**2**
When she stepped out of the elevator in the parking garage, Lester came busting out the door from the stairs. He waved his folders at her and said, "Don't forget to be at the address on the folder tonight at 8:00. Don't want to be late and make Ranger mad." He got into his car and drove away. Steph sighed, again, and got into her car and started down the street. Why was Lester put in charge of these errands for Ranger? Didn't he usually have Ella do things like pick up the dry cleaning? And, hey, where was Ella? Now that Steph thought about it, she didn't remember seeing Ella in a few days. The food was getting set out for breakfast and lunch in the breakroom so she had to be somewhere around the building. "Oh well", she thought. "It's not like I had any plans for tonight. I can always stop at the bakery on the way home and get my own cake."
She decided to stop at the dry cleaners first, as it was just down the street from the office. She went inside and said hello to the girl at the counter and told her what she was picking up. She was given a suit of Ranger's that apparently needed to be cleaned. She thanked the girl and took the suit out to her car. She put it in the back seat and then after putting a check mark on the outside of the folder, she put that folder on the bottom of the stack. One down, six more to go. Opening the next folder she saw that her second stop was at the jewelry store. She walked in and was instantly greeted by the owner of the store. They were a RangeMan client and the owner reached behind the counter and pulled out one of their gift bags. Steph grabbed it and noticed the top of the bag was sealed shut. She walked back to the car and when she went to check off this folder, she noticed a note written in Ranger's handwriting for Lester to not open the bag or he would kill him. She assumed that meant her as well, so she set the bag on the back seat. Curiosity killed the cat, and she didn't want to be the cat today.
Opening up the third file, she saw that she needed to head to Macy's. While she was driving towards the mall to get the order from Macy's, her mother called. "Finally, someone remembered my birthday", Steph thought as she answered the phone. "Hi Mom." "Stephanie, are you done at work?" "Yes mom. I'm running some errands for Ranger, but should be done soon." "I'm in the middle of something and can't pick your grandmother up at the beauty salon. Can you pick her up and bring her home?" "Sure mom, I'll head there now. See you in about fifteen minutes." She smiled as she hung up. Too busy to pick up grandma? Was she too busy making a birthday cake? Sounded like a good excuse to get me to the house, hopefully for a birthday supper. She turned around and headed to the beauty salon. Grandmas was waiting for her at the door and came out and got into the front seat with Steph. "Hey, what's shaking girlie?" "Just running some errands for Ranger. Mom asked me to bring you home. Do you need to stop anywhere before we get home?" "Nope, have to get home and changed for my date with the new guy from the senior center. He's pretty hot and still has a car and license, so I had to act fast before the other old ladies got their claws into him. "
Steph pulled into the driveway and noticed her dad's car was gone. She helped grandma inside and found her mother in the kitchen with her sewing machine on the table. She was working away on what looked like was a costume. "Hey mom. What are you making?" "Oh, hello dear. I'm working on a horse costume for Mary Alice. She needs it for a birthday party she's going to tomorrow. Her little friend has a birthday on Halloween and her parents are letting her have her party early this year so she can still go trick or treating on Halloween. This is going to take me all night to get finished. When I agreed to do this, I didn't know it was going to be so challenging." "It looks good. I'm sure you'll get it done in plenty of time." Steph looked around the kitchen and didn't see anything that resembled a birthday dinner, nor a cake, anywhere. "What are you and dad doing for supper?" Her mother looked up and said, "Your father went to the lodge a few hours ago and I told him to eat there, as I don't have time to cook supper tonight. Your grandmother has a date and is going out to eat with her man friend. I'll probably just grab a sandwich next time I stop for a break." She looked at Stephanie and then said, "Did you want me to fix you something?" Steph shook her head. "No, that's okay. I have a few more errands to run for Ranger and then have to drop them off at 8:00. I'll probably just grab a pizza on the way home." Her mother looked back down at her sewing and kept working. "Ok dear, have a good time." Feeling like she'd just been dismissed, Steph called out a goodbye to her grandma and headed out to her car. Sitting in the car for a minute before she drove off, Steph wondered what was wrong with everyone that they didn't remember her birthday. She wiped a tear off her cheek and headed towards the mall again.