He was very happy we would be having the extra money coming in. I was happy to know we could catch up on the Bills and start saving money for a change.