Kira grins up at me, proud of her cookie creation. “I'll get you another one,” she declares, rushing off to the kitchen with her sister right behind her.
“Let me go see if the real cookies are ready so I can swap them out,” Stella laughs.
Sitting down on the sofa, I take a breath. Today was a big day for me. This interview means a lot. I really want and need the job, and this company is my first choice. If it doesn’t work out, though, there are a number of other interviews I can attend. But it would be amazing to hit the ground running with the best possible company in Chicago.
I’ve only been back in Chicago for a week, and it’s more challenging than I expected. Emotionally, I’m up and down, and sometimes I’m very overwhelmed.
Especially when I go past places that were onceour places. The coffee shop with the pink tiled floor in the West Loop. The Lincoln Park where we used to walk around, sipping carryout coffee and people watching while we joked and made up silly stories about the conversations they were having.
I thought he was the one. I thought he was my soulmate. My forever person.
We were together for five months, and as stupidly pathetic and naive as it sounds, I honestly thought he was going to propose to me.
But instead, he broke me in half. He shattered me. That man absolutely destroyed me.
He pushed me away so fiercely, so coldly, that for months I wasn’t even a fraction of the person I used to be. In fact, that person never came back. She was too soft. She was too weak and too trusting.
I think what made it a hundred times worse was that only days after he acted like a complete sociopath when he broke up with me, I found out I was pregnant.
Twelve weeks along.
Carrying twins.
It was like the nightmare was never going to end.
But I scraped myself together and moved to California, because it was the only way I could escape everything and anything to do with those memories of him. It was the only way that I could survive.
Being pregnant with twins, alone, in a new city, was a whole different challenge, and there were so many nights when I just sat alone in bed and sobbed until I couldn’t breathe.
Of course, the challenges continued when the twins arrived prematurely. I wasn’t ready in any way. Thank goodness Izabel was with me, because I thought I was going to die.
It’s like my life was running in one big circle of hell, a circus of tricks and taunts and never-ending disruptions.
I fought hard for stability and normalcy. And it took a very, very long time to find it.
It was a year ago that I started thinking about moving back to Chicago. It always felt like home to me in a way that California didn’t. I wanted to come back, but I was scared of facing the memories of him. I was also scared of being in a city where the possibility of bumping into him on a random afternoon was actually very real.
But as time went on, that yearning grew. And so did my inner strength and my faith in my own ability to handle things. I’m stronger. I’m wiser. I’m harder.
And my twin girls were doing so incredibly well that I finally decided to do it.
And here I am.
In Chicago.
Still terrified, but also really excited.
My phone rings and I scramble to find my purse so I can answer it.
“This is Kayla speaking,” I say professionally.
“Kayla, this is Mark at Raven Inc., following up on your interview this morning,” he says.
My heart does a somersault.
“Hi Mark, how can I help you?” I ask, my heart racing a hundred miles an hour.
“We would like to offer you the job. I’ve emailed you a copy of the contract, which I believe you'll find to your satisfaction. However, if there's anything we’ve left out or something you wish to add or remove, please let me know and we can discuss it. Take your time going over the document, and if you’re happy with it, come in tomorrow to sign and finalize.”
