“How could you agree to such a ludicrous proposal?” I said, my voice barely controlled and my twitchy hands waving the folder that contained the contract in front of my face. Surely the paper wouldn’t do much damage if I threw it at her. Just a little throw. One that didn’t even have all that much power behind it. She would hardly feel it. But it would make me feel so much better.
Instead of giving in, I clutched the folder hard in the hopes my hands wouldn’t decide to let go.
It was Wednesday and my day was not going well. This morning I finally convinced Freddie to go back to school. She had been driving everyone crazy for the last week, still refusing to go outside and freaking out at every sound.
I woke up to Josie using the potted plant as her toilet. She managed to take off all her clothes, including her diaper and was sitting on top of the plant when I came into the living room. We had started toilet training her a few weeks ago, and she now used every bucket, glass and apparently pot plant, she could get her sticky little hands on as her toilet.
After I disposed of the squashed plant and redressed and diapered her, Freddie threw a little hissy fit because I forgot to do the washing and she couldn’t wear her favorite jeans. I told her to wear them unwashed, she told me they had a stain on them. Whereas I gently suggested she could just wash the stain out, and she answered by storming into the bathroom and slamming the door.
Oma had fallen asleep on the couch last night, which made her so stiff she couldn’t get up. I had to massage feeling back into her limbs and then help her walk around for a little while.
When I made it to work, I let out a sigh of relief. And my day seemed to have turned around until I found out that I was indeed supposed to work for Rhett. Which brought me to now, where I was fuming mad and standing in Cassie’s office, letting her know exactly what I thought. She’d promised she wouldn’t do it. I trusted her. The feeling of betrayal stung. And I wasn’t about to take it quietly.
At least she had the decency to look sorry. “I couldn’t pass up his offer. You read it. At least I hope you did because it involves you. All you’ll have to do is work for him. You’ll be fine. Apparently he mostly works out of his New York office these days, anyway. He won’t even be there.”
“You damn well know that I can’t work in Denver. It’s a two-hour commute. One way. How am I supposed to take care of Josie, Freddie and Oma?”
“I thought you read the contract.” She had the nerve to look surprised. “It says he’ll provide housing for you.”
“Freddie has lived here all her life. Her friends are in Butler. It would kill her to finish her last two years of school somewhere else. And what about Oma? She’s lived in her house most of her life. My Opa built it. It’s not just a house, it’s a home.”
“You can move back once the contract is up. Please Emmi, you need to help me out here. I need this contract. It’s going to make me enough money to expand and still have something left to give everyone the pay raise I’ve promised for the last two years. I need this. The company needs this. Did you even look at the numbers?”
Damn it, I hated when she looked at me with her stupidly big round and deep blue eyes. She knew eyes were my weakness. I clutched the folder tighter. “I don’t care about the numbers. I’m not moving permanently. It’s a three year contract.”
Cassie wrung her hands and looked at me with pleading eyes. I owed her. I knew I did. So the right thing to do would be to accept my fate. But maybe there was a way for us to compromise. “You can tell him I’ll work at his office Thursdays and Fridays and stay at the city for those nights. The rest of the time I’ll work from here.”
Cassie’s face lit up and she nodded her head so hard her hair was flying everywhere. “I think I could swing that. You are the best. I love you. I knew you weren’t going to let me down. And you should really look at the numbers.”
Whatever. I turned on my borrowed heels and left the office, the folder now a crumpled mess in my hand. Once I sat down, curiosity got the better of me and I opened the folder to have a look at what she was talking about. I nearly fell off my chair when I read what the proposal included.
Nobody was worth that much for a three year secondment and especially not someone like me. I knew I was a disaster in the office. I understood nothing of the technical workings of the software. I was a crap assistant. What the hell was I supposed to do at his office?
After I was done grumbling about it and I had forgiven Cassie once she bribed me with a brownie, I got on with my day. Only screwing up one appointment all day put me in a great mood and I was back to normal by the time I arrived home.
“Oma, I’m back,” I called out when I made it through the front door. Josie came running towards me, her little toddler sway making her look like a drunk person. The fact that she wasn’t wearing any clothes, except her diaper, and had chocolate smeared all through her hair didn’t help the overall appearance.
I corralled Josie into the bathroom to clean her up and put her PJs on. She was happy to comply as long as she got to wear her pink cloud ones. I had to buy three pairs of the damn things since she wouldn’t wear anything else.
Once I had read her four bedtime stories, found her donkey and cuddled her for an acceptable amount of time, she passed out in her crib. This usually happened suddenly and in the most awkward position she could bend herself into. Today was no different. I tried to rearrange her limbs as best I could without disturbing her and then left.
Once I collapsed into a kitchen chair, I was ready to pass out.
“You need to eat more,” Oma said and put a huge plate in front of me. I would only be able to eat about a third of it. She didn’t believe in small portions. Or regular sized portions.
“How was your day?” I asked and started eating which made me sigh in pleasure. There was no better cook than Oma.
“We went to the new playground on Foster and Billings. Josie loved it and made a new friend, a little boy her age called Elija. His dad is single and they live in the neighborhood.”
Oh no, I knew what would come next. And wait for it, bam it happened.
“You should meet him for coffee. He is very good looking. And did I mention he was single? And a dad?” she said.
“That’s nice. I’ll think about it.” Code for never gonna happen. And Oma knew the code only too well. Because I wasn’t dating. At all. My last experience didn’t end very well, and I was unwilling to go there again. At least not while Josie was little.
“Where is Freddie?” I asked between bites.
Oma avoided the question and went back to the living room. I knew what that meant. She hadn’t come home. “She hasn’t come home yet,” I said. It was more of a statement than a question, since I already knew the answer.
