Read Online Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! by Fannie Flagg - Free Book Online Page A

and smoking a cigar, sitting behind a ten-foot-long desk. Hedid not get up. He glanced at her for a second and continued cursing into the receiver, leaving them standing. They waited while the little man with the shiny, sweaty head continued to berate whoever he was talking to. The longer Dena remained standing and ignored, the madder she got. She could feel her face getting flushed. If there was anything Dena had inherited from her mother, it was pride, and she was not going to let this little toad humiliate her, no matter how much she wanted the job.
    The second he hung up the phone, she walked right up to Ira Wallace’s desk, reached over, and forced him to shake hands. “How do you do, Mr. Wallace. I’m Dena Nordstrom. What a pleasure to meet you. No, don’t bother to get up. We will have a seat, thank you.”
    Wallace looked at her as if she had just dropped in from Mars.
    She sat down and smiled at him. “Now, Mr. Wallace—tell me a little about yourself. I like to really get to know people before I make any decision about accepting a job.”
    He looked at Sandy Cooper, who was clearly confused, too. Wallace took the cigar out of his mouth. “What … is she kidding?”
    Sandy tried to recover. “Uh, Mr. Wallace, did you by any chance get to take a look at the tapes?”
    Before Wallace could answer, Dena looked at her watch and said, “Oh, darn it all. I wish I could stay. I am
so
sorry, Mr. Wallace, but unfortunately, I’m already late for another appointment.”
    She stood up and walked over and shook his hand again. “It’s always so nice to meet such a charming gentleman with such lovely manners.”
    She said to Sandy on the way out, “I’ll call you later.”
    Both men, their mouths open, watched as she left.
    As Dena waited for the elevator, she said, “That man is a pig.”
    The receptionist, without looking up, said, “Tell me something I don’t know.”
    After the elevator door closed and Dena was alone, she burst into tears.

    Back in the office, Wallace shouted at Sandy, “What is she, nuts? You waste my time with insane people? What’s the matter with her?”
    “I’m sorry, Mr. Wallace, I don’t know what happened. I know she wanted the job; she flew in for the meeting.”
    “Are you sure she’s not just some nut case?”
    “Oh, no, she’s very responsible. I don’t know what to tell you … except maybe, maybe you might have hurt her feelings or something?”
    “Hurt her feelings?”
    “She’s from the midwest. I think maybe she might be a little sensitive.”
    “Sensitive? Well, she’ll have to get over that crap if she wants to come to work for me. I liked her tapes but I’m not putting up with any prima donna shit.”
    Sandy said, “You liked her tapes?”
    Wallace shrugged. “She might have potential—if she don’t go whacko on us.”
    “Oh, no, she’s fine, I assure you.”
    “I don’t know how smart she is—she could be just another dumb bimbo like the rest of them—but she’s got the kinda look we want. That sappy, corn-fed, fresh-off-the-farm face and … well, some sort of class. So we might be willing to try her out.”
    Sandy changed gears in a hurry. “You’re absolutely right about that, Ira. That’s why I brought her to you before somebody snapped her up. Not only is she beautiful but she has a lot of experience—six local stations, but she was the most popular on-air personality in Richmond.”
    “I don’t care if she was Miss America, she starts at the bottom here; she understand that?”
    “Oh, yes,” said Sandy.
    “A lot of hard work. We’ll give her fifty thousand a year, with a thirteen-week out clause. Ours, not hers.”
    Sandy said, “Great, great. And I can tell you she’s not afraid of work. She does a great interview.”
    “All right, don’t oversell.”
    Sandy started to back out of the office before Wallace had a chance to change his mind.
    “And tell your princess-and-the-pea client, if she can find time in her busy