I’ve been working at Rita’s since I got out of high school. All I know is a waitress I work nights with told me they were hiring and I got the job. I don’t know who the owners are or how the company stays in business. With internet surveys taking over, the company is a dinosaur, but some people are still afraid of technology and have a landline. Believe it or not, people have a strong opinion on meat.

The Los Angeles-based company gets hired by all kinds of companies trying to get people to answer questions based on what they like, who they vote for, and what types of meat they buy. We are allowed to start calls at eight east coast, so I get up with the birds. I clock in as soon as I can, which is five in the morning west coast time. I get paid an additional bonus based on the surveys I convince people to complete, so I spend most of my day being nice to people who hang up on me. I get paid minimum wage for the hours I work, and then get bonuses for the number of calls I make. We tell people we are taking surveys but they still think we’re trying to sell them something. Instead, I’ll have a quick shower with lukewarm water, and I’ll have to be up in five hours to do it all over again.ĭuring the day I work as a telemarketer for a research company. My feet ache and I sit back in the seat, wishing with every fiber of my body that I had a tub to crawl into tonight.

But now, after hours of being on my feet and busting my ass at the restaurant, it doesn’t feel like it was worth it. Rita asked me to work the late shift again tonight and I couldn’t afford to turn it down. The entire car is deserted and has been this way since I got on. Normally I wouldn’t count my money on the train, but it’s the last one and it’s nearly midnight. Instead I grit my teeth and shove the money back in my wallet and into my purse. “Forty-seven dollars.” I could cry as I look down at the measly bills in my hands. I should’ve let her go when I had the chance, but I’m an only child. She’s absolutely pure, and I’ve brought her into my world, into the underground mafia. All I know is, I plan on living until the end of time because this angel won’t go where I’ll go when my lights go out. Some might say it changed for the worse, but she says it’s for the better. The night I first saw her was the night her life changed forever. I’m not a man who feels guilt or remorse, but I’ll spend a thousand years trying to repent if it means I can have her in my arms. For her, I would fall on the sword, even if she was the one holding it. I will drop to my knees and confess my sins so that she can cleanse my soul. Her eyes are the center of my world and somehow she’s become my angel.

But I’ll do it, because I have no other choice.

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