“So you’re saying the loft is open?”
Will nodded. “And you’re welcome to live there. Rent free. The utilities are shared with the bar, so I doubt we’ll notice a difference. And then when the second location is up and running and we start asking a hell of a lot more from you, we’ll give you an actual, physical raise.”
I did the quick math in my head. With rent and utilities, it was around a forty thousand dollar raise. Maybe more if I considered what I would have had to pay for the loft on my own.
The generosity of these people floored me. Actually floored me. I wasn’t expecting this. Or this much kindness. I didn’t have a place for it to land in my brain.
My instinct was to turn prickly. To lash out and push them away. Who could tolerate this level of consideration? How could I process the sheer force of my gratitude? I couldn’t do it. I didn’t have it in me.
After several minutes of staring at the floor and contemplating whether I should just sprint from the building and tell them I needed to quit, because that felt easier than dealing with all these emotions, or start weeping like a baby, Will asked, “Is that okay, Ada? Or would you prefer to stay where you’re at and have monetary compensation? It won’t be as much dollar for dollar, but we can—”
“No, it’s not that.” The flash flood of anxiety had turned into a tidal wave of tears, and oh my God, this was so embarrassing. I held up a hand and looked straight up at the ceiling.Get it under control, Kelly.
“Are you mad?” Eliza asked, sounding nervous.
I pressed my lips together and shook my head back and forth as if I could throttle the emotions out of my brain. This was not good. I didn’t know what would happen if people saw me cry, but I knew I’d never be able to fully recover. I mean, this wasn’t a stray tear. My tear ducts were threatening a full-on emotional breakdown.
And prior to this moment, there had never been a witness to an Ada Kelly hysterical episode.
So probably, the whole fabric of society would crumble. End times apocalypse? A tear in the space-time continuum?
Probably not worth risking.
“Ada?” Will growled, sounding a little desperate.
“She’s emotional,” Charlie said evenly, not worried about the space-time continuum at all. Typical. “She feels emotions, and she’s trying not to feel emotions. It’s a whole thing.”
“Is she mad?” Will asked, apparently believing Charlie.
Charlie leaned forward and inspected my splotchy, blushing face as I held my breath and tried to pass out—which would obviously be better than crying. “She’s happy. I think.”
Eliza laughed nervously. “Ada, you’re happy?”
I nodded quickly. “Yes,” I squeaked. “Super happy.”
There was a collective sigh of relief in the office. Will said, “So we’ll be moving things out for a couple of days, and then I’ll get it professionally cleaned for you. But after that, it’s all yours. Probably by next Saturday.”
I had just gotten my emotions under control, but this new information sent them careening back to my eyeballs. I dropped my head back again and focused on the drop ceiling.
“Charlie mentioned you’re on a time crunch,” Will continued. “Does that give you enough time?”
I hiccupped. It wasn’t a muffled sob. It was a side effect of, um, acid reflux.
“Ada, go to the bathroom if you need to,” Charlie suggested in a low, gentle voice. “We’ll wait for you.”
His voice was somehow the steadying presence I needed to pull it together. I didn’t know why his extension of more kindness somehow put solid ground beneath my feet, but it did. Swallowing a huge lump of raw, sharp feeling, I could finally meet their concerned gazes and say, “Thank you.” My voice was barely more than a whisper, but it was something less than weeping too. “You guys, I can’t... I don’t know what to do with this. Nobody has ever...”
“Ever what?” Charlie pushed. His eyes were twinkling, and a smile played on his lips.
“Charlie,” Eliza hissed.
“No, come on, let her tell us how amazing we are.” He looked so incredibly smug, I immediately stopped feeling weepy and wanted to punch him in the kidneys.
His siblings rolled their eyes.
“You guys are amazing.” Whether Charlie deserved it or not, it was true.
“There are a few logistic, um, things that might make you feel less kind,” Will said. He pulled out a lease document. “We had this written up to protect both the building and our working relationship. You are free to look it over and offer suggestions if you need to. Basically, it states that as long as you’re in our employ, you are welcome to the loft. If you were to get a job elsewhere—”
