Her Billion Dollar Man

Chapter 3

He never called her when he came back from tour and even though Tyler told her he was back she read in the papers that he was back and his tour had been a success.

“I think he is recording some songs for his album,” Tyler told her dismissively. Summer was drawing to a close and the heat had suddenly disappeared with cool breezes and showers of rain.

“Have you ever asked him to let you collaborate on some of the songs with him?” Debra asked him. It was Wednesday and he had wandered over to her as she put away some things she had been using earlier. The other boys had gone outside to take advantage of the sunshine peeking through the clouds. They would be going back to school soon and some of them to colleges and she had to admit that she was going to miss them a lot.

“He would probably laugh in my face,” Tyler told her sullenly. Sometimes she wondered if the program was doing anything for him, he was full of resentment and anger, mostly directed at his brother.

“Why are you so angry with him?” she asked him quietly.

He looked at her sharply and then looked away. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Yes you do,” she continued. “Your parents died but at least you have Derek to look out for you and you live in a home that you yourself tell me is practically a mansion and I have seen pictures of it on the internet and in magazines. I never had that Tyler. When my mother died I was forced to go into a group home with other kids and even though it was not so bad, they were strangers to me, they were not family. So tell me now, why do you resent him so much?”

He sat there staring down at his hands clasped in front of him. He never behaved as if he was better than the rest of boys who came to the center and he never dressed to impress, his clothes were expensive but not flashy and she noticed that about his brother as well.

“I don’t know,” he admitted with a small shrug. “He is very popular and all my friends think that I am so lucky to be his brother.”

“And that is where the problem lies.” She sat next to him. “You are lucky to have each other. Derek was determined to make a life for you and for him because he probably did not want you to go through what he did when he was your age.” She smiled as he looked at her. “I read about his life in some magazine.” She waved her hand airily. “I wished I had a sister or a brother who thought so highly of me to want to do that. I had to fight for myself and was determined not to turn out like my mother, because of that I cannot even stand to see a cigarette.” She added with a grin. “You have it good and you don’t even know it.”

“I must seem very ungrateful to you,” he said in an abashed tone.

“You are a teenager and you are entitled, it’s a confusing state to be in,” she assured him touching him briefly on the arm. “Now enough of this heavy talk, let’s go outside and take in some sunshine.”

She was relieved to see a genuine smile lighting up his face.

*****

“What do you think?” Debra placed the mirror in front of the woman’s face for her to see the result of the make-up she had just applied. The middle aged Caucasian woman stared at herself in the mirror for a full minute before she responded. “I love it!” she declared enthusiastically. “Now I just have to remember how to apply the foundation when I am ready to leave the house.”

“I have written down the steps for you to remember them,” Debra reassured her, handing her a piece of paper.

“You are a peach,” Laura said with a beaming smile. “I think I will take two more tubes of those rich color lipsticks and that anti aging cream as well.”

“Good choice, I will have them packaged for you.” Debra told her with a smile, catching the gimlet stare of the wretched supervisor as she put the things together. She was the only one who made the job less than enjoyable but she refused to allow her to spoil her days.

“Don’t worry about her love, I will make sure and put her in her place, I am allowed to do so, I am the customer,” Laura said with a grin. “Darling I don’t know what this store would do without people like you and Ana, you are what customer service is all about,” she had raised her voice while saying it and to the girls’ amusement she saw the supervisor hurrying away. “Serves her right, the old prune.” Laura said with a laugh.

“You are a woman after my own heart,” Ana said hugging her briefly.

They did not see her for the rest of the day.

*****

“I think I am starting to get tired of Charles,” Ana said slowly, crunching on her lettuce. They were at lunch at one of the restaurants at the mall near to the store. “He is getting too demanding and forgetting that he is the one with the ex-wife and alimony checks he has to pay out. He is talking about marriage. Can you really see me married? Especially to someone like Charles?”

“If you can sleep with him then you can marry him,” Debra told her, with a lift of her well shaped brow. She noticed that parents and children were scurrying around looking for back to school bargains.

“Honey you know I can do better than Charles,” Ana said loftily, with a shrug of her slender shoulder. “I have no intention of settling for just any old Joe, I am aiming for the sky. Do you think I want to be working at this department store until I am old and gray?