My dignity.
I poked a head outside of the blankets, only to still be met with darkness. Rain fell outside in furious sheets as angry bolts of lightning cracked through the skies. If I wasn’t so pathetic, I’d get up and turn on the light switch, but that sounded like too much work.
My shoulders ached from my hunched position. I stretched them out, lifting my arms above my head, and then collapsed into the fetal position.
I didn’t know how long I was curled up in bed before I heard the front door open. Kira must be home.
“Macey?” she called. A moment later, she pushed open the door to my room.
When she saw my sorry state, she ran towards me and placed a hand on my forehead. “What’s wrong? Are you sick? We’ve been texting you all day.”
Let’s rip the Band-Aid off.
“I got fired today,” I said. “And Noah and I got into a huge fight.”
“Oh my God.” Kira dropped her purse onto the floor and kicked off her flats, then climbed into bed next to me. “Tell me everything.”
I did. Starting with Noah going behind my back to confront Victoria, to how I was then fired the next day.
Kira listened intently, nodding at the right places, offeringme silent understanding. But when I was finished, she exclaimed, “This is amazing!”
What.
The.
Hell.
She added, “Not the Noah stuff—I’m going to kill him for that—but everything withRoamer’s Digest.”
I glared at her. “Why would you say that?”
“Macey, my best friend, I say this with love,” she said, squeezing my cheeks with her palms. “Roamer’s Digestwas a great place to start your career, but think about all the late nights you spent fixing articles, the weekends you spent dreading Monday, all the effort you put into appeasing Victoria. You got comfortable being walked over, and it’s time for you to do the walking now. You would have stayed there forever, making excuses about why it’s not the right time to chase your dreams. Sometimes the universe recognizes the bullshit we tell ourselves and gives us the kick we need to put ourselves first. That might mean getting knocked to the ground, but you pull yourself up again even stronger than before.”
Hot tears pricked the back of my eyes. “I don’t feel stronger.”
“That’s the thing. Sometimes other people recognize your strength before you do,” she said. “And that leaves you no choice but to trust the potential your loved ones see in you.”
There was a beat, and I tried hard to stop the rising tears, but it was impossible. I frantically wiped under my eyes.
Kira’s words reminded me of Noah, who always encouraged me to take my work into my own hands. My career was important to me. I wanted to grow and be the best version of myself, but had I even been happy atRoamer’s Digest? Or had I tolerated it for my mother’s sake?
I had struggled with standing up for myself. I knew how to be my own advocate in a personal sense, butreplicating that in a professional environment was much more difficult for me. But now, I wondered, what was the worst thing that could happen if you stood up for yourself? You get fired?
That happened to me anyways.
Before I knew it, the tears had taken over. They tore themselves from my body, leaving me tense and trembling, gasping for air between wracking sobs. The tears were just as much for losing my job as they were for losing Noah.
Kira and I lay there in silence for a few minutes after my tears dried. Some energy had returned to my body, but I still felt defeated.
There was a loud knock on the door before someone let themselves in. Ariadne and Britney pushed the door open.
“We brought cookies.” Britney set a cream-colored box on the bed. The Velvet Whisk was the best bakery in town, and my stomach rumbled looking at it. “Chocolate chip.”
For all of Britney’s jokes and lackadaisical attitude, she knew how to be empathetic. It showed on her face as she sat on the corner of the bed. Ariadne climbed over me to perch on the other side.
They were worried. I hadn’t checked my phone since this morning, but I was sure there were lots of unanswered messages.
Ariadne’s warm gaze caused another swell of emotions to form in my throat. “Do you want to talk about it?”
