Of Fame And Fortune

Prologue

A while later, when Anna realized that the man (she had yet to know his name) was almost finished with his meal, she placed a check on the corner of his table and gave him a gracious smile. Her friend liked to call it "tip fishing", where you drop a smile, a helpful hint that you would prefer a hefty-er tip. But it was true, she did depend on tips a lot. It was hard living in a city like New York and being tempted by all the high couture shops just a little away.

Within the few seconds that Anna was dreaming about fancy dresses, the guy had taken out his wallet and placed his credit card on the receipt.

"Thank you," Anna chirped and went back to the register. Much like the rest of the deli, the register looked like it was made in the 70's.

As she punched in the price, $15.38, and slid his card through, Anna became aware of how oddly heavy his card was. With once glance, she realized that it was a black card: the sort of cards she read about in those billionaire-CEO fantasy stories. On it in clear etched letters was the name Nathaniel J. Crawford.

Anna sucked in a breath. What was a guy like him doing in a deli like this? She quickly tried to shrug the thought off. Well there's no way I'm going to be with him anyways, he's way out of my league. Placing the credit card with a customer copy of the receipt, Anna returned them back to the owner.

"Thank you..." Nathaniel's eyes hovered to her simple name tag pinned over her breast, "Anna." She brushed off the butterflys taking flight in her stomach and gave him her best Steve's Sandwich Deli's smile.

"Thank you and come back next time!" Anna gave him her customary Steve's Sandwich Deli goodbye. Without a reply Nathaniel left with his head stuck next to his phone.

-

"It's a hard life Joe," Anna muttered, wiping down the last of the tables in the deli. Although most of them went unused throughout the day, the owner didn't like to see them sitting there and collecting dust.

Joe's demeanor was much more different at the end of the day than during open hours.

"It is darling, it is," He drawled. At the end of the day Anna took care cleaning up the seating area while Joe mopped up the kitchen. As far as Anna knew, Joe has been working in the sandwich deli for a long time. Every single time Anna went to work her shift, Joe had always been there. But it wasn't like she had this job for long either.

"But that's what you get. You just have to deal with it," Joe sighed, his shoulders were slumped, "You just learn how to make the best of it over time."

"Or maybe I'll just date a rich guy," She joked, "I'll get you some money. Help the both of us out." Her mind immediately went to Nathaniel Crawford and immediately rejected the idea. He was hot, and way out of her league. There was no way they were ever going to be together even if she was looking for hot rich guys. On a second note, probably all hot rich guys were out of her league.

"Keep that money for yourself. Karina and I are fine now," Joe grumbled, "Get yourself some designer shoes. You look awful in those jeans- is there seriously not any easy way to get oil paint off them?"

"What about the baby coming soon?" She tried to direct the conversation off of her, feeling slightly self-conscious of her tarnished denim, "And I'm just too lazy to wash the paint off."

Joe shook his head, "Don't worry about me, worry about yourself."

After wiping down the last table Anna threw the cleaning supplies into the closet and waved goodbye to Joe. Taking her things, she pushed open the door and stepped into the cold New York air.

~~

The morning after came soon enough, and so did the apartment bills. Money was tight so that meant no shopping sprees or expensive items. Sure Anna did splurge once in a while, but that was still heavily monitored by herself (and her limited bank account).