Free Champagne Life by Nicole Bradshaw Page A

woman with allergies.
    Aaaaaachooooooooo! The woman sitting next to me sneezed.
    â€œExcuse me, please.” I stood up and carefully eased by her to sit somewhere else. I plopped down into an empty seat near the door, as far away from Sneezy as possible. As soon as I sat down, my purse slipped from my shoulder and landed on the dirty bus floor. It hit the ground and the contents spewed out and all over the place. At that exact moment, the bus stopped and let off passengers
    I scrambled beneath dirty shoes to gather my belongings. Of course.
    On days like this, it felt like I was holding rocks on my shoulder. While I could lift the weight for awhile, it would eventually wear me down. There was never a break. There was never a moment to breathe. The worst part was, DeShaun and I had our first real fight in months. He never mentioned it but even now, I was still feeling guilty about the doggy bag comment. Sure, we fought about dirty laundry and undone dishes, but our last argument—that was one for the books.
    As soon as I walked through the front door, I spotted a pile ofmail on the hall table. Against my better judgment, I picked it up and sifted through it. Every single envelope contained a tiny clear window in the middle, which only meant one thing— a bill. The one exception was a pale green envelope from a solicitor, asking me to donate funds to a Fireman’s charity ball.
    Some of the bills were yellow, some were white. A least two of them were pink. My spirits lifted a bit when I picked up one lone envelope with no window, no color, nothing— just a plain, white envelope.
    The outside of the envelope read McIntyre, Roth and Associates . My heart skipped because I immediately recognized the name. I had forgotten all about the law firm that I interviewed with some time ago. About three weeks back, in one of my positive life moments, I had decided that I should go back to school. I thought about practicing law, but due to financial reasons, realized that was out of the question. That same day, I was leafing through the newspaper when I saw the ad for an administrator for McIntyre, Roth and Associates. I spent my entire lunch break, getting together a detailed resume to fax. I didn’t have much experience and what experience I did have, I embellished a bit. The one thing I had going for me was my degree in Marketing from Hampton University, but since I was applying for a job in the legal field, I didn’t know how much that would help. Two hours later, I snuck away from my counter and to the back room to fax off my resume.
    Thirty minutes after that, I received a message on my phone that McIntyre and Roth wanted an interview with me.
    I had done some research on the firm and found out that they reimbursed up to seventy percent of tuition for employees that qualified. This had to be a sign. Think positive. The firm had to be contacting me to give me the job, right?. This would change our lives. This job would finally give me something fulfilling to dowith my life other than dealing with old women and their pennies. This could be the beginning of a brand new lifestyle. Screw late bills, overdue notices and definitely screw having only $46 in the account.
    My fingers fumbled with the envelope as I ripped open the letter. I couldn’t read it fast enough.
    Dear Ms. Knowles,
    Thank you for your application. We have reviewed your qualifications and feel as though you may be a suitable fit for our administration position. We would like to schedule a second interview with you at your earliest convenience.
    Thank you and have a great day.
    Jim McIntyre, Esq.
    /lw
    McIntyre, Roth and Associates
    Philadelphia, PA 19120
    While it wasn’t an offer letter, it was still good news. They wanted to schedule a second interview. I took a deep breath and one of those burden-ridden rocks fell off my shoulder and clunked to the ground.
    One down, three hundred and seventy-six more to go.
    I heard the lock at the