The Doorman

2

My best friend, Michelle, dropped me off at the airport. I am so excited to fly to New York. It's is a dream come true. I sit in the waiting section until my plane is ready to fly.

"Detroit to New York, flight 15, is now open. Ascending in 15 minutes," I hear the attendant speak from the speakers. I don't think I've ever gotten up so fast in my life because when reached the podium, half of the passengers were still finishing their blink. She does something with the ticket that I don't pay attention to and she hands it right back.

"Enjoy your flight," she says before I run in like a 7 year old durning recess.

The flight attendant inside the airplane points towards the right direction to where my seat is. I guess everything was blinding me about the job that I didn't even realize that I got a first class seat. I sat down and slowly exhaled.

"I'm going to New York," I whisper to myself.

•••••••••••••••

About an hour into the flight, I realize a man about my age is sitting right across from me. He has been glancing at me a lot for a while. I finally catch him looking

"Hi, sorry if I startled you, but I can't help but notice how pretty you are. I'm Jonathan," he reaches out his hand so I could shake it. I reach out and shake his hand and introduce myself, "Hi I'm Dana." I giggle a bit for recalling how I caught him staring.

"So how long are you staying in New York?" He asks.
"I'm moving there," I say.
"Oh wow. Any particular reason?"
"I got a job and I'm really hopeful I last there. It's so important," I happily say.
"Oh wow. What job?"
"I am a read over and edit the New York Times newspaper," I gloat with pride.
"Wow, that's amazing," he says and congratulates me.

"Why are you going to New York?" I ask.
"I'm going back him. I visited some family in Michigan, so now it's time to go back home," he laughs.
"How long did you stay in Michigan?" I ask.
"4 months. I had to help my dad renovate the house, so I was very busy. My roommate was home all the time, so I didn't have to worry about anything being stolen or out of place. He's a very tidy person," he explains.
"Oh that's really cool," I state.
"Yeah," he says maybe thinking of something else to talk about, "well, I am going to take a nap so wake me if you're bored," he informs.
"Of course," I say obviously thinking not to wake him because I'm too nice of a person.
"Wait, put your number in my phone. I want to keep in touch. We should really hang sometime," he says.
I nod and grab his phone. I put my digits in and save myself under his contacts. He thanks me and closes his eyes and falls asleep on command.

As I wait another 2 hours, I'll just watch a movie.

••••••••••••••

We finally land at JFK, and I am so tired. I didn't like the movie that I put on, so I fell asleep in a weird position and now my neck is hurting. I get up and Jonathan follows me out since I got up earlier than anyone.

"So what side will you be at?" Jonathan asks.
"What?" I ask not understanding.
"What side of the city are you staying at?" He says.
I don't know. I haven't got my apartment building yet. I'll let you know and maybe we'll meet up," I say.
"Of course. I'd love to get some dinner someday. I'll call you," he says. We hug and I go outside and wait for the taxi that is supposed to pick me up.

Jonathan gets in a taxi that was already waiting and he drives away. A few minutes later, my phone vibrates. I look and it's a text.

'Can't wait for that dinner,' It reads.
'Jonathan?' I text back.
'Yep, have a safe drive. Bye beautiful," he replies. I add him to my contacts and see my taxi driving towards me.

•••••••••••••

I get driven to a bug building with big glass windows in the front and two security guards. The taxi driver hands me an envelope.

"These are your I.D's for the buildings you'll be visiting. They are points of interests you'll definitely be visiting," he says, "enjoy New York, miss Dana."

I thank him and give him a tip for his hospitality. He tells me he'll be seeing me a lot because I'll be driven everywhere. You would think working for a newspaper would be really simple, but I feel like I'm working for a very fancy and expensive company.

I walk into the big building, and a big sign reads, "New York Times, editing and publishing,"

I get giddy with excitement and walk towards the desk.
"Hello, I applied for a job and now I'm here," I say finally realizing that I'm rushing too much right after I said it.
"Hi," the desk lady laughs, "I'm Macy. I'll call the counselor down and he'll take you in. Please, can I see your employee I.D.'s?"
I dig in the envelope and spill out all of them. There are 5 in total. She looks at them and finally picks one that matches.
"Okay, miss Hardy. I will call Mr. Johnson down right now. Please sit while I contact him," Macy smiles and gives me back all my cards. It's not often that someone calls me by my last name. Ever since my parents left me, I never used my last name to introduce myself.

I was about 16 when they left. They never gave me an explanation. I woke up one morning and all of their things were gone and they had just driven out the garage. I ran after them for about a mile but we only had one car and they took it. They took my little brother with them and I haven't seen my family in about 6 years so I don't want to remember them. That's why I don't use my last name.

The rest of the day goes fine. I get a layout of what I'm specifically doing. I'm reading over the whole newspaper, adding and editing, and then I publish it. I also have little mini jobs in the back, like writing small indents in the back of the paper, and collecting money from the people who paid to have their ad on the newspaper. I work 7 hours a day, 5 days a week.

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