Brooklyn, New York
February 1942
Noticing a smudge on the tip of her nose, Betty leaned closer to the mirror and gently pressed her nose with more powder. There was a sharp pounding at the door and she heard her brother's voice through the paper thin wall. "Betty are you almost done? I have to shower." She signed and smoothing her curls out one more time, opened the door.
"You don't have work for another two hours" Steve shrugged at this and said "Buck and I picked up a few more hours this week." Betty rolled her eyes as she brushed past him and into her bedroom, "You two are working too hard, you don't need to be picking up extra hours!"
"We need the money." He called after her.
"Not that badly!" She shot back before closing the door.
She slipped off her robe and grabbed her nylons from the chair, they were starting to look a little ragged. Normally, Joan would force her to buy a new pair from the store but ever since they were rationed, the managers began turning a blind eye. After clipping the stockings into place, she slipped the navy dress over her head, careful not to get any makeup on the fabric. She slipped on her favorite pair of red heels and made her way into the kitchen.
She quickly made herself some toast and then decided to make some for Steve as well. She heard one of the kitchen chairs pull out behind her and a voice say, "Y'know a guy could get used to this."
Out of her peripheral vision she saw Bucky flashing her a charming smile. "You do know that you have a home, right?" She remarked sarcastically, but still set a plate out in front of him. He laughed and ran his fingers through his hair.
"Not one where the prettiest girl in Bay Ridge makes me breakfast." He quips.
"The prettiest girl in Bay Ridge lives three blocks away in a much nicer apartment." She shoots back. He gives her a puzzled look but before he can respond, Steve slid into the chair next to him.
"I thought you had to take a shower?" Betty remarks.
"There's no hot water." He shrugs.
"Again?" Betty sighs, this wasn't an unusual occurrence in the building. He shrugs, "I'll talk to Mr. Murphy tonight." She sits down across from them as they eat breakfast. The two men are rattling off about how the draft was taking all the best players on the Dodgers. Betty only half listens to them, too consumed by thoughts about her date tonight.
Once she finished eating she pulled out her compact and lipstick and carefully painted her lips. She caught a look of herself in the mirror and momentarily appraised her own appearance. Her mother and Sister Bernadine had always warned to be modest and humble about her looks, but she had always known she was pretty. Men had always treated her differently because of it.
Since she started working at Henri Bendel she felt that she had blossomed. She had started out in the shoe department and finally worked her way to cosmetics. The girls that worked at the makeup counter had to be the most beautiful in the store, Joan had once told her that no one wanted to buy makeup from an ugly girl. She snapped the compact shut and turned to Steve,
"Don't wait up for me tonight, I'll be home late."
"Why? Where are you going?"
She opened the closet door and grabbed her coat before casually saying, "I have a date."
"Steve, please tell your sister to stop going out with all these creeps and just marry me already?"
Betty dramatically rolled her eyes, "In your dreams, Barnes."
"Every night, darlin'" He winked at her as she strode forward into the frigid winter air. Betty caught her heel on a broken step halfway down the stairwell, she let out a curse under her breath and prayed that Joan wouldn't notice the small scuff of her shoes. She did not want to spend half her morning trying to buff it out in the staff locker room.
The train ride was nearly an hour to get to work and usually she didn't mind but today she had forgotten her book on the nightstand and had to resort to reading recruitment posters and eavesdropping to keep herself entertained. She was listening in on a very salacious conversation between two older women when she noticed that she was at her stop.
"Betty! How are you!" Angela called out from across the platform. Ever since she moved from lingerie to makeup, she rarely saw Angela anymore. After enveloping her friend in a quick hug, they strode forward together while catching up.
"I think Ken is going to propose soon! His sister told me he wants to do it before he joins up."
"That's wonderful! I'm so happy for you Angie! I had no idea Ken was so keen to join the military!" Angie's voice lowered and she leaned towards Betty. "His cousin died at Pearl Harbor and ever since then he's been itching to join the Navy but things weren't so good at home. Now that everything there is settled, it's only a matter of time."
"I'm sorry to hear about Ken's cousin! We lost too many good men that day." Angie nodded solemnly but then perked up again. "Oh! I forgot to tell you! Joan is letting me train at the makeup counter! It's just a test run but if I do well she's going to let me stay!" Betty could feel her friend practically vibrating with excitement, it was a huge honor to be asked to be a Bendel's makeup girl. "Angie, that's great! I will teach you everything you need to know!"
As Angie and Betty stepped over the threshold of Bendel's, Betty suddenly felt a strong hand grab her arm and yank her to the side. Before she could say anything, Joan began pushing her into a side room. "Elizabeth, I need your help with something." She could hear the seriousness in her voice. "Of course Joan, what can I do?" Joan shoved a black makeup bag into her hand and Betty's heart sank. "Who is it?" She asked softly.
"Nancy Lewis. Again." Joan said the name sternly, but Betty could hear the tinge of worry in her voice. Joan was hard on all the girls in the store, but she always took care of them when it mattered the most. Betty steeled herself before walking into Joan's office, where Nancy was silently crying. "Nance? Can I come in?"
"S-sure." Nancy said, shakily.
Betty handed her a handkerchief and Nancy began gently dabbing her face dry. Betty and Nancy had always been friendly with one another but had never been particularly close. However, she always felt a lot of tenderness towards Nancy, in these moments, they really understood each other.
Betty started laying the makeup out on Joan's desk and turned to examine the extent of the damage. She had a dark bruise forming on the left side of her face, a busted upper lip, and a gash across the right side of her forehead. This was worse than the last time.
"You can start whenever you're ready." Nancy whispered.
"Okay." She said softly.
As gently as she could, Betty began applying foundation across Nancy's face. Paying special attention to the parts where the bruises still peaked out.
"I'm such an idiot. This would have never happened if I had been more careful."
Betty stopped what she was doing and pulled away. "Nance, what are you talking about?"
"I was trying to leave him. I've been saving a quarter of my paycheck and hiding it underneath a kitchen drawer and he found it. I'm so stupid, why did I pick such an obvious place!" She said softly, tears threatening to spill over.
"Nance, none of this is your fault! Rob should never lay a hand on you!"
Nancy nodded, "Every day I check the mail and pray he's been called up. I'm such a horrible wife."
Betty could recall countless times she had this same conversation with her own mother. How many hours had she spent holding her crying mother in arms, or fixing her makeup so that no one would ask questions at work. Perhaps it was her lot in life, to take care of battered women. After all, she seemed to be so very good at it.
Nancy's sniffling pulled her out of her dark thoughts. She continued on with her mission. There were still some dark patches that the makeup couldn't completely cover but it was enough not to warrant a second glance from customers. Nancy worked at the coat check, so she wasn't having long interactions with customers anyways.
Betty gingerly smoothed her fingers through Nancy's black tresses. "How do I look?" Before Betty could answer, Nancy grabbed the compact off the edge of the desk. She gingerly touched her face and winced. "Thank you, Betty. You're a real life saver."
Betty gathered up the makeup and put it back into the black bag. As she walked out of the office she saw Joan hovering in the doorway. She wordlessly handed the bag back to Joan.
"Thank you, Elizabeth. I really do appreciate it."
Betty nodded then asked, "Is there nothing we can do for her?" She already knows the answer to the question.
"We can keep her in a job and keep her out of that house. That's the best thing we can do for her. If you can, check her makeup and make sure nothing is showing. I don't want Mr. Wozniak to fire her." Betty nods.
"Oh! One more thing Elizabeth, I need you to train Angela on the makeup counter. We'll raise your wages by twenty-five cents an hour for the duration of her training." Joan glances down at Betty's shoes and gives her a disapproving look but doesn't say anything further. Betty takes it as a silent warning.
She made her way to the employee locker room. It was practically empty by the time she got there. She hung up her purse and jacket before taking out the evening gown she kept at work. It was a wrinkled mess and she would have to get ironed out before tonight, but that was something she could worry about during her lunch break. She smoothed her hand over the royal blue satin, it was the most beautiful thing she owned.
She hears the employee bell ring and she quickly slips out of the locker room and dashes towards the cosmetic department before anyone in management can see her. She spots Angie standing at her counter. "What was all of that about?" Angie asks, gesturing towards Joan's office. "Joan was just talking to me about your training." Betty didn't like lying to her friend but she felt that this was not her secret to spill.
The two women spend the rest of the day catching up. Betty doesn't remember the last time she had this much fun. While Angie is not exactly a natural on the counter, she knows enough to get through her training swiftly. The day is slow so they have plenty of time to talk about all of the products and procedures.
"You know Betty, Ken has an older brother who isn't married. If you want I can try and set the two of you up! Jonathan probably isn't as handsome or wealthy as the men you're used to dating but he sure is a nice guy." Betty smiles, she tries to not take Angie's words as an insult.
"Thank you, Angie but I'm actually seeing someone tonight!"
"Oh? Who is he?"
"His name is Frank Sheehan, he works in the mayor's office!"
"Oh my goodness, how exciting! How did you meet him?"
She explains to Angie that he's a Bendel's regular and one day he wandered into the cosmetics department looking for something to buy a female family member and eventually asked her to dinner. She still thinks it was a ruse to talk to her but he spent eighteen dollars so she was more than happy to help.
"You know Betty, I won't be terribly surprised if one day I open the paper and see that you've married a Rockerfeller!" Betty laughs genuinely at this sentiment.
"I don't think the Rockerfeller's are doing their own shopping at Bendel's, Ange." They both are laughing now and she looks across the hall to see Joan giving them a warning look.
During their lunch break they flip through a bridal magazine together and Angie dog eared all the dresses she wants to wear when she marries Ken. The magazine was old, the gowns were way too long and fussy for a wartime bride.
"You'll have to wait until the war is over to get any of these, Angie. There's no way you could get enough coupons to buy one of these!" Shelia, one of the switchboard girls, butts in. Betty rolls her eyes, the switchboard girls were always so annoying. "Don't worry Ange, if Ken proposes, you can have some of mine."
"Stop it Betty, that's too much!" Angie playfully swats Betty's arm, "I'm not getting married anytime soon, why waste them?" Angie smiles sweetly at Betty and they go back to flipping through the pages.
Before they go back to work the two women walk downstairs to the alterations department. It's hot and cramped unlike the rest of the store and the air is heavy with a thick chemical smell. "Is Benjamin here?" She asks one of the girls. The girl looks at her bewildered and responds. "Ah sorry, no English." In a thick Polish accent.
Benjamin appears through the opposite door, "Rogers, what are you doing down here? I thought they only sent the ugly dames to deal with us." He's a handsome man, tall with dark hair and dark eyes.
"I need a favor Ben." He rolled his eyes at her, this was their routine. "Always a favor, never just here for a visit, eh?" She holds out the dress in front of her, displaying the wrinkled fabric. "Christ what did you do, Rogers? Did you get hit by a city bus?" Now it's her turn to roll her eyes.
"It's not that bad Liebowitz. C'mon can you please take care of it for me?" He sticks his hand out and takes the dress from her. Inspecting it backwards and forwards. He sighs dramatically, "Fine, but it will cost you Rogers." He motions for the Polish girl to come closer and he hands her the blue dress. He rattles off instructions to her in Yiddish and she nods vigorously and then disappears through a set of doors he had just come through.
"How much?"
"Trip to the movies." He quips.
If they lived in a better world, she thinks that they would make a good match. But at this moment there's no room in the world for two people like them.
She digs through her purse and pulls out her change. "How about thirty-three cents?" He laughs at her offer but agrees. It doesn't matter, he never takes the money anyways. They shake on it.
As Angie and Betty ascend the stairs back up to the ground floor, Angie gives her a curious look. "I've never met any of them before." Betty catches her meaning, she isn't exclusively talking about the people who work in the alterations department. Angie grew up in Connecticut, of course she had never met anyone like Ben Liebowitz before.
Betty chooses her words carefully. "Ben is a bit rough around the edges but he's exceedly kind. He really takes care of everyone in the department. He's taught English to most of the girls there. Plus he's always helping me in a pinch!" She wishes for a fleeting second that they did live in that better world, but then shakes the notion from her mind.
"Just be careful Betty. You don't want people to get the wrong idea." She hesitates for a second but doesn't address Angie's comment.
The second half of the day drags on. There is a small rush around three o'clock and she feels bad for leaving Angie to her own devices on the cash register but she has a line of regulars that she needs to attend to. When they finally close down at five o'clock she follows all of the girls into the employee locker room. The place is abuzz with chatter and idle gossip. Betty and Angie are talking excitedly about her date tonight. He was picking her up in his car outside Bedel's at six-thirty.
"Do you want me to stay with you until he gets here?" Betty smiles but shakes her head. "I appreciate the offer Angie but I'll be fine!" She feels someone standing behind them and she turns around to see Carol Baker staring at her. She and Carol had never really spoken before since they worked in completely separate departments so she was surprised when she opened her mouth. "You're Betty Rogers, right?" She nods. "I heard you're going out with Frank Sheehan…" Carol trails off and waits for Betty's confirmation. It's Angie that answers enthusiastically. "Yes! He's taking her out to dinner tonight!"
Betty looks back at Carol cautiously. Carol lowers her voice so that just the two of them can hear. "I went out with him a few times last year." She pauses and Betty can see she's forming her next sentence carefully. "Just be careful around him. He can be… aggressive sometimes." Betty raises her eyebrows at this statement. "Thanks for the warning Carol." The other woman's gaze lingered on her for just a few seconds longer before she walked away.
She reads a book in the employee lounge until six o'clock. She can hear the cleaning crew coming in and she decides to check and see if Ben was ready with her dress. He's leaning against the wall opposite the door when she comes out, startling her. He holds a lit cigarette in one hand and her dress in the other. Without saying anything he walks towards her while taking a long drag of his cigarette.
"Thank you so much Ben, I really appreciate it!" She tries to hand him the thirty-three cents she promised him but like so many times before he shakes his head. "Keep your money, kid."
He hands her the dress, neatly pressed and on a wooden hanger. She tugs on it gently but he doesn't let go. His hand linger near hers for just a second too long, then finally he relinquished the garment. There is a tension in the room that she can't quite place. He finally speaks again.
"I won't be seeing you again for a while, Rogers." She stares at him, confusion etched on her face. "I enlisted in the army and I'm shipping off in a few days for England. I'm going to kill Nazis and liberate my people." He smiles and winks at her but it doesn't quite reach his eyes. He takes another long drag. For the first time she realizes how tired he looks, there's a sadness to him that she hadn't noticed before.
"I hope you save some of that heroism and glory for other people as well, Liebowitz." He smiles, this time more genuinely. "Never." He flicks the cigarette on the floor and snuffs it out with his shoe before bending down and picking up the remains. They linger for another few moments before Betty breaks the silence.
"I have to change." He nods at her but she can see he wants to say something else.
"...Rogers." he says her name hesitantly, she's never known him to be unsure of himself. "Think of me sometimes while I'm over there." She smiles and walks back over to him. "I will." She gets up on her tiptoes and kisses him on the cheek. He whistles and winks at her, back to his usual antics again.
"Auf wiedersehen, sweetheart." She watches as he disappears through the brass doorway and her heart constricts. She knows he would roll his eyes at her but she sends a silent prayer to Saint Michael to keep him safe. She makes the sign of the cross, then enters the locker room again.
Frank picks her up in a black car thirty minutes later. He pulls up to the curb in front of the department store, gets out, and opens the passenger's side door for her. At least he's a gentleman, she thinks. But she can still hear Carol's words ringing in her head.
Frank is boring, wealthy, and a touch narcissistic. Everything Betty typically looked for in a man. He loved to drone on and on about all of the different city reforms he was helping Mayor La Guardia push through. He doesn't ask her anything about himself, which was more than fine by her. She reminds herself that her job tonight is to be beautiful and compliant.
She tunes out most of what he says to her that night but forces herself to refocus when he finally asks her a question. "...and how did you end up working behind the counter at Bendel's instead of working as one of their models?" She laughs politely at his comment. "I attended St. Joseph's College for a semester and then realized that it was not right for me." She lied, they had run out of money.
"I was working as a waitress when my current boss, Mr. Wozniak came in and said that I had the look that they wanted for Bendel's and it was such a glamorous sounding job that I couldn't turn it down." This one was only a half lie. She had met Mr. Wozniak when she was a cocktail waitress in the city but he certainly hadn't been a gentleman about the situation. He had drunkenly spilled his drink down the front of her dress and used it as an excuse to grope her. He had given her his card as he was escorted out and she had used this leverage as an excuse to call him and tell him he had offered her a job the night before.
He smiles a greasy smile at her. "Sounds like everything worked out for the best. I can't imagine a beautiful girl like you wasting her best years going to college." He reaches across the table and takes one of her hands. She fakes a laugh and smiles as charmingly as she can. She grits her teeth and tells herself it will all be worth it when she's living in an Upper East Side flat and shopping at Bendel's instead of workthing there.
As they walk out she tells him she will just take the subway home, hoping he wouldn't push the issue, but he insists that he drive her home. She smiles through gritted teeth. She reluctantly tells him she's from Brooklyn and tells him an address she's used before. It's a women's boarding house in a much nicer part of Bay Ridge than where she actually lives. The doorman will always let her stand in the lobby until her date pulls away and leaves. There is a part of her that recognizes how silly the situation is, but she's spent so much time cultivating a specific image of herself that she's not quite sure how to break the facade now.
She walks the rest of the way home in the freezing cold. She is chilled to the bone by the time she makes her way inside the apartment. She unlocks the front door and firmly shuts it behind her.