Natalia enjoyed a relaxing weekend before returning to work the following Monday, the final day of January. She had spent the time sending out more job applications and lounging around in her sweatpants while snow fell outside.
The new work week started off on the right foot. No Adrian in sight.
She expected as much since she knew he had classes on Mondays and Wednesdays, and she counted on those two days as a break from the never-ending mind games. She’d celebrate the occasion of no interruptions by working on a booklet of sudoku puzzles to pass the day.
The desk next to Natalia’s was used for the employees who didn’t have a set schedule. Most of the time it was empty, especially in the off-season, but today Caroline Smith had taken the spot, her backpack, lunchbox, and a stack of books scattered across the desk.
Caroline was another one of the retirees who worked roughly one day a week at the call center, plus another part-time job for an airline. Free flights and baseball tickets. What else could one need?
“Morning, Natalia,” Caroline said. “How have you been?”
Caroline was a tall woman with short, wavy hair, a stern expression usually stuck on her face. Her deep voice was the perfect complement to her no-nonsense approach to life. Many in the call center avoided Caroline, her intensity too much to handle for most. She had once waved her arms at the team’s general manager when he visited the call center—an extremely rare occurrence—all to shush him while she was on a phone call.
“Hey, Caroline,” Natalia said, swiveling around to face her. “I’ve been doing pretty good. How about you?”
“Doing great!” A smile touched Caroline’s lips. “Just got back from a trip to Arizona. Spent a week there. I like getting away from the cold as much as I can.”
“Oh good! What did you do out there?” Natalia shifted forward in her seat to give her full attention.
“Mostly gambling at the casinos. Ended up winning fifteen dollars when it was all said and done, so I can’t complain.” She clapped her hands together, maintaining a proud grin.
“Fifteen bucks, plus the free drinks, right? That’s definitely winning.”
Caroline chuckled. “Yes, it is. Do you enjoy going to casinos?”
Natalia bobbed her head side to side. “Yeah. I don’t go often, but I always have a fun time. Blackjack is my game.”
“Me too. Say, would you be interested in joining me on a trip to Vegas in a couple of weeks? I know it’s short notice, so I understand if you can’t.”
The question caught Natalia off guard. She had become friendly enough with Caroline over the past year, even had lunch with her on several occasions. But now she was proposing a trip together out of the blue. To Las Vegas? Caroline was in her sixties. What exactly did she want to get out of taking a twenty-three-year-old friend to Sin City? Wasn’t Denver just talking about a trip to Vegas last week? Must be something in the air.
“I’m sorry, when would this be?” Natalia asked, already thinking up which excuse to use.
The first weekend of February was the Super Bowl, and her family always hosted a big party. The second weekend was Valentine’s Day, so she could say that her boyfriend had a romantic weekend planned for them. A total lie, because she was preparing to end things with him at some point this week.
“It would be February fourteenth through the eighteenth. Monday through Friday.”
Natalia was expecting a weekend trip, so this made her excuse even easier. “Oh, I don’t know if I can afford to do that. I was just off for six weeks. I don’t think I’d be able to get another week off approved.”
They didn’t have paid time off in the call center. If you missed a day, that was your problem. Vacations truly needed to be saved up for, especially for the broke college kids in the office. Natalia had just received her first paycheck in two months because of her extended time off. And while she had minimal expenses, thanks to living at home while she figured out her next move in life, she couldn’t exactly pay for a week-long trip to Vegas.
Caroline frowned while she stared at her desk, calculating something in her head.
“Well, your flight will be covered,” she said. “We’ll fly standby with my buddy passes I get from the airline. The room is already covered with my points I’ve built up at the hotel. All you’d really need to pay for is your food and entertainment. And as for the time off, I don’t see it being a problem. Spring training doesn’t start until March, so it’s still not going to be all that busy around here.”
Natalia no longer had an excuse she could play. In fact, part of her was intrigued by the offer of basically a free trip to Las Vegas. She had enough money to cover food and gambling, and possibly even a show. And it’s not like she was trying to move up the corporate ladder at the Rockies, so the idea of asking for another week off didn’t seem all that daunting after all. Some of the retirees disappeared for months on end and still kept their positions, dropping in whenever they wanted, as if the call center were a barbershop.
“Can I think about it and let you know by tomorrow?” Natalia asked.
“Absolutely. I’m still going, regardless, and will book the trip this evening. Just let me know and I can add on your buddy pass for the flight if you decide to come.”
Natalia nodded. “Will do.” Not everyone in the call center was the kindest to Caroline, but Natalia took the time to know her better, rather than jumping to conclusions. This had allowed a personal friendship with Caroline to blossom into a relationship that apparently warranted a trip out of town.
Deep down, Natalia wanted to go on the trip, but still needed to convince herself, or rather, justify it.
Will it really be all that fun going with Caroline? Won’t she be going to sleep by nine o’clock most nights? That city doesn’t even come to life until eleven. But it’s a free trip. I guess I’ll be single by then. Maybe I can find some guys to flirt with just to shake off the rust before I go back in the dating world.
Natalia would end up spending the next hour talking herself into it. Taking a second vacation so soon after arriving back from an extended trip seemed borderline chaotic, but she would start a new job in the coming months, and there was no saying when her next vacation would actually be. She would need to hit the ground running at whichever engineering firm she ended up with to best position herself for growth.
It might not be the most thrilling of trips to Vegas, but I’ll still have a good time.
She got up and filled her water bottle, stopping at the massive corkboard on the wall nearest her desk, where the weekly schedules were posted. Nothing was even up yet for this particular week in question, meaning Lopez hadn’t finalized the schedule.
See, another reason to just submit for the time off and see what happens.
She shuffled to the filing cabinet that stored the forms needed to request time off and pulled it open to retrieve a blank sheet.
Here goes nothing. If it gets approved, I’ll go. If not, then I won’t. Literally nothing I can do about that. This is in Lopez’s hands now.
She returned to her desk and filled out the form, sensing Caroline trying to look over her shoulder. The form remained on her desk for the next fifteen minutes while she stared at it, still contemplating any reason she could think of to not go.
“Alright, Caroline,” she said, stirring Caroline out of the romance book she had her nose deep into. The TV had been turned on at some point—Natalia hadn’t noticed until now—but she didn’t care, for the background noise drowned out their conversation from everyone else. “I’m going to submit this request for time off. If he approves it, I’ll be joining you.”
Caroline smiled, a move that looked somehow out-of-place on her typically emotionless face. “Well, that’s great. I look forward to it. I think we’ll have a great time. You’ve been to Vegas before, right?”
“I have. Actually grew up going there every summer. We’d take a road trip to Disneyland each year and always stayed a day in Vegas along the way. I’ve only gone a couple of times since turning twenty-one, but I’m still very familiar with the Strip and where everything is.”
“Perfect. So you’ll be okay going out, in case I go to bed early.”
Natalia felt like she was being sold on the trip by a master salesperson, overcoming every objection she had, even the ones she hadn’t voiced aloud.
“It’s been a while since I’ve been to Vegas as a young, attractive girl,” Caroline said. “But do you feel safe enough when you’re out there?”
Natalia nodded. “Yeah, I know the places to avoid, especially if I’m walking by myself. I always cut through the hotels when I can. Most of the crazies are out on the Strip.”
“Glad to hear. I’m so excited you’re doing this. Are you going to hand in your time off request today?”
Natalia picked up the sheet and nodded. “Hopefully he’ll respond today, so you can just book my buddy pass tonight when you do everything else.”
Caroline snatched the form from her hand. “I’ll get us an answer right now.” She stormed into their manager’s office before Natalia even realized what was happening.
“Wait,” she said, but Caroline was gone.
Natalia swiveled around and peeked over the ledge—where Denver sat—for a view of Lopez’s office, Caroline chatting with him as he studied the time off request.
Oh my God, what is this lady doing right now?
Caroline was aggressive in her pursuits, perhaps one of the reasons she rubbed so many of their colleagues the wrong way. But she was simply a woman who knew what she wanted and went after it with all of her might. And after forty years in the workforce, she was hardly intimidated by their skittish manager, Jay Lopez.
She returned less than a minute later with the time-off request signed and approved by Lopez.
“Done,” Caroline said, tossing the form and Natalia’s desk and returning to her own seat, where she opened her book without another word.
Maybe Vegas will be more interesting than I realize. Does Caroline just go around town pushing people around? Does she shake down blackjack dealers if they go five hands in a row without busting?
Natalia was suddenly giddy with anticipation at the upcoming trip. It wouldn’t be the typical drunken nights out with her girlfriends, as she had done in the past. Far from it, but it would have new dynamics. Different.
Caroline snapped her book shut and put it down, turning to Natalia. “I forgot to mention one thing. We’ll be joining a couple of others on this trip, if you don’t mind.”
“Oh? Who?” Her stomach sank.
“Denver and Adrian.”
A week in Vegas with Adrian? He’ll have to notice me there. Let the games begin.