I think we're pretty well finished here.
"Yea, I've had to deal with that more than a few times over the last few years." I say after a moment. "Parents get the divorced but the kids feel like they have been part of the whole thing. Like they have to chose who they love the most. Sometimes the parents even make it worse by making the children feel just like that is what they have done." I sigh and open my lunch up; the smell of it is still wonderful. "I have a client, well I guess had a client would be a better way of saying it, named Cindy. I had her transferred over to a full psychiatrist. Her parents divorce truly unhinged her a bit. They played her off one against the other for the better part of a year before her Grandmother put a stop to it and brought her to me."
Casey nods her mouth full of food. Taking a sip from her bottle of water she clear her mouth.
"It sounds like you have a interesting job. You get to help people. I would like to do something like that I think. Most of the time I just annoy people."
I nearly choke from laughter at that admission.
"You do have a job that can get on peoples nerves but if it didn't help a few people out there then there wouldn't be a market for those kinds of sales. So you're helping some people."
She shakes her head and looks down at her food.
"I will get fifty people hang up on me for everyone that will listen and fifty no's for every yes. In a day I make maybe five sales sometimes. It takes volumes of calls to make any profit in this business."
Watching her speak I can make the next statement with some surety.
"You don't like what you do. It feels like a worthless endeavor to you, right? Why don't you change to something else then? You have telephone skills and experience, there are a lot of jobs out there for that skill set."
"A lot less than there were ten years back. Computers have taken on a lot of those kind of tasks." She says
"Well call me old fashion but when I pick up the phone and find myself talking to a computer I don't care for it in the least." I say
"My Dad's the same way..." she starts to say then stops...
I reach across the concrete table and take her hand when the tears start. I don't offer anything more than my presence. She needs to get these tears out as best she can.
After a few minutes she slowly stops crying and we sit in comfortable silence eating the last of our lunch together. I watch her face, feeling the need to say something to help but feeling at a loss for words. A state that my secretary would totally deny existence of.
Casey looks up at me and I see a blush start to cross her cheeks.
"What?" I ask with a grin.
She shrugs but doesn't answer. Reaching across I tap her hand and ask my question again.
"I was thinking about what you said about changing jobs. The problem is the only thing I can think of that uses my skill set and sounds fun...is well...A phone sex operator."
I smile then chuckle.
"Well if you make that job change let me know. I'll be your biggest customer."
She looks at me blinking. Then there is a smile, blush, chuckle combination.
"You like to listen to phone sex lines?"
I shrug.
"Don't know I never tried it. No, I would call you just to listen to you talk sexy. You have a beautiful voice and I would love to hear that."
She blushes under the praise and looks down to find her food gone.
"Wow, I must have been hungry. I just don't really remember eating those last bites." She glances over at the house. "I guess we need to go. It may take a few hours to find what I need. If you like I can handle it alone then take a cab back to the office to get my car?"
I'm shaking my head before she's half way through the question.
"Here till I decide." I look across the street. "You're going to need me over there and not just to help find papers."
She swallows, then nods and gets to her feet. When I come around the table and pick up her lunch box she catches my arm.
"Jake?"
I look down into her beautiful face.
"Thank you, for being with me today. I don't want to think about what today would be like if you hadn't"
I lean down and place a sof