In My Desperate Time

I pick up the pieces and put them all in a bag, and take it out of the door.

Frances Louis will be back in the evening, so I must solve it during the day.

I call Steven Song and tell him I'd be late. I get the leave permit so easily. It’s nice to have a boss buddy.

Then I call Mindy Sue. She tells me a shop that restores antiques, and I go there excitedly.

The boss is a woman of about thirty, not glamorous, but graceful, who looks very comfortable.

When I get in, she is cleaning an inkstone.

She sees me come in and gives me a soft smile.

“Hello.” I go up to her and take the bag out. “Ms, please have a look at this vase and would you repair it?”

The boss puts down the inkstone and takes over the bag.

She frowns when she sees the pieces.

“Broke into pieces.”

ask her hurriedly,

be repaired. Or I can’t pay it

my best but I can’t promise.”

be repaired today?”

this vase can't be fixed

hurry, I'm not going to do anything else today and will focus on this. But I'm not the boss.

smiles at me and

blue-and-white porcelain vase. It is not very big. But it must be

you. I will come again around six

of the antique

Who knows what

says to me

said gossips that made it so awkward. Much of Nicole Snow's hostility toward me comes from misunderstanding Steven Song

have explained but she doesn’t

privacy. In this company, I just do my job. You have no business in my

great idea last night during my menstrual cramps. I

is always wandering behind me. I feel like she wants to see what I'm doing. A designer’s work is a private thing. I turn to her and say, “What are you doing behind