Surviving the Dreams

Chapter 15 - The Harbor Hotel

Susan was dressing to go downtown when Greg left her to go to the store on Monday. He couldn't help thinking about all she'd told him of her life before the crash over the weekend. Never before had they spent so much time talking about things away from this place, filling each other in about the rest of their lives. Never before had he known so much about her. Nor had he quite appreciated how fully capable she was of financially making her own way. At least she would be once they were home, and it made him wonder if she'd find him a burden she wished to be free of once they got there.

There was a note on the table at the apartment when he got home. It directed him to go to the Harbor Hotel and ask for Susan there. He did what it said and was directed to a small window office on the mezzanine level, just above the third floor. Susan rose from a computer to greet him as he walked in.

"You got the job," he said with a smile as he walked in.

"Yes. They offered to buy us dinner in honor of the occasion," Susan told him. She held out a coupon in her hand. "Good for dinner for two at the café on the first floor. Shall we?"

"I'd be honored Madame. Are you finished here?" he asked.

"It's going to take me a month to finish here," she answered honestly. "They're worried about Y2K. They need me to check all their programming to make sure they won't lose all their records come January first. So, I'll leave it for now and get back to it in the morning."

Susan was grinning from ear to ear as she told him about her job. She had so wanted to contribute to their income, and finally she had the opportunity to do it.

"The job pays two thousand yen a week for three months," Susan told him over lunch.

"What happens in three months?" Greg asked. "Does it end?"

"Not necessarily. We'll re-negotiate my contract in January after the first of the year ... earlier if they decide they really want me. If they like my work, they may extend my contract or I could become a regular employee, with benefits and everything. That could happen sooner if they like me," Susan said with a grin. "If they do, that would mean a raise of at least fifty yen a week."

Greg nodded. "That's nearly a professional salary ... significantly higher than what I've been earning at the store." Greg's face fell as he thought about that.

"Do you mind?" she asked when she saw his expression.

"I shouldn't, I suppose," Greg said. "It's just that I was raised that a man should support the family, not the other way round."

"And you will. You help me, then I help you, then you help me again. It's been like that ever since I traded you coconuts for obsidian," Susan reminded him.

"And you made me the mat in exchange for the shelves," Greg remembered.

"And you got the fishing job, while I worked at the rice stand and helped Father Yuen with his computer. You've been working all this time while I've been teaching for nothing."

"In exchange for our lodging," Greg recalled. "Yes, I do remember. It's just that I'm not sure how I can help you this time."

Susan smiled. "You will. I promise, Greg, you will have plenty of chances for a long time to come."

^^^

Dinner at the hotel came to be a habit at least three or four times a week. Susan got a discount at the café, and eating there was actually cheaper, not to mention easier than killing and cleaning their own chickens and fish. At home they contented themselves with rice, fruits, vegetables, an occasional loaf of bread and some tea; but at the café they could have coffee and meat and other things they'd only been thinking of. They enjoyed it so much and Greg recommended the café so highly to the other guests at the hotel that by the end of October, the hotel had hired him too to work as their evening concierge.