Heather smiled, and I knew I had won. “Ms. Howard, you have made me an offer I simply cannot refuse.” She reached her hand out over the Bloody Marys, and I shook it.
“Trey will draw up the contract and get it over to you tonight.”
We had already drawn up the contract. It didn’t work 100 percent of the time, but it was the best way I knew of to put the deal out in the universe before we went in to negotiate it. And I had to admit that Trey was the best partner out there. He knew when to jump in, when to lighten the mood, when to be serious. I texted him under the table:You’re getting a promotion.
He texted back:But I want to work with you.
Duh.
We smiled at each other.
“Now that that unpleasantness is over,” Heather said, “please tell me there’s an exciting new man in your life.”
I laughed, and I was so relieved to have sealed this deal that the laugh almost felt genuine. It almost didn’t break my heart that I’d had a new man in my life and I had pushed him away. Almost.
When Heather left, Trey and I each breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Barfed all night and still pulled it out,” he said. “So, about that promotion…”
“Oh, that was just something I said in the moment. Moment’s over,” I joked.
He elbowed me gently.
“No,” I said. “New title. More money. All that jazz. I’ll get you details, but you have been my go-to for years and you deserve it.”
“But who will plan your cocktail parties? And make your matcha lattes the way you like them? And hide Quinn’s e-mails? And put Greg on hold for egregious amounts of time to piss him off?”
I laughed. “Obviously you’ll have to find and train your replacement.”
He grinned. “Obviously.”
He held his glass up and I clinked it with mine. “To moving up in every sense of the word,” he said.
“Onward and upward,” I responded.
And, for the first time in a long time, I meant it.
diana: warning sign
For the past two days, I had been feeling confident. When I told Gray that I was meeting Frank’s mother, she’d said, “Diana, you are a strong, beautiful, smart woman and you are deserving of everything wonderful that life has to offer. No one can take that away from you.”
When I hadn’t look convinced, she had motioned for me to follow her into her bedroom. She opened the jewelry box on her vanity and pressed a pair of pearl earrings into my palm. “These are my grandmother’s,” she said, “and they are lucky. I always wear them when I feel like I need some extra strength.”
“But you have that big meeting with Glitter,” I had protested.
Gray shook her head. “That’s just a client, Diana. This is your life.”
It had made me feel so warm inside, so strong. I had been a rock for Gray these past few months. Now I knew she was a rock for me too.
She had also cleaned out her closet and insisted that I take everything that fit. Some of the clothes still had the tags on them. “You could sell these,” I protested.
“I could,” she said. “But I will not let you see Frank’s mother for the first time in twenty-two years wearing jean shorts and a T-shirt.”
I couldn’t really argue with that. I knew she was right, and I had been stressing about using part of my paycheck to buy something new. I needed that money to stock up on those little red-and-white-checked baskets I had dreamed of. Gray and I agreed on a pink dress that was fitted but not tight. It was elegant. And, better yet, it was free. I felt like the princess my momma always told me I would be.
Now that the day was here, I wasn’t feeling quite so confident.
“I don’t see why this is necessary,” I said as I slid Gray’s pearl through my ear and pushed the post onto the back.
Frank laughed. “Come on, Di. It won’t be so bad.”
