It had been a long time since Sherri had held a job. She’d stopped working after she and Bobby got married. She hadn’t exactly been changing the world; she’d been working as a receptionist at a hair salon and frankly had been happy to give it up and concentrate on getting pregnant, which took longer than she thought it would. Now, the prospect of a job interview filled her with equal parts terror and feverish, trembling excitement. She, Sherri Griffin, was going to reenter the work force!

When Sherri walked into Derma-You’s waiting room she found it busy, full of women, most of them bent over clipboards and casting furtive glances around at the rest of the patients. She was shown by one of the smooth, ageless front desk employees to a small room in the back to meet Jan.

“We need someone to answer the phones, that sort of thing,” said Jan, launching right in. Apparently they weren’t going to sit around and engage in small talk. That was all right with Sherri. Small talk made her nervous, because she didn’t want to say the wrong thing. Jan could be in her fifties or in her thirties or her forties depending on how many of Derma-You’s services she had availed herself of. It was really hard to tell. Sherri tried to listen to her without staring too hard at her puffy lips.

“A lot of the job is answering phones,” said Jan. “Being the first face the patient sees, that sort of thing.”

“I’ve got a really good phone voice,” said Sherri, trying not to sound too eager.

“Eventually you’ll need to be trained in the billing system, which is sort of complicated.” Jan rustled the fake resumé, which had Sherri having had a number of clerical jobs in and around Columbus, Ohio. She furrowed her unfurrowable brow. “Have you ever worked in a medical office before?”

“Not specifically,” said Sherri. “But I’m a very fast learner.” That’s what the counselor had told her to say, and in fact it was true.

“Well, we’re extremely short-staffed right now,” said Jan. “We’re opening another branch in Woburn, and half of our front desk staff has had to go over there, so we’re scrambling. You can consider yourself hired.”

“Really?” It was that easy, to get a job?

“Really,” said Jan. She peered at Sherri’s face.

“What?” asked Sherri, putting a hand self-consciously to her cheek. The light was extremely bright in this office.

“You should stay out of the sun. You’ve got sunspots here”—Jan touched Sherri’s cheek along the top of her cheekbones—“and here.” The edge of her forehead. Sherri reared back; something had activated her “fight or flight” instinct.

“Sorry,” said Jan, lowering her hand. “I was just going to say, the lasers can do wonders with that. I didn’t mean to spook you.”