Chapter 6

"Is there any place in the Mall that I can buy some clothes," he asked her as he followed the signs to the Steamtown Mall.

"There's a Boscov's in the Mall," she answered, "It's got some nice clothes, a bit too expensive for me though... I'm a Wal-Mart kind of girl."

He found out that the Steamtown Mall was not a mall in the usual sense. Scranton was a depressed area since the coal and steel industries had waned but it was fighting tooth and nail to bring itself back to respectability. The city government had taken the downtown area and joined a lot of the stores in the dying retail district together into a semblance of a mall. It all seemed to work. The downtown area was alive and well.

Roger found a parking lot close to the mall and pulled in and parked. When Janice tried to tell him that she would wait in the truck for him he walked over to her side and held the door open. He had to take her hand and pull her out of the truck. She left the cover in the truck so he held her hand and forced her to run along with him to Boscov's entrance.

Once inside the store he led her toward a section that had few people standing around, "Look, we're going to a nice place to eat tonight so you get a decent outfit and shoes and whatever else women need to make themselves pretty."

She immediately got on the defensive, "Look I'm not going to..."

He cut her off, "I haven't asked or suggested anything of the sort. All I'm asking of you is that you grace me with your presence at dinner and enthrall me with your witty conversation. Besides, I have a vivid picture of you standing in a Laundromat in the nude washing your one set of clothes. Scranton would never live it down."

She smiled at his attempt at humor and she meekly followed him to the ladies section. She looked through the dresses and he finally had to force her to pick out something that she would wear. He had to do the same with shoes, stockings, makeup and a coat. He knew that she felt self-conscious taking money from him and he tried to keep her smiling all of the time that they were shopping.

After he was satisfied that she had everything that she would need, they walked into the mall and found the ladies room. She went into the ladies room to make sure that there wasn't anyone inside and then she asked him to stand at the door and make sure that no one came in. He stood at the door for almost an hour, telling people that workmen were inside repairing the ladies room.

When she finally walked out of the ladies room his mouth dropped open and he stared at her. No longer did she have the drowned rat look. She was a beautiful woman. The dress that she had selected fit her like a glove and her makeup was flawless. He took her hand and they walk out of the mall. She dropped her uniform and worn out shoes in the trashcan as they walked toward the truck.

She saw him looking at her almost perfect hair and smiled, "Those air dryers for your hands make good hair dryers too."

It had stopped raining and the night air was turning much colder. He knew that there would be ice in some spots tonight.

Roger turned to her, "What's a good restaurant around here?"

Her face got serious again, "Can we go back to Clark Summit? I don't want to stay around Scranton tonight."

He headed toward Clark Summit with Janice showing him the way. They stayed off of I-81 and used the back roads. In about a half hour they were in Clark Summit sitting at the traffic light.

"What kind of food do you like?" she asked.

"Steak and seafood," he replied with a grin.

"Pull in that restaurant up there on the right then," she said, "I used to work there."

Roger pulled into the parking lot and waited while she checked to make sure she looked all right before they went into the restaurant. She reapplied some lipstick and turned and saw him looking at her and grinned self-consciously.

"You look perfect," he said.

Her eyes began to puddle up and she opened the door and then turned to him, "It's been a long time since I felt pretty. Thank you."

She got out of the truck and stood with her back to the door. Roger got out and took off his jacket and got his 3⁄4 length leather jacket out of the back seat and put it on. He walked around and took her hand and put it in his arm and they walked toward the restaurant.

There were a few empty tables and they were seated immediately. Roger asked if she would like a drink before dinner and she nodded. He ordered bourbon and water for himself and Janice ordered a Margarita. Roger asked the waitress to give them a few moments before they ordered. They sat for a few minutes soaking up the atmosphere of the restaurant. Janice seemed to still be a little on the defensive.

Roger finally opened the conversation. He told her how he had started the company and how he had made a nice profit when he sold it

"What are you doing in Scranton then? Don't you work anywhere now?"

He chuckled, "Well, if I don't want to I'll never have to work again and I'll never have any money worries again."

"That's why you throw you money away on strange women," she replied.

"I never throw my money away. I consider myself a very shrewd investor. It's just that sometimes I feel like investing in people and I think that I've made a good investment today. Now tell me about Janice Siemens. What makes her tick?"