Alex entered the workplace wearing a serious face. He strode through the automatic double doors into the main room, where Ms. Fredrickson stopped him.

“How are you today, Alex?” she inquired, giving a warm smile.

“Oh, I’m good, Ms. Fredrickson,” Alex pronounced, returning a smile.

“That’s good. You may not have known this, but I have been looking for new recruits for quite a while now.”

“Oh, yeah, I kind of figured as we are way too busy given the current workload.”

“Well, I’ve found some new recruits, and hopefully they’re better than the last ones,” Ms. Fredrickson said, her voice waning towards the end of her sentence.

“Hopefully,” Alex sighed.

“Well, they’re in my office now. Alex, come with me.”

Ms. Fredrickson led Alex through the main room towards her office.

Better Financials was a non-profit organization that aimed to help people with anything related to finances, including insurance, debt, taxes, money management, and more.

The “workers” at Better Financials never got paid, but they enjoyed their work. Everyone at Better Financials was required to wear fancy business suits. Their boss, Ms. Fredrickson, was strict and believed that seriousness and professionalism were the keys to success.

The main room was spacious, consisting of eight desks in the middle organized in the shape of a square where the recruits sat to do their work. To the left was Neil’s office, he was the technology guy. Also left was the security office, where Jack reviewed footage of the building. To the right was the cafe, where workers enjoyed freshly prepared meals. Ms. Fredrickson’s office was located at the end of the main room.

As Alex entered his boss’s office, he noticed three women in their 20s sitting on the couches in her office. He knew them well, as they were his classmates at college.

“Alex, I want you to meet the new recruits:” Ms. Fredrickson enthused, “Amelia, Evelyn, and Gabrielle.”

“Well, hello, everyone,” Alex welcomed with a smile. “How are you all doing today?”

“I’m good,” Amelia expressed.

“I'm doing good, too,” Evelyn related.

“I’m doing fine,” Gabrielle voiced with a warm smile. “I am excited for the opportunity to work here. I’ve heard great things about this place.”

“Good,” Alex replied, smiling back at Gabrielle, “and it is a relief to have you all joining us. Better Financials is a great place, and I think you all will enjoy helping out your community.

“I agree,” Ms. Fredrick acknowledged. “Would you three women like to tell us why you all have decided to join Better Financials?”

“Well,” Evelyn started, “I thought it would be a great opportunity to help those who have helped us.”

“I wanted to do something good for the community too,” Amelia put in. “Evelyn is my best friend, so I am excited to be working with her.”

“I also wanted to help out my community,” Gabrielle said. “My mom is a great influence on me and a woman who knows how to manage her money well. She is the one who inspired me to want to help others who have trouble helping themselves.”

“Very good,” Ms. Fredrickson said, pleased. She turned to Alex. “Well, without further ado, I will show the new recruits to their desks, so you could come with us and explain to them how everything is done around here and help them if they have any questions.”

“Alright,” Alex smiled while giving a short nod.

“Everyone,” Ms. Fredrickson began in a louder voice, turning to the three women, “Alex will be helping you guys out if you have any questions. He’s kind of a veteran worker and has been working here for quite some time. If you ever need anything or cannot figure something out, he is the person to ask. You could also ask Neil; he is our tech department guy. I’ll show all of you his office later. But for now, Alex, Amelia, Evelyn, Gabrielle… come with me.”

“So,” Ms. Fredrickson explained, at the desks, “here are Paisley and Noah’s desks.” She pointed at them, then moved to another set of desks. “These are for Alex and Jason,” she said. Now, the reason why these desks are paired up like this is because people here usually work in groups of two. That is to say that everyone has a work partner to do work assignments together, share paperwork, and help the same person solve whatever problems they may have. Now, I used to always pair a man and a woman together because this improves productivity and encourages new ideas. It also shows people how to work together and helps people through life’s challenges. I used to also choose who partnered up with whom. The reason for this was that I didn’t want people to spend too much time choosing their work partner and complaining if they didn’t get the one they wanted. Now, these days, I am more flexible than I was years ago. I am now allowing people to choose who they are work partners with, as well as allowing anyone to be work partners with anyone else. And this is partly thanks to Alex and Jason, who wanted to be work partners years ago.” Ms. Fredrickson pointed to Alex. “So, I think I’ve rambled on for long enough,” Ms. Fredrickson sighed. “Who do you all want to be partners with?”

“Well,” Evelyn mused, looking at the other two women, “I think I’ll be partners with Amelia. We are best friends in real life anyway, so…”

Ms. Fredrickson turned to Amelia.

“Yeah,” Amelia agreed. “That’s fine with me.”

“Okay, great,” Ms. Fredrickson remarked, putting her hands together. “That was faster than I thought. I thought there would be bickering between the three of you.”

The three women glanced at each other.

“Well,” Ms. Fredrickson continued, “It seems like you’ll be working alone for now, then, Gabrielle. Is that alright with you?”

“Yeah, that’s alright with me,” Gabrielle asserted, shrugging.

“Alright, then, it seems that we’ve got everything figured out. I’ll leave you all to your desks to get settled; you can all ask Alex if you have any questions. As always, I’ll be in my office. Call me if you need anything.”

With that, Ms. Fredrickson cantered back to her office.

“Alright,” Alex enunciated. “It seems like you’ve all got a tour of the office already. I’ll be at my desk if any of you need anything.”

“Alright,” the three women replied simultaneously.

Alex sat at his desk and began to type on his computer, and the three women began to look through their desks and at their computers.

“Wow, a new desk space,” Amelia smiled. “It feels like a dream.”

“I wonder when we’ll get our first assignment,” Evelyn expressed.

“I hope not too long,” Gabrielle put in. “I am excited to begin helping people out.”

“Evelyn and Amelia…” Ms. Fredrickson said through the intercom. “I have a job for both of you.”

“What about me?” Gabrielle implored, showing a face of confusion and discontentment.

“It feels like we just got here, but I’m ready to work,” Evelyn exclaimed.

Evelyn and Amelia got up from their seats and started towards Ms. Fredrickson’s office. After a few steps, Amelia stopped and turned around.

“Sorry, Gabrielle,” Amelia teased. “Maybe next time.” She then continued towards Ms. Fredrickson’s office.

“Thanks for being quick about it,” Ms. Fredrickson smiled as the two women entered her office. “I have a job for the two of you. It seems like we are dealing with a pretty tough situation: credit card debt… and this person sure seems to have a lot of it.”

“Who is it?” Amelia queried.

“Her name is Kamila Shwertz, a 47-year-old woman who doesn’t know how to stop spending money. Your job is to help her stop spending and create a financial plan. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” Amelia said confidently.

Evelyn appeared tense and did not say anything.

“Well, that’s your assignment.” Ms. Fredrickson leaned back in her chair and placed her hands behind her head.

The two women looked at each other.

“So… you want us to go do that, then?” Evelyn asked, confused.

“Yes, please,” Ms. Fredrickson said calmly.

The women slowly turned around and walked out of Ms. Fredrickson’s office.

Alex was working on his computer when the two women walked to the front door. “Ah, so you have a job already?”

The two women stopped walking and turned to face Alex.

“We do,” Evelyn said. “It’s someone with credit card debt.”

“Ah,” Alex said, interested. “I’ve dealt with that before.”

The two women slowly turned around and walked towards the door again.

“Wait a minute!” Ms. Fredrickson called from her office. She jogged out of her office and over to Alex’s desk.

“Alex, can you go with Evelyn and Amelia? It’s their first job, and I want to make sure they know what they’re doing.”

“Of course,” Alex said professionally, nodding. He got up from his seat and followed the women out the door.

The two women and Alex drove close to where Kamila said she was, then got out of their cars and started walking. The three were looking around for any sign of Kamila. “Are we even in the right place?” Amelia questioned.

“Well, the directions she gave us were somewhere around here,” Alex said, still looking around.

“Hey, I think she’s in that park,” Evelyn expressed, pointing to a woman sitting at an outside table with papers in front of her.

“Good eye,” Alex said. He looked around for a few seconds. “Well, she said she would be in the park, and I don’t see anyone else sitting at the other tables. Let’s head that way, everyone.”

The three walked over to the women.

“Excuse me,” Alex began, “are you Kamila?”

“Why, yes,” the lady said. She was wearing a fancy dress shirt with black dress pants and had a large and expensive-looking purse next to her. She had blue eyes with brown hair that was in a ponytail. “Excuse me for a moment; I have all of these papers scattered around. Let me make room.” Kamila put some of the papers together. “Well, how about you three have a seat.” Kamila picked up one of her papers and looked at it, and the three workers took a seat at the table.

“Now,” Kamila started, looking up from her paper, “as you probably know, I have a lot of credit card debt… and I need to get out of it… and I was hoping someone could help me. Thank goodness there’s a free option around here,” Kamila said quietly, looking away.

“How much debt are you in?” Amelia asked.

“About five thousand, three hundred and twenty-six dollars.”

“What?!” Amelia exclaimed, her mouth wide open.

“Is that bad?” Kamila asked with a sour look on her face.

Evelyn stared at Kamila, frozen in place.

“Is that bad?” Amelia asked as she turned to Evelyn.

“Uh…” Evelyn started. “Well…” She was still stuck in place.

“Can you help me out of it?” Kamila asked, still with a sour face.

“We’ll try,” Alex said confidently. “That’s what we’re for.”

“Okay, ma’am,” Evelyn started, “how did you get into such great credit card debt? Do you know?”

“Well, I just like shopping, you know?” Kamila shrugged, embarrassed.

“That’s alright,” Amelia said, trying to be comforting.

“So,” Alex began, “the first thing we usually do is to see if there is anything you could cut out of your budget.”

“Well, I probably have a lot of those…” Kamila said, looking down at the table. She then looked through the papers on the table. “Well, I have a gym membership for 80 dollars a month, I usually like to go shopping for new clothes, and that is usually a few thousand dollars a month… Oh! I also love to buy myself the latest purses and makeup essentials.”

“Let’s see that here…” Alex said, picking up some of the bank statements. “Kamila… you do about 3,500 dollars worth of shopping for clothes and ‘essentials’ each month. Do you really need all of that?”

“Well,” Kamila said, looking away and running her fingers through her hair, “I guess I could cut down on spending…”

“Do you have anything at your house that you could sell?” Amelia asked.

“Well, I guess I could sell a few things…” Kamila said, still running her fingers through her hair and looking away.

“What else could you do to generate more profits?” Evelyn questioned.

“Well, let me see the bank statement again,” Kamila said as she picked up her bank statement. “Well… if I really do spend 3,500 dollars a month on useless junk, and I do have about 15 purses at home, now that I think about it… You know what?” Kamila quickly put her bank statement down and smiled at the workers. “I think if I just cut down a little and sell some of my belongings, I’ll be fine.” She started organizing all of the scrambled papers on the table into an organized pile. “Thank you very much, Better Financials.” Kamila looked up and smiled at the workers again. “I think you really helped me out today.” Kamila stood up with her papers in order. “Well, I’ll best get going. Have a good day!” With that, Kamila strode away from the table.

The three workers looked at each other for a long moment.

“Well, if she doesn’t want our help, it’s her fault,” Amelia shrugged.

“I think she realizes her mistakes and will try to fix them,” Alex said. “If she needs any more assistance, she can always chat with us again.”

“I certainly hope everything goes well,” Evelyn said quietly, looking down at the table.

“I think it will,” Alex asserted. “Credit card debt can be embarrassing. I think Kamila just needs time to ruminate on it for a while.”

Back at the office, Gabrielle was waiting patiently for the workers to return. When the automatic double door slid open for the three workers, Gabrielle’s face lit up.

“So…” Gabrielle started, “how’d everything go?”

“It went well,” Amelia said, walking up to Gabrielle’s desk. Evelyn followed, and Alex went to his desk and began doing paperwork.

“What did you all do?”

“We helped a lady with…”

“Wait!” Evelyn said in a hurry. “Amelia, I need to talk to you for a minute. Can we chat in the cafe?”

“Uh, yeah, sure,” Amelia said with confusion, looking around.

Evelyn strode into the cafe, and Amelia ambled behind her.

“We don’t want to talk to Gabrielle about this, Amelia,” Evelyn expressed with panic on her face.

“Why?” Amelia asked.

“Because that lady we helped, Kamila, is actually Gabrielle’s mom.”

“No way!”

“Yes! We have to keep this a secret. Gabrielle thinks her mom is responsible with her money, and she said that her mom is her role model. We don’t want to ruin that for her.”

“Understood.”

“Whatcha guys doin’?” Gabrielle asked as she pranced over to the cafe.

“Oh, we were just…” Amelia started.

“We were just talking about how we were about to get coffee at that new brewery downtown,” Evelyn interrupted. “Do you want us to pick you up anything?”

“I think I’ll come with you. It’s good to get to know old friends again,” Gabrielle expressed, smiling.

“Alright,” Evelyn shrugged.
“By the way, what did you guys do today?”

“Oh, well…” Evelyn looked at Amelia, then back at Gabrielle. “We’ll tell you on the way down there.”

“Let’s get going then,” Amelia said, starting to walk towards the front doors. Gabrielle and Evelyn followed right behind.