The Subway Girls
Page 24
Olivia smiled. She was on a high. This always happened after she pitched new business. But to be able to share her feelings of success with Ben and Mrs. Glasser—Charlotte—made it feel extra special.
“Now that I’m feeling a little better, thanks to you and your wonderful account, Olivia, I’m ready to tell Ben something important,” Charlotte said. And then to Olivia: “Will you excuse us, dear?”
“Of course,” Olivia said, standing up. “Would either of you like something from the cafeteria?”
“It’s okay, Grandma. I’d actually like Olivia to stay,” Ben said, looking at Olivia.
Olivia saw Charlotte look from Ben to Olivia, catching the meaning of their glances.
“Suit yourself,” Charlotte said. “Ben, there’s something I need to tell you. Something very important. Something you deserved to know a very long time ago…,” she began.
She continued by telling Ben, and Olivia, about how she had met Rose and about the circumstances the two of them found themselves in when Rose became pregnant by Ben’s grandfather Sam. Throughout the whole story, Ben stayed silent, and Olivia, looking at him quite frequently, couldn’t tell if he felt calm or on the verge of erupting. His face was quiet.
“But I don’t understand,” Ben said. “You and grandpa did get married.”
“That’s correct, but not right away. At first I went to work at J. Walter Thompson. It was exhilarating. Going into the city each day. Throwing my entire being into the work. I loved it. Eventually, I had saved enough money to move into Manhattan, into a tiny place with a couple of the girls I worked with. We had a ball. We went out to all the best places, the Stork Club, El Morocco.…” She trailed off, her eyes taking on a dreamy look.
“Are you okay, Grandma?”
“I’m okay, honey. Anyway, I did that for four or five years. I bided my time in the typing pool, trying to become indispensable to all the senior executives, hoping that they would see my worth and promote me. It was impossible to hide my fury every time I saw some pimply boy with a Harvard haircut being shown to his new office to start his career as an assistant account executive. One Sunday when I was back in Bay Ridge, visiting my parents, I ran into Sam on the street. He was walking with your father.” Charlotte stopped, and her eyes were wet.
Ben fetched the box of tissues from the bedside table and handed a few to his grandmother.
Charlotte smiled. A radiant smile. “I realized I had been wrong. I had been so stubborn. So determined. Perhaps more like my own father than I’d ever wanted to admit to myself. All that time, I’d never stopped loving Sam. And the minute I met that darling boy, Henry, your father, I fell in love with him, too. I had been so convinced that I couldn’t pursue my career and still thrive as a wife and a mother. But that day, I realized I didn’t want to waste another minute of not having them in my life. Your grandfather and I began to date again and we fell back in love quickly, as if no time at all had passed. After a few short months, one of my roommates came into my bedroom one Saturday to tell me I had a delivery. When I went to the door, your father was there, all dressed up in a suit with a bow tie, looking darling. He was holding a bouquet of flowers and told me his daddy had a special present for me. Then your grandfather came around the corner, got down on one knee, presented me with a beautiful ring, and asked me to marry him. I didn’t hesitate for a second. And that’s how it all happened.”
Charlotte paused and let out a deep breath. All the years of longing and loving seemingly rushing back to her. Ben opened his mouth to say something, but Charlotte had more to say.
“I kept working after that, but my career never amounted to much. It was a different time in advertising. There were a few female copywriters here and there, mostly working on beauty and fashion accounts, but it was still a man’s world for account executives. I never made my way in. I’m glad things are so different for you, Olivia. And I hope you don’t make the same mistake I made of believing that you can’t fit a personal life into your career. And I’ve never told you this, Ben, but I admire you for hiring so many women for high-level positions at your company. Times have really changed.”
Olivia turned toward Ben. “Your company?”
Ben smiled at Olivia and turned back to his grandmother. “Why didn’t you ever tell me any of this?” Olivia had been wondering the same thing. It wasn’t like Ben was a child.
“I’ve asked myself that thousands of times. Your parents were going to tell you when you turned thirteen. I’m not sure how they chose that number, but I respected it. And then they died, and Grandpa and your mom’s parents soon after, and I just couldn’t bear, as you grew, to tell you that I wasn’t your biological grandmother.” Charlotte’s voice caught, but she recovered. “You had gone through so much, and I didn’t want you to feel like you had no one left who was technically related to you. But now I realize you deserve to know there’s another person out there who you’re related to. I’m so sorry, and I hope with all my heart that you’re not angry with me.”
“Oh, Grandma,” Ben said. “I’m not angry. I’ll be honest: it’s overwhelming and I’m going to need some time to digest it all, but, no, I wouldn’t say I’m angry. You clearly made your decision out of love. I know intellectually that it’s not the person who gives birth to you who’s your true parent. It’s the person who raises you. And you raised my father. And you raised me.” He squeezed her hand, and tears started to flow out of her eyes. “I just can’t believe that story,” Ben added, letting out a laugh of relief. “I thought times were simple back then. Boy, was I wrong.”
“Rose was a character. She swooped into our lives and gave us a lot of heartache, but she also gave us your father. She had been in touch periodically with your grandfather when he was raising your father alone. He would send her photos once in a while. But when Sam and I married, we agreed that it was better for us to break ties with Rose. He wrote, told her our wishes, and asked her to respect them.”
Olivia realized she was, though invited, intruding on a very personal family conversation. But she felt like she was in some small way a part of this family. And she was realizing that she hoped she’d be a larger part of it as time went on.
“I couldn’t help seeing Rose’s face every time I looked at your father. Luckily, he looked more like your grandfather, so that was helpful. But he was a sweet boy, an easy boy, and I ended up falling in love with him entirely, just like your grandfather knew I would. Soon enough, I began to see Rose as this troubled angel who brought us a gift. And I didn’t hate her. I felt nothing for her, really. Gratitude for your father. But nothing emotional for her. She didn’t contact us for years. She respected that we asked her not to. But then she started writing.”
“The letters I found,” Ben said.
“Yes,” Charlotte continued. “I opened the first one out of curiosity, but I realized I wasn’t interested in anything she had to say. I didn’t need her reentering my life. I thought she would only bring uncertainty and … and here’s where I feel a little guilty: I didn’t want to share you with her. I didn’t think she deserved any piece of you, and I thought she would want to take that. So I stuffed the letters into the scrapbook and didn’t think of them again.”
“I can see now why it was such a shock to see her,” Ben said. “Actually, understatement of the year. I’m so sorry, Grandma. I never should have brought her here.”
“As a matter of fact, I’m quite curious to talk to her.”
“She’s been in the waiting room this whole time,” Ben said.
Charlotte smiled.
“Time has a really incredible way of dulling feelings that you think will be sharp for your entire life. One day you wake up, and sometimes it takes something like this for that to happen, but you realize that the point isn’t so pointy. And the edge isn’t so jagged. And you find in your heart a way to accept people for who they are, because it’s not always entirely their fault. So if it’s okay with the two of you, can you ask Rose to come up? I’d like to speak
with her privately.”
Olivia and Ben held hands in the elevator, and when they got to the waiting room, Rose stood from her chair and asked if everything was okay.
“She’d like to see you,” Ben said.
“Are you sure?” Rose asked.
“I am. But first I’d like to tell you something. Henry, the baby you gave birth to, turned out to be a wonderful man,” Ben said.
Rose gasped and took a step back. She covered her mouth with her hand and nodded at Ben to continue.
“He was kind and loving and fiercely intelligent. He was dedicated to his career, but more important, he was dedicated to my mom and to me. He was the most incredible father I could have asked for, and even though I only had a very short time with him, I know how lucky I was to have him in my life,” Ben said.
Olivia could barely help the tears falling from her eyes.
“Thank you, Ben,” Rose said, pulling him into her for a hug. “You have no idea how much those words mean to me. I want you to know that he was all of those things because your grandparents were the best of people. They raised their son with the values that they espoused. And they showered him with love. Something I was incapable of doing.”
Ben nodded and they hugged again, and then Rose walked toward the elevator to reunite with the woman she had met all those years ago in the conference room of the John Robert Powers Modeling Agency.
* * *
Olivia and Ben sat down and looked at each other. They were both laughing and crying and shaking their heads in disbelief at what they had just learned.
“You look at these older women and you just assume it’s all sweetness and wisdom, but, man, these ladies have secrets. Deep, dark secrets,” Ben said.
“I know,” Olivia said. “That was epic.” And then she turned to Ben with a serious expression. “Are you okay?”
He nodded. “I am.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell me UseYourWings was your company?”
“I didn’t want to sound like a prick.”
“You’re the furthest thing from a prick, Ben,” Olivia said, kissing him gently. Then she asked, “What now?”
“Well, now we let those two girlfriends talk it out. Tonight I’ll call you, because you seem to be the person I want to speak with all the time, and if you’re up for it, I will invite you over for Scrabble and chocolate babka.”
Olivia smiled. “That sounds like a perfect plan.”
* * *
Matt brought breakfast into the conference room Monday morning so they could all wait for the call together. Ed Freck from the MTA had told Matt that they expected to make their calls first thing.
When the phone in the middle of the conference table rang, Matt put it on speaker and told Layne to put the call through.
“This is Matthew Osborne,” Matt said.
“Hi Matt, it’s Ed Freck.”
“Ed, good to hear from you,” Matt said, looking around the room. They were all still.
“So, we were really delighted by your presentation on Friday,” Ed said.
Delighted? Olivia mouthed in disappointment.
“It was well thought out,” Ed continued, “certainly unique, and we all loved how you resurrected such an important part of our history in advertising.”
“That’s great, Ed, glad to hear it,” Matt said, rolling his eyes.
But, Olivia mouthed.
“But,” Ed continued, “we’ve decided to go with a larger firm, since this is an agency-of-record deal. If we were just assigning a project, you and your team would have won hands down. But the bigger agency has all the disciplines in-house to allow us to meet our needs fiscally and strategically.”
“I see, Ed. Thanks for your honesty. Please consider using us if you’re ever looking for out-of-the-box thinking for your specific project needs,” Matt said.
And there it was. Done. Done-zo. Account lost. Again.
Olivia groaned and put her head facedown on the table.
“Tough loss,” Matt said.
They were all quiet. They had put so much effort into the pitch, and now it seemed like it wasn’t worth it.
“How would you feel if I told you I had some good news, though?” Matt asked, looking around the table. Everyone perked up. A little bit. Matt continued, “I happened to get a call from Shay Jones over at Y&R. As you know, she runs the Mini Cooper account for BMW. She said they were looking for a really outrageous promotional idea for the Mini to celebrate some milestone it has coming up, but they wanted to commission it out-of-house and she thought of us. I pitched her the ‘Star Car’ idea and she loved it. She’s taking it to the client this afternoon. If they like the top line, they’ll bring us in and we can pitch the full concept.”
Matt put his hands out in front of him. Priya and Olivia looked at each other and smiled. Perhaps, Olivia thought, she might find a way to stick around The Osborne Agency after all. It would require a bit of a restructure in regard to her relationship with Matt, but it wouldn’t hurt to get a few more years of agency experience before she and Priya, if it was meant to be, struck out on their own. She thought the “Star Car” idea was perfect for Mini Cooper, and decided right then to lean in wholly to this pitch and then negotiate a favorable raise for both herself and Priya when they won the business.
There was hope yet. And that wasn’t the only piece of good news Olivia was to get that day.
* * *
Later that afternoon, Chloe lumbered into Olivia’s office with an enormous package. It was about three feet square and wrapped in brown paper with a huge red bow on it. And she also had a smaller box wedged under her arm.
“It came by messenger with instructions to open the large box first,” Chloe said. She smiled and walked out of Olivia’s office, closing the door behind her.
Olivia broke into a huge grin and set the small box on her desk. She leaned the large package against the wall of her office and gently pulled off the wrapping. Inside was a mounted and framed map of the world but without any glass covering the front.
Olivia took the small box from her desk and sat down in her chair. She wanted to savor this feeling. This feeling of knowing that she was special to someone who actually took time out of his day to do something kind for her. This feeling that she was falling for Ben. And that clearly he was falling for her too.
She unwrapped the small box and there were two smaller boxes inside, numbered one and two.
Olivia opened box number one and inside was a note that said, “You can start with LA.” Taped to the note was a gold pushpin.
Olivia set that aside, opened box number two, and started to laugh and cry when she read the note: And then you can move right on to Paris. Stapled to the note was an itinerary on UseYourWings letterhead for a trip to Paris. Printed at the top it read: Ben Glasser and Olivia Harrison / Paris, France / June 4–10, 2018. And taped to the itinerary was another gold pushpin.
HISTORICAL NOTE
Miss Subways was a contest that took place in the New York City subway system from 1941 to 1976. During that time, approximately two hundred women held the esteemed title. The New York Subways Advertising Company developed the program, which featured glamorous photographs and short descriptions about the winners on placards in the subway cars, for several reasons. They wanted to show potential advertisers that subway advertising was an effective marketing vehicle, lure passenger eyeballs to the adjacent advertisements, and give straphangers something to look at during long and sometimes dreary rides. As it evolved, the contest took on local importance and a historical significance that endures to this day.
At the beginning of the campaign, John Robert Powers, head of the preeminent modeling agency of the time, chose the monthly winners—who were required to be residents of New York City and ride the subways—from his own stable of models as well as from the large pool of candidates who entered the contest by sending in head shots. The campaign changed throughout the years, and eventually John Robert Powers no longer led the charge.
The contest took on varying significance to the hundreds of women who were Miss Subways. “Many dreamed of becoming models, actresses, and singers, but most quietly returned to their regular lives after their faces were plastered on as many as 14,000 posters seen by nearly 5 million pairs of eyes a day.”1 However, during their reigns, it wasn’t uncommon for the women to be treated like celebrities, to be written up in gossip columns, and to receive attention in the manner of letters, proposals, and gifts from admirers. For instance, Ruth Ericsson, Miss Subways December 1941, received 278 marriage proposals, and Dorothea Mate Hart, Miss Subways June 1942, received 300 tea bags!
Today, Miss Subways lives on in many ways:
• In the memories of the women who had the honor and the aging city residents who remember admiring the posters on their commutes.
• In the play and movie On the Town, which featured a similar contest called Miss Turnstiles.
• In the original posters that still line the vintage subway cars at Brooklyn’s New York Transit Museum.
• In the decor at Ellen Hart Sturm’s (Miss Subways March–April 1959) Ellen’s Stardust Diner in Times Square, New York City.
• In Fiona Gardner and Amy Zimmer’s book, Meet Miss Subways: New York’s Beauty Queens 1941–1976.
• And now, in this novel.
Though antiquated and perhaps quaint, Miss Subways, according to historian Kathy Peiss in Meet Miss Subways, “opens to view hidden histories of everyday life in New York that touch upon the changing ideals and aspirations of women, the struggle for civil rights, and the rise of a modern culture of beauty, consumption, fashion, and image-making. These are, in fact, significant themes in the annals of New York and America’s history.”