Upper Management from the Atlanta Metro Division of Wachovia Bank called Mrs. Hudson one morning in July asking her to provide two staff from her Kennesaw branch to staff an information table at the Georgia Career Consortium being held at the nearby Cobb Galleria Centre. Their slot was on the following Thursday from 8 AM to 12 Noon.
Right after this conversation, Mrs. Hudson called Don Smith into her office and asked him to head up the team to represent the branch. They discussed who ought to be the other representative.
"Don, I think it needs to be someone attractive, professional and under 35 years old. How about one of the younger tellers - since they would be speaking to students."
"Okay, I see your point, but does it have to be a teller?"
"Not necessarily, but that's mostly what we have. How about Kelli, she fits the bill on all three points."
"Well Mrs. Hudson, Kelli would be okay, but have someone else in mind that might be even better. How about our new records clerk, Trisha?"
"I don't know, Don, she is young and attractive but is she professional enough? I often have to chide her for violating the dress code. She likes to slip in and out of her shoes and I've even seen her take them completely off on occasion."
"I'll respect your decision, but I would be more comfortable with Trisha. Kelli and I never have hit it off but I do enjoy chatting with Trisha when we're working together."
"Okay Don, I give in...This time..I guess that otherwise she is a hard worker and would be acceptable. I'll let you break the news to her and make sure she is okay with doing this. If not, I'd recommend you ask Kelli."
"Sounds good. Thanks Mrs. Hudson for being flexible."
"One more thing Don. There is no bonus money for this task, but Wachovia is going to pick up the tab on lunch- up to $30, I'll need a dated receipt."
"That's even better. I'll call her in right now to talk about it"
Don called Trisha into his office.
"Trisha, sit down over here, I have something to ask you." She sat in a chair off to the left side of his desk facing him. This was a good view for Don to enjoy her nyloned legs and dangling pumps while he asked her about the career fair.
"Are you sure I'm up to this task?"
"Trisha, aren't you in a Sorority back at Georgia? You'll be doing about the same thing, but instead of hocking AOPi, you'll be doing the same thing for Wachovia."
"Okay, I'm game."
Oh and there's more. Wachovia's picking up the tab on lunch. There's a neat place in the adjacent hotel I think you'll like. The tables meander along a path through a garden and a stream that flows into a pond. There's also a waterfall."
"Oh my, that sounds expensive.
"Hey it's on Big W. No problem." Don was a little deceiving with his answer, but he was willing to spend out of his own pocket whatever exceeded $30 to impress Trisha with this nice lunch. He looked forward to spending 6 hours with her and her nyloned legs and shoeplay. He was not totally shallow, though. The time they had worked together, he had gotten to know Trisha better than anyone else at the branch and enjoyed her company even not counting the other stuff that initially attracted him to her.
Word got out about Trisha's upcoming plans with Don among the tellers who had a crush on Don. Predictably they were jealous and skeptical. Kelli being Trisha's friend was silently jealous however a couple of the others were not so tactful.
"Hey Trish, I hear you're getting to go sit behind a desk and chat with kids about going into banking next week. What'd you have to do to pull that one off, smirked Wendy during a slow time when Trisha happened to be near her tellers station."
Hearing this, Anna, another teller chimed in, "You're getting to spend all that time with Don. Won't your Chuck get jealous? If you think he will, I'd gladly take your place. Just let me know.
Trisha did not like the whiny tone that Wendy and Anna portrayed. She thought about what Anna said, though. She'd be spending probably 7 hours with Don, counting travel time and lunch into the mix. Up until now, they had never spent more than 5 or 10 minutes together. Over the next few days, Trisha began to wonder why she was chosen instead of Wendy, Anna or even Kelli. Did Don have a crush on her? She was just a little bit uncertain.
The big day finally came and Don meet Trisha at the Kennesaw Wachovia branch at 7:30 AM. No one else had arrived so the parking lot was empty. Trisha offered to drive, but Don insisted they take his car down to Cobb Galleria Centre.
When they arrived, they found a long and narrow 8-ft table with a Wachovia banner hanging in front of the table and touching the floor. Behind the table was a display that showed a lot of photos of people happily working at Wachovia. Some of the careers available from Wachovia were listed on the backdrop. Sitting on the table were several brochures and a few freebies such as pens, key rings and wrapped candy.
Don was pleased with Trisha's choice of outfit for the event. She wore a pair of black slingbacks with a 2-inch heel and sheer nylons with nice a blue dress with white lace trim. The dress was cut above the knee so she revealed a good amount of leg. He enjoyed watching her legs under the table during the morning. Trisha dipped and dangled alternate pumps throughout the morning. She would let the shoe slide down to hang precariously off her toes then pop it back on. After a couple of hours of this, her slingbacks were squashed under her feet making them look and act like mules. She even kept them that way during a trip to the restroom giving Don a good view of her shoes slapping against her feet.
During the morning, Trisha was one of the few girls he saw that "turned his crank." Most all of the students wore jeans or shorts or at best slacks. They mostly wore clunky sandals and not a single college student came by that was wearing hose.
Later on in the morning, during an especially rapid dangle, Trisha dropped her right shoe off her foot, falling unnoticed into a open-topped empty box which they had been using to carry in their brochures and freebies. An earlier pair of staff from another Wachovia branch had converted it into a makeshift garbage can to deposit wrappers that had come off of the free giveaways to the students that week.
Trisha did not immediately care that her shoe had fallen off, she was distracted talking to a student and did not want to fish around for her shoe in front of him. While this was going on, someone from another presumably nearby booth came by and asked Don if they had an extra box she could use to pack their extra brochures. Since they had given away enough Wachovia stuff, he decided they could spare the box being used for garbage.
"Sure, reach under our banner and grab the box under the far side of the table. It's got some garbage you need to empty out first."
"Thanks a lot. We needed to cut out of here early and we were a couple of boxes short. This should give us what we need, the lady said before going off to the far side of the arena where several large garbage bins were sitting and dumped the stuff in the box, including Trisha's shoe, into one of them. The shoe's landing in the existing pile of trash did not make enough noise to attract her attention. She returned to his booth and packed up his stuff and left early for lunch.
Soon after the student left, Trisha decided to switch her crossed legs position. When she uncrossed her right foot, she looked under the table to retrieve her fallen shoe. It was gone much to her shock and dismay.
"Hey Don, do you see my shoe anywhere on your side of the table?"
"Let me look. No I don't see anything. I'll see if it came out in front of our banner." Don got up and walked into the aisle and he saw nothing. "No, I don't see it. What were you doing to misplace your shoe?"
"I was talking to a student and I was dangling my right shoe over to the left and it fell off. Five minutes later, it's gone."
Don thought for a minute and he considered the lady taking the box that was resting on the floor to Trisha's left. "Certainly it couldn't have landed in the box, or could it!" he thought. "Oh no! I bet I know what happened, Trisha and if so I am terribly sorry! Just a few minutes ago, some lady from another booth asked if we had an extra box to use and I told her she could have the one under the table we were using for garbage."
"Okay Don, if we hurry maybe we can find her. She must be from a booth around here."
"Maybe, but I also suggested she empty the garbage first so even if we find her at his booth, she may have already thrown your shoe away. Why don't we split up and I'll try to locate the lady and you can look in the nearest garbage cans."
"Why do I get the garbage?
"Although I don't remember that much about the lady who borrowed the box, I think I'd be able to pick her out better that you would."
"Okay, let's split up. Oh, I do hate being seen walking around here with one shoe, but I guess there's not much choice."
Don wandered around all of the booths in the immediate area of the Wachovia booth and no one looked familiar. He did see several booths that had been vacated early, so he theorized that one of them might have been where the box borrower originated and had subsequently departed.
Poor Trisha limped along on one slingback converted to a floppy mule and one nyloned foot following behind on tiptoes trying to keep some sense of equilibrium. She hoped that few people paid attention to her plight, but when an attractive young lady with very shapely legs and a nice outfit walks by, men are very likely to take a gander and notice the lovely Cinderella. Trisha raised even more eyes when she leaned over into one trashcan after another looking for her shoe. She had to balance on the edge of each can on her stomach and when she leaned in, this lifted herself completely off the floor on occasion. To keep balanced, she had to kick her legs up and down and certainly many noticed her pretty nyloned legs and her one shoe.
After a few minutes, a couple of male students stopped and had the nerve to approach the damsel in distress - Trisha, "Miss, can we help you find something."
Trisha was initially embarrassed but she quickly accepted their help, "Thanks a lot, I think my other shoe was accidentally thrown away in one of these. I'm trying to find it. In a few minutes, the extra manpower had allowed them to search all the cans. At that point, Don finished his fruitless search for the box borrower and joined Trisha and the two helpful young gentlemen at the garbage bins.
"Any luck?"
"No, it looks like it's long gone."
It's partially my own fault, if you'd like we can just go now and I'll buy you a new pair of shoes to replace the one you lost."
"Oh no, I wouldn't ask you to do that. It was an accident and not your fault, really. We can go now however if you want. "
Don replied, "Well, I guess you would rather not go to the restaurant with only one shoe. If not, I can run by a drive-thru and get something to go then take you to your house to get a replacement pair of shoes."
Trisha's reply surprised him, "You know what Don, I've been in one shoe this long and I need a good meal and it's free. I'm game - unless you're embarrassed to be seen with me looking this way."
"I'd never be embarrassed to be seen with you. Let's go."
Trisha did replace the slingback to keep the shoe from flopping, thus eliminating the attention-getting noise. She walked on her toes and the front half of her foot to keep balance. They walked across the arena and over to the hotel. She eventually got used to the missing shoe and began to walk with more confidence. Some people, mainly men, grabbed a secret glance as she walked by, but certainly none of them asked her about it.
They got to the up escalator and Trisha was careful to place her nyloned right foot over her shod left one to avoid having to put it on the ribbed metal moving step. They got to the top and were greeted by the restaurant's hostess. There was a wait so they found a seat where Trisha placed her right foot under her left leg to make her situation less obvious.
Finally the beeper that the hostess had given Don to notify them of their table's availability vibrated, surprising him slightly. He and Trisha were led to a nice table next to the garden and in sight of the stream. Trisha sat with her right foot on the floor and crossed the left one over the right and dangled it throughout dinner. At some point, she dangled it completely off and ate with both nyloned feet exposed and a single shoe sitting to the side. They enjoyed a good conversation and finally it was time to return to work. Trisha got up to leave and she fished for her shoes. She placed one back on and for a moment she forgot the other one was lost as she looked for that as well. She had had that much of a good time with Don, talking about mostly friends and stuff that had happened at the Univ. of Georgia and at the Univ. of Alabama.
Don and Trisha confidently left the restaurant as on-lookers could only wonder what could have happened.
Don ran Trisha by her house to get a pair of replacement shoes and then they returned to work.
Don had his last loan applicant around 3:30 and decided to cut out early and return to the Cobb Galleria Centre. He wondered if they could have overlooked any other possible trash cans besides the ones they had searched earlier.
He returned to the scene of the "crime" and decided to walk the opposite direction from the Wachovia booth and see if there were any other trash cans in the opposite direction. Indeed there were 3 additional ones tucked away in a remote corner. "Could that lady have emptied the box there instead, he wondered?" As he approached the cans he saw a janitor returning a fourth can to the lineup. Don asked the man, "Did you just empty all of these somewhere?"
The janitor looked puzzled and replied that he had. Don followed up with, "Well, can I see where you dumped it. I may have accidentally thrown away something very important. Can you help me?"
"Well sir, it's in the basement where we load the trash onto a conveyor belt to be incinerated. If we hurry we might be able to find it before it gets burned."
Don followed the man out the back stairs down into the basement of the centre. He saw an elaborate system of conveyor belts and other assorted equipment. The janitor took Don to where he just dumped the trash.
I just dumped those last 4 cans in this holding compartment. Over there, you see trash coming out on the conveyor to begin going to the incinerator. it looks like some has already been burned, but you're welcomed to watch this and see if you find your lost item."
"Thanks a lot! I really appreciate it."
"Oh, by the way, what did you lose if you don't mind my asking?
"Well actually my co-worker accidentally dropped one of her shoes in the trash and we think it got thrown away."
The janitor nodded in reply, but he was thinking, "Oh my, what a klutz!"
Don stood in anticipation for about 15 minutes and nothing of consequence had come across. he was beginning to think the shoe had been blown away to Oz or something. but just as he was about to give up, the shoe came onto the conveyor belt. He was so anxious that as he lunged for it, he knocked it off the other side of the belt, out of reach. He had to crawl on the floor under the belt and it was a tight spot, but he eventually stretched far enough to retrieve it. He clutched the shoe in his hand and for some reason, rubbed the inside - it was very silky smooth - he could tell it had never been worn without nylons. He put it into one of the pockets of his sport coat and returned to the arena. He found the helpful janitor and thanked him profusely.
The next day, Don called Trisha into his office. She was still not looking very happy after her embarrassing situation from the day before.
"Trisha, I have something that I think will brighten your day," Don said as he brought out her seemingly lost shoe from his desk drawer."
"My shoe! How did you find it?"
"Well, I went by after work and got to thinking, 'We may have overlooked something - what if there were another set of garbage cans and the shoe was dumped into one of them,' As it turned out, that was true and here it is. Take off your left shoe and we'll see if it fits."
(See after Alternate Ending #2 for the Common Conclusion to the Story)
Trisha put the straps of her slingbacks back over her heels. After their time at the career fair ended, they left to eat at the nice restaurant in the adjacent hotel complex. It was nicely decorated with a garden setting with a meandering stream that emptied into a small pond with a waterfall on the far side for a nice visual affect. They had a table next to a railing. Below was a sloping garden ending at the edge of the stream.
Trisha sat to the left of the rail and dipped and dangled alternate shoes throughout dinner. She again squashed both slingbacks to convert them to mules mainly because she did not feel the need to replace the straps during lunch. The conversation went very well. They discussed stuff they did back at their respective schools - Univ. of Georgia and the Univ. of Alabama. Don was particularly pleased and Trisha was surprised that she was actually enjoying herself.
Trisha was indeed feeling guilty like she was "cheating" on Chuck, whom she had another date with in 2 days. This thought distracted her a little while dangling her left foot a few inches from the railing. By that time, Don had paid the bill and he suggested they needed to return to work. (Although Don would have preferred to chat with Trisha for another couple of hours.) While uncrossing her foot to leave she accidentally caught the dangling heel on the table support causing the shoe bounce to the right and through the railing without her realizing it.
Don was starting to walk away, "Hold up a moment, I got to put my other shoe back on."
She scooted her chair back to look for the fallen shoe. Don took advantage of the view of her bare nyloned leg looking lonely without its shoe. Much to her dismay, it was not under the table or anywhere in sight.
"Don, it's gone. Help me find my other shoe."
Don joined Trisha in her frantic search. They looked 2 tables either side of them and nothing was seen.
"Don, do you think it could have fallen off into the garden?" They both looked out into the garden but saw nothing. Trisha continued, "Maybe it fell down into that stream and got carried away."
They scurried around the restaurant trying to follow the path of the stream and they saw nothing. The other lunch patrons were probably puzzled at the sight of a guy in a coat and tie and a lady in a dress and missing a shoe running around this ordinarily sedate and quiet restaurant. Their table was not far from the collection pond so they feared it might have traveled there and sank in the churning water because of the turbulence caused by the waterfall.
After giving up the search, Don and Trisha reported what happened to the restaurant's staff and gave them a description of the lost shoe.
The restaurant manager replied, "All we can do is see what we find. Over the weekend we have our maintenance crew in to tend to the gardens and clean the pond. If they find it we'll give you a call. We're terribly sorry this has happened."
Trisha asked Don to drive her by her house so she could get another pair of shoes before returning to work (Not only would working in one shoe be highly embarrassing, it would violate Mrs. Hudson's strict dress code.), he agreed to do so.
She had to walk down the escalator and across the exhibit area of the Galleria Centre just to get to their parking lot. This was a good distance and she was not pleased that so many people saw her missing a shoe.
Eventually, they got to the entrance of the Galleria Centre and it was still a long walk to Don's car on hot pavement.
"Trisha, I'll go and get the car so you won't have to walk on the hot pavement so far and further ruin your nylons."
Trisha emphatically agreed as numerous people begin to come in and out of the centre. While Don was gone, she stood with her nyloned foot curled behind the remaining shod one in an attempt to shield her embarrassing situation from the masses. Soon, Don arrived to pick up Trisha from the front of the Centre.
On the trip back he got to glance down at her nice legs and notice how she seemed to be uncomfortable having one unshod foot. He thought it was cute how she curled her toes from time to time and rest her bare foot crossed behind the shod one at the ankle. He first took her by her house for replacement shoes and then back to work.
Don decided to drive back to the restaurant after work, before the dinner crowd arrived. Went back to the table where they had sat and took another long look into the garden. This time he saw the shoe resting in the garden in a clump of flowers not far below their table. Don reasoned that since the shoe blended in so well with the flowers and since they were too quick to assume it was in the water, they overlooked the possibility that it might have never reached the stream. He notified the restaurant manager who summoned an unsuspecting bus boy to get the shoe out.
The next day, Don called Trisha into his office. She was still not looking very happy after her embarrassing situation from the day before.
"Trisha, I have something that I think will brighten your day," Don said as he brought out her seemingly lost shoe from his desk drawer."
"My shoe! How did you find it?"
"Well, I went by after work and got to thinking, 'We may have overlooked something in the garden thinking it had fallen all the way down into the stream,' As it turned out, that was true and here it is. Take off your left shoe and we'll see if it fits."
Common conclusion to Alternate Endings #1 and#2:
Trisha went along with Don's game and slipped off her left pump and Don placed the found shoe on her foot and said, "Well Cinderella, it fits!"
"Wow, my Prince, I appreciate it so much. You're so sweet for doing that, I'd like to treat you to lunch sometime."
"No really, that's okay. You need everything you make here to pay for school. I'm just glad I was able to save you from having to pay to replace the lost one.
Trisha took off her found shoe and replaced her pump on her foot. (Don was enjoying all of this shoe activity.) She gave him a quick hug and slipped out of his office while trying to conceal the shoe until she could get it to her work area to put it in her purse. That night she was able to return the lonely slingback to its mate in the floor of her closet and she wore them the very next day much to Don's pleasure of course.
By now, Trisha was wondering what to do with Don. She thought that he might be showing interest in her, but with Chuck and the other guys, she was unsure of what to do.
This story can also be found at Dangling.Com.
