David Miller glanced up from the pages he was feeding into the photocopier, taking note of the time on the clock on the wall. The nineteen year old had been working in Mail and Reproduction for nearly eighteen months now, just long enough for his job responsibilities to have become routine. Actually tedious might have been a better word, as even putting together copies of the 1977 first quarter report for nearly six hundred employees was more time consuming than difficult.
It was just a matter of copying the interior black and white pages, collating them, and then attaching the multi-colored covers before slipping the completed books into the electric stapler to bind it all together. And the new copier even did the correlating for him, making over twenty complete copies at a time before he had to start over.
No, it wasn't the project, important as it was, that was on the brown-haired teen's mind, but rather the daily visit of one of the copy girls who worked on the main floor of Ryan and Moore, one level above. Peggy McCallister was the kind of girl who wouldn't even give him the time of day back in high school, unless of course she needed his help in one of her classes. And in most cases, the help she would be looking for wasn't tutoring but having the work done for her.
But high school was behind him now and he was determined that here, out in the real world, things were going to be different. Over the last month, David had struck up a friendship of sorts with Peggy, expediting any work she brought down to the center and had even managed to have lunch with her a few times in the company cafeteria. Well, having lunch together might have been a misleading way to look at it. Better to just say she hadn't objected when he asked if he could sit with her. Today, however, he was going to take a giant leap; he was going to ask her out on a date.
As it turned out, he needn't have worried about missing Peggy as, the moment she stepped through the door and walked up to the counter, just about every head in reproduction turned in that direction - well, at least the male ones. Standing five foot three, two inches shorter than David, with a body that seemed carved by a sculptor, the twenty year old would've stood out in a crowd even without the brilliant long red hair that ran down almost to her waist.
Glancing back over his shoulder, David caught the attention of Connie Burke, the sixty-two year old retiree who worked part time in the mail room and asked her to take over the machine for a few minutes. Seeing Peggy standing at the front counter, she gave David a smile and said she'd be happy to.
Even though he had rehearsed what he wanted to say a dozen times, the minute David stepped up to the counter he forgot just about all of it. It didn't help matters that Peggy was wearing a top that not only displayed a bit more cleavage than might normally be considered
appropriate, but it was just tight enough to draw even more attention to the parts of her that it did cover. Added to that was a set of jeans so tight that they made the view as she walked away from you almost as enjoyable as the one when she approached.
"Mr. Archer needs these as soon as possible," she said as she laid a pile of about twenty sheets on the counter between them. 'They need to go out before the end of business today. Do you think that will be a problem?"
David took his eyes off Peggy just long enough to glance down at the request sheet that was attached to the top page with a paperclip. It called for ten copies of each, with only a simple staple at the top - not difficult at all.
Not that he said that, of course. On his very first job, back in high school, he'd been given a bit of advice that had served him well. Never say exactly how long any job will take, or how easy it might be. Better to have people marvel that you completed it sooner or with less difficulty than originally assumed. Otherwise, people will just take it for granted and expect it that quick and easy all the time.
He made an exaggerated glance back towards the copier, where Connie was continuing to make copies. He knew that they only had about sixty more copies of the report to make and that the color covers would take a half hour at best. That left more than enough time to complete Mr. Archer's, and by extension, Peggy's request.
"It'll be tight, but for you I'll get it done," David told Peggy with a smile.
"You are a lifesaver," Peggy beamed back. "I probably shouldn't say so, but I really screwed up this time. I was supposed to bring this down this morning, but I got wrapped up with something else and simply forgot."
Those were words David was overjoyed to hear. What better opportunity would he have to ask her out?
"Peggy, can I ask you something?" he said as she started to walk away from the counter.
"Sure," she replied, turning back towards him.
David lifted the movable countertop and stepped out into the entryway with Peggy. As he did, he glanced back toward Connie who, watching him instead of the copier, gave him a smile of encouragement.
"There's a new movie coming out next week that I've read is really going to be something awesome," he began a bit hesitantly, "and I was wondering if, perhaps, you might like to go and see it with me?"
From where she was watching, it was obvious to Connie that the offer came as a complete surprise to Peggy. It was also immediately apparent that, despite his efforts to the contrary, the redhead never imagined her relationship with David as anything but platonic. Connie did however give the younger girl some credit, in that she didn't immediately say no without at least making a show of giving it some thought.
"What's the movie?" Peggy asked.
"It's called Star Wars, he eagerly replied.
"Never heard of it," Peggy said, "What's it about?"
David told her what he knew of the plot from the article in Time magazine that he had read.
"Spaceships, ray guns, robots and guys with swords?" Peggy said, failing to hide her lack of interest. "I'm sorry, but I don't think that's my kind of movie."
"Well, we could see something else," David quickly suggested, unwilling to let the opportunity pass by.
Peggy took a long breath, then another, giving her a few moments to think of the best way to turn David down without hurting his feelings too much.
"David, you're a nice guy, I really mean that," she said, calling forth the beginning of what had become a familiar refrain, "but I'm sort of seeing someone. You might know him, Tim Kelly? He works upstairs."
As soon as he heard the name, David pictured the handsome, dark-haired researcher, who was six years his senior and probably made almost twice his salary. He was sure Tim's idea of getting a bite before a movie didn't involve any place where they wore paper hats behind the
counter.
Peggy was stretching the truth a bit when she said she was 'seeing' Tim. In actually, she had done little more than have lunch with him a few times, although those had definitely not been in the company cafeteria. Going to see the new Burt Reynolds film, Smokey and the Bandit tonight, was actually their first real date - real being defined by Peggy as one in which after which the guy taking her out might actually have a chance to get in her pants.
"Oh, I didn't know," David said, disappointment evident in his voice.
"I'm glad you understand," Peggy smiled, thankful that she had managed to turn him down without creating any hard feelings between them. "And I do appreciate you getting those copies done right away for me," she added as she leaned forward and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "You're a real doll."
As David lifted the countertop and stepped back into the work area, Connie didn't need to see the dejected look on his face to know what had happened. She waited until he was back at the machine, then simply stepped aside to let him slide back in. She didn't say anything until he did, and then just laid a compassionate hand on his shoulder and said that there were plenty of other girls out there.
'Yeah, right,' David thought, but didn't say.
-=-=-=-
David had planned to head out to lunch once the interior pages for the quarterly were done, but decided to delay it long enough to make Peggy's copies. In order to make the color covers for the quarterly report, he would have to open up the copier and replace the standard toner cartridge with the color one. So it just made more sense to do her project first. At least that was what he told himself, so he wouldn't feel like too much of a jerk.
Once he was done, he handed off the project to one of the junior clerks to put them in envelopes, onto which would be attached the pre-addressed labels that were kept on file. Then he tossed the original papers, with the clip back on the front page, into the mail wagon so that they could be returned to Mr. Archer's office.
It was when he saw a large manila folder in the wagon's large basket that he remembered a similar folder in his knapsack. One that he didn't trust one of the other mail clerks to deliver. Retrieving his folder, he told the clerk that he would take the basket upstairs himself. As he was waiting to go out to lunch himself, the younger teen had no objection at all.
Before he was promoted to the reproduction end, David had delivered and picked up the mail throughout the day. Some clerks found it a boring job, but he had actually enjoyed it, if for no other reason that he got to meet other people in the company and make friends. That most of the people he met were older than him really never seemed to matter.
Toward the end of his delivery run, David stopped at the reception desk and had a few words with Lisa Sweeny, who had started with the company just about the same time he had. Twenty-five years old, the divorced blonde was most recognizable by the Farrah Fawcett hairdo she had taken to wearing. Four inches taller than David, she had a fashion model's skinny build and had, in fact, done a bit of that sort of work for a few department stores back in her high school days.
Like many of the women at Ryan and Moore, Lisa always had a smile for him whenever he stopped by. Unlike the others, however, there was a story behind that smile, one that David would always remember fondly.
It had been the night of the Christmas party, held last year just a few floors down at the City View Club. With only a few months at the company, David still wasn't all that comfortable with that sort of thing and had decided to call it an early night. He'd come back upstairs to retrieve his copy of "The World According to Garp", which he'd forgotten in the break room during lunch. The John Irving book was already overdue from the library and he wanted to return it on his day off tomorrow.
When he walked into the small room, he found Lisa sitting at the same table as his book. It was obvious that she'd had a few drinks down at the party, but David didn't think she was drunk. At least, not until she got out of the chair and stepped up to him.
