One Hour Photo

Astrid Wagner checked her small to-do list as she walked
out of the Central Avenue Bank. The thirty-nine year old redhead
had been running errands all morning and only two items remained.
The last was to pick up groceries and would be done on her way
home. That just left dropping off two rolls of film to be
developed.

Checking her coupon wallet, she found the discount
certificate she remembered getting in the mail earlier in the
month. Despite the substantial insurance settlement following her
husband’s fatal accident the year before, Astrid still tried to save
money wherever she could. Checking the address on the coupon,
she saw that the store was only four blocks over. Dropping it back
into her purse, she decided to leave her car where it was parked
and walk over.

There were two customers ahead of her in line when she
entered the store, so Astrid had to wait a few minutes. The black
haired young man behind the counter, dressed in a blue T-shirt and
jeans, quickly handled the short line and it was soon her turn.

“Welcome to Photo World, how can I help you today?” the
slim teenager asked with a smile as Astrid stepped up to the
counter.

“I’d like to have these developed, please,” she replied,
returning his smile.

“I think we can manage that,” the young man, whose
nametag identified as Alexander, grinned. “Would you like one hour
service or would tomorrow be soon enough?”

“Tomorrow would be just fine,” Astrid answered, thinking
that she never understood why so many people needed to have
photos developed in an hour. Especially since the exposed
canisters had probably sat in a dresser drawer for the longest
time before they ever got around to bringing them in.

“If you’ll just fill these out then,” Alexander said as he put
two envelopes in front of her. “I’ll be right back.” he added as
another customer stepped up to the other end of the counter.

Astrid quickly filled out her name and address, along with
the number of prints she wanted. She decided on double copies
since both rolls were of her new grandson’s baptism and
undoubtedly the proud mother and father would want copies as
well.

While she waited for Alexander to finish the other
transaction, Astrid glanced around the store. In addition to quick
developing, the small shop also sold frames, albums, various photo
equipment and of course film. What also caught her eye was a
‘help wanted’ sign near the door that she hadn’t noticed when
she’d walked in.

“What kind of help are you looking for?” the short haired
redhead asked as Alexander came back to take her envelopes.

“Someone to run the developing machine, work the counter,
that sort of thing,” he answered as he checked the envelope to
make sure that all the information was there. “Pretty much the
same things I do.”

“You need someone with experience then,” Astrid asked,
“to work the machine I mean?”

“Not really,” came his reply. “A few days training and
almost anyone could handle it. It’s almost idiot-proof.”

Alexander paused a second to drop the envelopes into the
appropriate storage tray and then rang up the sale for the rolls of
film she had also bought. As Astrid handed him a few bills, he
asked. “Did you know someone who might be interested?”

“Actually, I though I might be,” she said as he handed back
the change.

“Really?” Alexander said, a surprise in his tone. “I really
didn’t expect someone like you to be interested in a job like this.”

“Too old to learn?” Astrid asked, more in humor than
anything else.

“No, no definitely not,” Alexander quickly replied, having
taken the quip far more seriously than she’d intended. “It’s just
that usually we wind up with high school or college kids, basically
because of the money if nothing else. I mean it’s better than
minimum wage, but not exactly going to make anyone live the good
life.”

“And which are you?” Astrid asked out of curiosity.

“Somewhere in-between,” Alexander said. “I graduated last
month and start college in the Fall. Plus my Dad owns the store so
if you’re really serious, you’ll have to talk to him.”

Astrid considered it for a moment, asking herself if she was
indeed serious. The idea of getting a job had been on her mind for
a while now, just not urgently. With her daughter, Karen, married
and now a mother, and her son, Karl away at school, the house was
quite empty. It wasn’t a matter of needing to make money to live
on, just the need to have something to do every day. Something
more interesting than just watching the soaps and cleaning a house
that only needed it once a week.

“Do I need to fill out an application?” she asked, making up
her mind.

“Not really, at least not until Dad has a chance to interview
you. Do you think you could come back this afternoon, say after
two? He’ll be in by then.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Astrid replied as she glanced
up at the clock on the wall. “I’ll see you after two then.”

-=-=-=-

With two hours to kill, Astrid decided to have lunch in town
rather than make the thirty-minute drive home and then back
again. Dayton’s Diner was always one of her favorite places to eat
and she was sure she’d be able to get a table even at this time of
day.

Sitting in a corner booth, enjoying the special of the day,
Astrid asked herself one more time if this was something she
really wanted to do. After all, it wouldn’t be fair to the man who
owned the store to take the job if she wasn’t really serious about
it. Finally, after spending almost an hour thinking about it, she
decided that she was very much so.

Sitting in an empty house was driving her crazy, that much
was pretty evident. Even more so were the attempts by her
friends to make sure that she got through what they referred to
as ‘her time of grief’. Undoubtedly, a few of them would see her
taking this job as a side-effect of that grief, something she
wouldn’t have done had she been in her right mind.

Yet the truth was, not that any of them would understand it,
was that she was more in her right mind now than when Pete was
alive. If he hadn’t died in that car crash when he did, they
would’ve wound up in divorce court by the end of the year. The
marriage had been a sham for the longest time, with Pete playing
around on her so openly as not to care anymore. Added to that, his
drinking had brought them to a point where they were more
roommates than husband and wife.

No, she had hardly been devastated by his death. If
anything, she had been reborn by it. Astrid was of course sorry
that he’d been killed, if only for the man he once was. But she’d
be damned if she was going to spend the rest of her life mourning
the man that he’d become. No, in the end, all the good that had
come out of their marriage had been the children and a large
enough insurance policy as to make a new life possible.

After lunch, she still had a little time to kill and decided to
walk off lunch. Glancing at her reflection in the glass display
windows along the avenue, Astrid saw a woman just slightly past
her prime. She’d always tried to take care of her body and, as a
result, weighed only a dozen or so pounds more than she did when
she’d graduated high school. Her medium sized breasts were still
noticeable, if not as firm as they’d been back then, and she’d also
managed to hold the line when it came to other parts of her body.
Most of the girls she’d grown up hadn’t fared as well with that
battle.

The bell on the courthouse clock stuck two o’clock and
Astrid headed back to Photo World. It was a short walk, but one
in which each step told her she was doing the right thing.

-=-=-=-

Stepping back into the store, Astrid had no problem picking
out Alexander’s father. In his early fifties, the salt and pepper
haired man was an equally handsome older version of his son. Fit
and trim, something to be admired in a man of any age, he also
sported a two-tone van dyke beard.

“Welcome to Photo World, how can I help you today?” he
said, echoing his son’s greeting of before.

“Hi, my name is Astrid Wagner,” she explained, “I was here
a little earlier and I’m interested in the position you have open.”

“Oh yes, Alexander told me about you,” he said with a warm
smile. “I was wondering if maybe you’d come to your senses and
decided not to come back.”

“Hardly that,” Astrid grinned.

“Well if you’re still interested, why don’t we step into the
back office and talk about it,” the older man said as he called for
his son to come out and take over the counter. “I’m Nicholas
Jennings by the way.”

“Nice to meet you,” Astrid replied as she followed him
around the counter and into the back room. As she passed
Alexander coming out, they two of them exchanged a smile as he
silently wished her good luck.

The back room doubled as both office and storage room,
with a number of boxes piled up against the far wall. Nicholas
stepped over to a coffee machine atop a filing cabinet and poured
himself a cup, offering her one as well. Directing Astrid to the
seat on the far side of the desk, Nicholas took his own chair and
asked her why she wanted the job.

Repeating the thoughts she had gathered during lunch,
Astrid explained that she was a widow and while she didn’t need
the money, she did need to find something to occupy her time now
that her children were grown. She thought the job might be
interesting and while she hadn’t worked in a number of years, she
promised to give it her best effort and learn what she needed to
know as soon as possible.

Nicholas said he appreciated her candor and wanted to be
just as candid in his response. This was just one of three stores he
owned, with plans to open a fourth over the summer. Because of
that, his time was split among all three, soon to be four, locations.
It was important, therefore, to have people who could run the
stores on their own with minimum supervision and handle any little
problems that might come up.

He was glad to be able to hire a responsible adult rather
than the students the position normally attracted. Not that he
hadn’t had some fine young men and women work for him in the
past, his son of course included in that group, but they tended to
be few and far in-between.

It was at that point that Astrid lost track of what exactly
Nicholas was saying. She knew it had something to do with the
duties the job entailed, but the words had become something of a
blur. In the confines of the small office, and with the worry about
getting the job out of the way, the redhead suddenly became much
more aware of Nicholas Jennings as a man.

During the beginning of the interview, she was sure she’d
caught the photo store owner checking her out. His eyes lingering
on her legs for just a moment too long. That happened often
enough to reassure her that men still found her attractive.
Normally, she only gave such looks a cursory notice, but this time,
it made her feel quite warm, and not a little wet between her legs.

Rather than feeling embarrassed, after all this was a job
interview, Astrid found herself wondering if Nicholas and his wife
were still happily married? Did they still rock the sheets, or had
their marriage bed grown as cold as hers had been at the end.
What kind of fuck was the man sitting across from her?

“Any questions?” Nicholas asked as he concluded the
interview.

“Excuse me?” Astrid asked in turn as those final words
registered through her idle musing.

“Was there anything you’d like to ask me?” Nicholas
repeated.

“I guess the only thing to ask would be when do I start?”
she lied as she forced the more inappropriate questions from her
head.

“Tomorrow would be soon enough,” came the reply.

They emerged from the office a minute later, with Nicholas
telling his son that Astrid had the job. He added that he was
depending on him to show her the ropes and he knew that
Alexander wouldn’t let him down.

“Don’t worry Dad,” the eighteen year old promised. “A
week from now she’ll be better on the developer than I am.”

Astrid was too busy taking a last admiring look at the elder
Mr. Jennings to notice that the younger was pretty much doing the
same to her.

-=-=-=-

That week came and went and while Astrid would hardly
make the claim that she was better on the developer than
Alexander, she did become quite skilled at it. She guessed the
whole process was idiot-proof after all.

Along the way, and in the weeks that followed, Astrid and
Alexander struck up a pretty nice friendship. To the teenager, she
seemed more an older sister than a contemporary of his mother
and Astrid quickly forget that her co-worker was a year younger
than her own son.

The summer passed quickly, and by the time August rolled
around, Astrid felt that maybe that boast from the day she’d been
hired might now be true after all. On the flip side of the coin, she
also now felt a little sad that with the start of school only a month
away, she was going to miss working with Alexander.

“Welcome to Photo World, how can I help you today?”
Astrid said, having also adopted the standard greeting.

“Is Mr. Jennings in?” the dark haired gentleman asked as he
placed a roll of film on the countertop.

“I’m afraid he won’t be in until later today,” Astrid
answered, “I’m sure I can help you though.”

“I’d rather Nick develop this,” he insisted as his fingers
closed defensively around the canister, “he takes care of all of my
photos.”

Astrid thought the request rather silly, but the first rule of
business was making the customer happy. Besides, since it was
obvious the man was on a first name basis with the store owner so
his request probably not that unusual.

She filled out the envelope and wrote across the top that it
was for the personal attention of Nicholas Jennings. Of course,
they wouldn’t be ready until late this evening when Nicholas came
in, she told the customer, but he didn’t seem to have a problem
with that at all.

A few minutes later, Alexander returned from lunch,
escorted by two attractive young ladies. One was Samantha
Montgomery, a curvaceous blonde that Alexander had been dating
since his junior year. Actually, the two had known each other since
grade school, but had only gone from friendship to something more
serious in their late teens. The other girl, a brunette almost as
well developed, was Doris Sullivan, who had been Samantha’s best
friend even longer. And by association, she had become
Alexander’s friend as well.

“Have a good time?” Astrid asked as Alexander lifted a
moveable section of the countertop and stepped behind it.

“It was great,” Samantha answered for him.

Astrid turned towards Alexander to see if he agreed, but
only got a weak smile in response. Perhaps there was a problem
between the two, she thought, no relationship was perfect.
Hopefully it was only a minor one. Since meeting her earlier in the
summer, the redhead had developed a real liking for the younger
blonde, and thought she was real good for Alexander. It was a pity
that they were going away to different schools next month,
something that would put a strain on any relationship.

“We’re going to have to hurry if we’re going to make the
movie, Sam,” Doris pointed out as she looked up at the wall clock.

“What film are you going to see?” Astrid asked, turning her
attention from Alexander back to the girls.

“Girls Night Out,” Samantha replied.

“I’ve heard that is supposed to be pretty funny,” Astrid
noted, thinking that she’d also heard that it was somewhat racy as
well.

A helpful idea popped into the older woman’s head. Turning
back to Alexander, she suggested that maybe he’d like to take the
rest of the afternoon off and go with the girls to the movie. She
would, she assured him, be able to handle the store alone.

“Thanks,” Alexander said, “but it’s okay. I really didn’t
want to see that movie anyway.”

“Suit yourself,” Astrid shrugged, thinking that he was
missing the point. It wasn’t what was on the screen that mattered
as much as who was in the seat next to you.

Samantha leaned over the counter and gave Alexander a
quick goodbye kiss, telling him that he was the greatest. Hardly
the comment of an angry woman, thought Astrid. Then again,
there were plenty of times she didn’t understand her own
teenagers, so who was she to judge anyone else’s.

Wanting to change the subject once the girls left, Astrid
mentioned the special order request to Alexander. He said that
there were a few customers like that, but didn’t think anything of
it. As long as they didn’t expect instant service, and in this case,
they didn’t, it was okay.

Figuring he was right, Astrid put the matter from her mind
and turned her attention to the backlog of one-hour orders that
had piled up during the lunch hour. Between the two of them, it
didn’t take long to catch up.

Alexander had told her this morning that he had to leave at
four, which wasn’t a problem since Nicholas was due in at
four-thirty. Astrid had momentarily forgotten that when she
suggested he leave to go to the movies. That he was working a
short day as it was might have been the reason he didn’t want to
make it any shorter.