Terrible Advice From a Career Temp- Chapter Two: Know Who Not To Be

Piper made it home despite everything Lindo had done to prevent it.

Dena met her at the door.

“Why didn't you come home on the bus? Sofie was supposed to pick you up.”

“Didn't you get my messages?”

“What messages?”

Piper dropped her bag beside the kitchen counter.

“Some Marine recruiter gave me a ride home.”

Dena stared at her.

“You're joining the military now?”

Piper laughed.

“No. Lindo ditched me.”

Dena's expression changed immediately.

“Lindo?”

“He was supposed to bring me home. He didn't.”

“I told you that boy was a bum.”

Normally, Piper would have defended him.

This time she couldn't.

“Yeah.”

Dena blinked.

Piper sighed.

“Yeah, Mom. You were right.”

Dena looked momentarily overwhelmed by the experience.

“Well.”

She straightened.

“I don't know what to do with that.”

“Enjoy it. It's probably not happening again.”

Dena smiled.

“At least something good came out of this. You're not moving in with Lindo in Chico.”

That was true.

Whatever Piper's future looked like, Lindo was no longer part of it.

Just then, a very pregnant Sofie came through the door carrying late-night takeout, with

Benny-Boy trailing behind her.

“What happened with Lindo?”

Piper sat at the kitchen island of their cramped one-bedroom apartment.

“He stood me up. I spent most of the day stranded at a Stop 'N' Go.”

Benny crossed his arms.

“Seriously? Somebody ought to volunteer him for a knockout challenge.”

Dena rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, that's exactly what this family needs. Another person on the wrong side of the law.”

Sofie patted Benny's arm.

He meant well.

Piper tried to find the bright side.

“Actually, the guy who drove me home said his friend owns a used-motorcycle dealership in

Cottonwood. He said he might be able to get me a job.”

Sofie and Benny exchanged looks.

Piper knew that look.

“I'll see if they need anybody else too, Benny.”

That got his attention.

Their family needed every opportunity they could find.

Dena was exhausted from years of physical work. Benny was trying to establish himself.

Sofie had a baby coming.

Maybe one stroke of luck could ripple outward.

Piper wanted to believe that.

Then Hawk disappeared.

Summer passed without a call.

No dealership.

No job.

No Marine.

By August, Piper assumed she'd imagined the entire thing.

Maybe Hawk was just another man who enjoyed making promises in parking lots.

Her babysitting work dried up too.

For a while, Piper made money mowing lawns for elderly neighbors until a landscaping company began working the complex and effectively pushed her out.

Nobody wanted to watch a teenage girl dragging an ancient mower across scorched grass in triple-digit heat when professionals were already there.

By early October, Piper's employment prospects had deteriorated enough that a neighbor offered her “cleaning work.”

There were conditions.

She had to wear lingerie.

And promise she didn't have a boyfriend.

Piper declined.

Then she told Dena.

Dena wasn't surprised.

“He's said things to me in the laundry room.”

“Seriously?”

“And other women.”

“Why does everybody here have to be weird?”

“Cheap rent.”

Apparently there was an explanation.

Sofie, enormously pregnant and occupying most of the thrift-store recliner, looked over.

“Ew. We need to move.”

Nobody disagreed.

Dena had recently started working part-time at an insurance company's call center.

Benny had steady drywall work.

Things were improving.

Slowly.

Piper was the one who felt stuck.

That finally pushed her to call the motorcycle dealership herself.

“Westford Dealership of Cottonwood. This is Rich. How can I help you?”

“Hi. I'm looking for Mr. Comeaux. A friend of his—Hawk—said I should call about an entry associate position.”

Rich put her on hold.

Piper waited.

And waited.

She was approximately three seconds from hanging up when he returned.

“Miss? Still there?”

“Yes.”

“I'm transferring you to Mr. Comeaux.”

A new voice came on.

“Piper!”

She sat straighter.

“I thought I'd have heard from you sooner.”

“Oh.”

“That position's been filled since last month, unfortunately. But our buddy Hawk asked me to give you his number if you ever called. Said he lost yours.”

Piper grabbed a pen.

“Oh.”

So Hawk hadn't ghosted her.

She had accidentally ghosted Hawk.

Mr. Comeaux gave her the number.

“Don't be a stranger. These positions open every few months.”

“I won't. Thank you.”

Piper hung up.

Vindicated.

Relieved.

And deeply annoyed with herself.

Sofie looked over from the recliner.

“No job?”

“Nope.”

“This is the same hookup from the guy who drove you home?”

“Yeah. Hawk.”

“The Marine?”

“Yeah.”

“Why didn't you call sooner?”

Piper sighed.

“I didn't want to seem desperate.”

Sofie stared at her.

“You were mowing lawns with a mower held together by wire.”

“I said I didn't want to seem desperate.”

“Fair.”

Piper looked at the number.

Apparently Hawk had tried to reach her.

That changed things.

“I'm calling him.”

Sofie's eyebrows rose.

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

Piper hesitated.

Then admitted it.

“I liked him.”

Sofie smiled.

“You knew him for, like, six hours.”

“It was a very informative six hours.”

“He could've found you on social media.”

“That would've been creepy.”

“But getting your number through a motorcycle dealer isn't?”

Piper considered this.

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because I like him.”

“Ah.”

Sofie nodded.

“Different rules.”

“Exactly.”

Piper entered the number.

“The worst he can do is say no.”

Sofie smirked.

“Anyone's better than Lindo.”

Together they said:

“He's the worst.”

They burst out laughing.

Piper texted Hawk.

Then she went back to the nightly routine of job applications and reality television with Sofie.

By the time Dena came home, dinner was Hamburger Helper and air-fried french fries.

Sofie was eating for two and due by the end of the month.

She and Benny slept on the fold-out couch.

Piper had a cot beside Dena in the bedroom.

Every spare dollar was being saved toward someplace larger.

This was adulthood so far.

Four adults.

One unborn baby.

One bedroom.

Hamburger Helper.

Piper had expected more paperwork.

Later that night, she checked her phone.

There was a message.

Thought you'd forgotten about me.

Piper smiled.

She explained the mix-up.

His response came almost an hour later.

I'm in San Diego now. Only up north for the summer.

Piper stared at it.

Of course.

The first guy she actually liked lived hundreds of miles away.

Apparently the universe had a sense of humor.

Her phone rang at four in the morning.

Piper nearly fell off the cot.

She looked at the screen.

Hawk.

She answered in a whisper.

“Hello?”

“Hey. Sorry if I woke you.”

“You did.”

“Sorry.”

“It's okay.”

“I'm calling before work. We keep missing each other.”

Piper sat up.

“My training exercise ends Friday. Text me your email. I'll send you a plane ticket.”

Piper became considerably more awake.

“To where?”

“San Diego.”

“Why?”

Hawk laughed.

“To see me.”

“Oh.”

“We'll hang out for the weekend.”

Piper looked around the dark bedroom.

Dena snored faintly several feet away.

Piper had never flown anywhere.

Never taken a vacation by herself.

Never gone hundreds of miles just because somebody wanted to see her.

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Good.”

She could hear the smile in his voice.

After they hung up, Piper lay awake staring at the ceiling.

Then she remembered something.

Sofie's baby shower.

Same weekend.

“Oh, crap.”

The ticket was already purchased.

Nonrefundable.

Sofie had school friends attending the shower.

Dena would be there.

Benny would be there.

Piper still felt guilty.

Dena surprised her.

“You should go.”

“Really?”

“You've never been anywhere.”

“Sacramento.”

“Sacramento does not count as seeing the world.”

The morning Piper left, Dena hugged her at the bus stop.

“You've got to see the world sometime.”

Piper nodded.

She was excited.

And terrified.

Mostly terrified.

At the airport, she remembered Dena's advice:

When in doubt, follow everybody else.

This strategy successfully got Piper through security.

Then to the gate.

Then onto the airplane.

She briefly wondered how much of adulthood consisted of pretending to know what you were doing while discreetly copying the person in front of you.

Possibly all of it.

Hawk was waiting at baggage claim.

He grinned when he saw her.

Piper forgot every sensible thing she'd planned to say and hurried toward him.

Then she remembered that they'd technically spent less than one day together.

She slowed down.

Hawk smiled.

“What does your suitcase look like?”

“This.”

Piper held up her duffel.

Hawk stared.

“That's it?”

“I'm here for a weekend, not immigration.”

He took the bag.

“Perfect. I'm parked across the street.”

“What do you drive?”

“Yellow Shelby GT.”

Piper stopped.

“Seriously?”

“Rental.”

“Oh.”

“Barracks make owning a car kind of a pain. I rented one for the weekend.”

Piper smiled.

“That's considerably less intimidating.”

“Were you intimidated?”

“A little.”

“Good.”

“Why good?”

“I spent extra on the Shelby.”

Piper laughed.

As they merged onto the highway, Hawk said:

“First stop is dinner with my buddy Ray and his wife. Hope you don't mind.”

“Not at all.”

“Cherry has trouble making friends.”

Piper nodded.

Secretly, she was relieved.

Hawk wasn't taking her directly to a hotel.

After Lindo, the bar for male decency was underground.

Hawk continued clearing it effortlessly.

They met Ray and Cherry outside a crowded Cheesecake Factory.

Ray was friendly.

He was around Hawk's age and greeted Piper warmly.

Cherry was less enthusiastic.

“So what do you do?” she asked almost immediately.

“I'm looking for work.”

“You don't have a job?”

“Not right now.”

“College?”

“Eventually.”

“Did you get kicked out?”

“No.”

Cherry looked Piper over.

“How old are you?”

Piper answered.

Cherry frowned.

“You look younger.”

“Thank you?”

Piper wasn't certain it had been a compliment.

Ray redirected the conversation.

Hawk helped.

Cherry redirected it right back.

Dinner continued that way.

Hawk and Ray talked about work.

Training.

People Piper didn't know.

Places she'd never been.

Schedules that changed.

Deployments.

Transfers.

Piper listened.

At one point, she leaned toward Hawk.

“These two forks are the same, right?”

Hawk glanced down.

“They are.”

“Okay.”

“You worried there was a secret fork test?”

“Yes.”

“You passed.”

“Thank God.”

He smiled.

It was easy with him.

That was what Piper liked.

Hawk never made her feel stupid for not knowing something.

Across the table, Cherry was arguing with the waiter.

Her order had modifications to the modifications.

“No peanut sauce. Extra whipped cream. Gluten-free. But wheat toast.”

The waiter paused.

Piper watched his soul briefly leave his body.

When the food finally arrived, Cherry barely touched hers.

Instead, she started complaining about Ray.

“He doesn't acknowledge me.”

Ray's expression tightened.

“Cherry.”

“He comes home and acts like I'm not even there.”

“We're not doing this here.”

“See?”

Cherry looked at Piper.

“He does that. That's abusive.”

Piper suddenly became intensely interested in her French fries.

Ray rubbed his forehead.

“I worked fourteen hours yesterday.”

“And whose fault is that?”

Ray didn't answer.

Cherry pushed back her chair.

“I can't do this.”

Then she walked out.

Ray stared at the table.

“Sorry.”

Hawk shook his head.

“You're good.”

Ray threw down some cash and followed his wife.

For a few seconds, Piper and Hawk sat alone.

“Well,” Hawk said.

Piper looked at him.

“That was…”

“Romantic?”

“No.”

“Educational?”

“Very.”

Hawk laughed.

He paid the check.

Outside, the night air felt wonderful after the restaurant.

Hawk shoved his hands into his pockets.

“That Cherry. What a fun gal.”

Piper laughed.

“I didn't want to be the first one to say it.”

“You're too polite.”

“What happened there?”

Hawk shrugged.

“A lot of military guys marry young.”

“Why?”

“Lots of reasons. You're away from home. You're lonely. Everything moves fast.”

They started walking.

“Sometimes the person back home has to build their whole life around wherever you get sent.”

Piper glanced at him.

“You don't choose?”

“Not always.”

“Where you live?”

“Nope.”

“For how long?”

“Depends.”

“What if your wife has a job?”

Hawk gave her a look.

“She'd have a job until we moved.”

Piper slowed slightly.

“Oh.”

She hadn't considered that.

Hawk kept walking.

“You meet people who handle it great. They make friends everywhere. Find work. Build their

own thing.”

“And people who don't?”

“Sometimes they get isolated.”

Piper thought about Cherry.

The questioning.

The anger.

The way Ray and Hawk had talked easily about a world that seemed to have its own vocabulary, its own schedules, its own rules.

Cherry hadn't seemed part of that world.

She seemed to be orbiting it.

Piper had spent most of her life being poor.

Depending on other people.

Living wherever the family could afford.

Working whatever job existed.

She had imagined adulthood as the point where all that stopped.

A career.

Her own money.

Her own apartment.

Choices.

She looked at Hawk.

For the first time all weekend, something about their future seemed complicated.

Not bad.

Just complicated.

“What?” Hawk asked.

“Nothing.”

“That wasn't nothing.”

Piper smiled.

“I was just thinking.”

“Dangerous.”

“I want my own career someday.”

“Good.”

“My own money.”

“Also good.”

“My own life.”

Hawk looked at her.

“You should.”

There was no hesitation.

That made it worse somehow.

Because Hawk wasn't asking her to give those things up.

He wasn't Lindo.

He wasn't selfish.

He wasn't trying to trap her.

His career simply came with realities neither of them controlled.

“What if you got stationed somewhere I hated?”

“Then you'd hate where I was stationed.”

Piper laughed.

“Great solution.”

“I don't make the orders.”

“I know.”

Hawk bumped her shoulder lightly with his.

“You're thinking way too far ahead.”

“Probably.”

“We've known each other for, what, eight hours total?”

“More than that.”

“Ten?”

“Twelve, minimum.”

“Basically married.”

Piper laughed.

There it was again.

Easy.

Wonderful.

And maybe temporary.

She didn't want to become Cherry.

Not because Cherry was loud.

Not because she was difficult.

Not because her marriage was obviously struggling.

Piper simply didn't want to wake up one day and realize her entire adult life had been arranged around somebody else's orders.

She wanted something that belonged to her.

She didn't know what yet.

That was the embarrassing part.

But she wanted the chance to find it.

Hawk looked down at her.

“You okay?”

“Yeah.”

And she was.

That was the strange part.

Nothing had gone wrong.

Hawk hadn't disappointed her.

If anything, she liked him more.

Maybe that was why the realization mattered.

Sometimes two people could be good together and still want lives that pulled in different directions.

Piper wasn't ready to call that tragedy.

Not yet.

They walked through the Gaslamp Quarter.

Hawk showed her around.

They talked.

They laughed.

Eventually they returned to the hotel.

Outside her room, Hawk stopped.

Piper looked at him.

He leaned closer slowly enough that she could have stepped away.

She didn't.

He kissed her.

Gently.

No grabbing.

No expectations.

No performance.

Just a kiss.

When they separated, Piper smiled.

“Good night.”

“Good night.”

Hawk started walking away.

Piper blinked.

“You're leaving?”

He turned.

“You want me not to?”

Piper immediately became fascinated by the carpet.

“No.”

Hawk smiled.

“Night, Piper.”

“Night.”

She closed the door.

Then leaned against it.

“Oh, no.”

Because she really liked him.

The rest of the weekend was almost perfect.

They went to the beach.

The mall.

Dinner.

A movie.

Hawk showed her pieces of San Diego she'd never seen.

Piper took pictures of everything because she had never been anywhere like it.

Before her flight, Hawk helped her pick out a baby gift for Sofie.

“You think she'll like this?”

“She'll complain you spent too much.”

“So she likes it.”

“Exactly.”

At the airport, Hawk carried Piper's duffel as far as he could.

Then they stood facing each other.

Neither seemed sure what to say.

“So,” Hawk said.

“So.”

“You could visit again.”

Piper smiled.

“I could.”

“I could come north.”

“You could.”

Neither said when.

Hawk hugged her.

Piper held on a little longer than she intended.

Then she went through security.

As the plane climbed over San Diego, Piper looked through the window.

She didn't want to leave.

That surprised her.

Hawk was kind.

Steady.

Responsible.

Funny.

Everything Lindo hadn't been.

Maybe in another kind of life, that would have been enough.

But dinner with Ray and Cherry had shown Piper something she hadn't expected to learn on her first vacation.

Choosing a person also meant choosing pieces of their life.

Hawk had the Marines.

Orders.

Transfers.

Training.

Absences.

A career that would sometimes decide where he lived before either of them got a vote.

None of that made Hawk wrong for wanting it.

It just might make him wrong for Piper.

She didn't know yet.

She was nineteen.

She barely knew what her life was going to be.

But she knew she wanted one.

Her own career.

Her own money.

Her own identity.

Something she could carry with her whether there was a boyfriend beside her or not.

Piper rested her head against the window.

Below her, San Diego disappeared beneath the clouds.

For the first time, she understood that the right person and the right life weren't necessarily the same thing.

That realization hurt a little.

Years later, Piper would understand just how important it had been.

Hawk would always be the easiest man for her to imagine in another version of her life.

The one who might have worked if geography, timing, careers, and adulthood had arranged themselves differently.

The one who got away.

But sitting on that airplane, Piper didn't know any of that yet.

She only knew she'd met a good man.

She'd had a wonderful weekend.

And she still wanted to go home and build something that belonged to her.

For now, that was enough.