Free Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! by Fannie Flagg

Sandy, I want you to
tell
him the reason I want more money.”
    Sandy said, “I thought you liked Bea.”
    “I do. Why?”
    “Then why are you trying to make a widow out of her? Ira is going to kill me if I call him with this.”
    “Well, then, I’ll call him if you want me to. I’m not scared of him.”
    “No, no, I’ll call. I would rather be attacked by a pack of wild dogs, but I’ll call.”

    Sandy held his breath as he dialed Ira Wallace’s office. He was put on hold for five minutes and then heard Wallace’s welcoming voice.
    “Yeah?”
    “Uh, Mr. Wallace. This is Sandy Cooper.”
    “What do you want?”
    “Well, we have a small problem … on the salary.”
    “What the hell are you talking about?”
    “On the Dena Nordstrom situation.”
    “Yeah, come on, cut to the chase. What?”
    “That is, she feels she needs a little more, being that New York is so expensive and all.”
    “Are you telling me that your goddamn crazy client wants a raise before she even starts? Have you lost your mind? How much more does she want, for Christ sakes?”
    Sandy took a deep breath. “She wants a hundred a year.”
    Wallace yelled, “Good-bye, buster!” and slammed the phone down in his ear.
    Sandy sat by the phone all day, hoping against hope that Wallace would call him back.
    Wallace waited for Sandy to call him back.
    At four-thirty that afternoon Sandy called Dena again and begged her to reconsider but she would not.
    At 6:05 Sandy answered the phone. Wallace was on the other end. “OK, you little putz, seventy-five, take it or leave it. You have five minutes!”
    Sandy called Dena immediately and started talking fast. “Dena, it’s me. Before you say anything, listen to me. I want you to think about what you are doing. Don’t think local … think about where it can
lead.
Remember, you do well and one day you’ve got a shot at network, OK?”
    “OK,” said Dena, “I’m listening.”
    “I can’t believe it but he called back with another offer. But promise me your—”
    “How much did he come up with?”
    “Seventy-five, take it or leave it … but think about your—”
    “I’ll take it.”
    “What?”
    “I said fine, I’ll take it.”
    “You’ll take it? Just like that? Oh, my nerves. You put me through a heart attack which I haven’t had time to have yet. I’ll call you right back.”
    Sandy called and didn’t bother to say hello. “Dena, it’s OK. Do you know how nervous I’ve been all day?”
    “You think you were nervous? I’ve been throwing up since noon.”
    “Do you know how close we came to losing this deal? I have to be honest with you—I never thought he would call back.”
    Dena laughed. “Neither did I.”
    “You lucked out this time. But promise me not to play any more Russian roulette with your career, OK?”
    Dena giggled again. “OK, I promise.”
    “Hold on. I’m calling Bea on the other line. She’s been lighting candles all day.”
    Dena waited until he came back on the phone. “Bea says congratulations. And she also informed me that I’m taking you two out to dinner. Where do you want to go? You pick.”
    “Twenty-One,” Dena said.
    “The Twenty-One Club?”
    “Yes, let’s go there.”
    “I doubt we can get in. It’s like a private club or something. Anyway, we can’t get reservations this late. What about Sardi’s?”
    “We already have reservations at Twenty-One.”
    Sandy was taken aback. “How did you manage that?”
    “Oh, I have a friend here. I told him it was a celebration dinner.”
    “How did you know we would have something to celebrate?”
    Dena laughed. “I didn’t. Either way, I always wanted to go to Twenty-One for dinner.”
    “You’re in New York for twenty-four hours and you already have a friend?”
    “Well, actually it’s a new friend I met yesterday on the airplane. He said if I ever needed a favor to call, so I did.”
    When Sandy hung up he was still amazed. Here he had lived in Manhattan all his life,