The machine behind Barbie stopped making noise and she turned to retrieve my license. She handed it back to me and smiled. “Are you finished with these?” She didn’t wait for an answer but took the papers back without even glancing at them before she tucked them into the folder.
“We have a couple of shifts here to accommodate our international professors and the west coast. But for the time being, you can come in tomorrow at ten. Abby is the floor shift supervisor who will get you started. You’ll have to come in the main entrance until we get you an employee passcard. Any questions?”
“Um, yes. Why is Mr. Riley hiring me? He doesn’t even know me.”
“Mackenzie, no one knows why Mr. Riley does half the things he does. Just consider yourself lucky that you found a job in this economy. Any other questions?”
“How much does the job pay?” I hadn’t even considered the possibility that it paid minimum wage. I might be better off with unemployment.
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Barbie looked to her computer screen and seemed to be looking for something. It might have been an email from the way she recited to me as she looked at the screen. “$16.50 an hour. 40 hours a week. You don’t qualify for the health and dental insurance plan until after you have been here for three months.” She looked back at me. “Abby will go over your schedule. Let her know about any upcoming doctor’s appointments and she’ll work around them.”
I shook my head. $16.50 an hour? Holy cow!
“You get paid every week, but any hours this week will be in next Friday’s check. Do you want your check directly deposited into your checking account?”
“That would be great.”
Barbie smiled again. “Do you have a blank check with you? I can start the processing on that but it probably won’t go through until your second check. Our payroll service is a little outdated with the times.”
I fished through my bag, thankful I had returned the checkbook. I tore out a blank check and passed it across the desk to her. She wrote VOID across the front of it and tucked it into the folder. She looked at her computer screen again. Her computer beeped. She moved her computer’s mouse and then pressed the button.
She read something on her screen for a few seconds. Then she said, “Mackenzie, Mr. Riley just sent me an email. He wants to know if you have health insurance coverage in the interim.”
“I can get COBRA.” He emailed her? Was he sitting in his office behind the closed door? How did he know I was here?
She typed without looking at the keyboard, a skill I had always envied. I was a descent typist but I had to look at the keypad. She stopped and watched the screen. After a few seconds, there was another beep and she read.
She looked at me and smiled. “Do you have email, Mackenzie?”
“Not anymore. I don’t have a computer at home.”
“I have to set you up with a company email address. I’ll send you a link to the Mass Fair Health Plan. You can check it out tomorrow.”
The computer beeped again. She read and smiled.
“Mackenzie, you have a car, yes?”
“Yes.”
“Mr. Riley asked that you spend some of your time tomorrow taking care of your health insurance issue.”
“I can do it in my free time, since I don’t have to be here until 10.” I was anxious to start clocking in my hours. It was already Wednesday so I only could get two days of work under my belt. I had already walked away from Pepper’s with my check for the week. I had included it in my budgeting.
Barbie held her hands up in protest. “What Mr. Riley is getting at here is he wants to know if you would mind running a few errands for him tomorrow and while you are out and about, take care of your health insurance needs.”
“Instead of working in the office?”
“Both. Come here at ten as planned. And from there we will figure out your day. He’ll pay you for your time no matter whether you are in the office or running errands for him. It is his company after all.”
“Whatever he wants is fine.”
“Very well, then,” she said and stood up. She walked around the desk and held her hand out to me. I stood too and shook her hand. “We will see you tomorrow at ten. Just come to the main entrance and ask for me again.”
“Thank you. And please thank Mr. Riley for me.”
Barbie smiled and released my hand. “Can you find your way out?”
“Yes, no problem.”
Barbie shut her office door behind me and I was only a few steps away when her intercom buzzed at her desk. I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but I bet a hundred dollars it was Mr. Riley.
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