“I told my boss I quit,” Rae assured her. “I really did.” She hadn’t managed to say the actual wordsI quit, or write them on a Post-it note, but she’d told him that after careful consideration, she’d decided to put in her two weeks’ notice and take her career in another direction.
“So what the hell went wrong?” Ellen asked.
“He asked what it would take for me to stay. So I don’t know, I threw out a few ridiculous things—that I’d need a promotion, a 20 percent raise, and to work from Indiana.”
“And—” Ellen pressed.
“And he said that all sounded very reasonable and he’d talk to his boss and his boss’s boss and his boss’s boss’s boss to see if they could make it happen.”
“And—”
“And half an hour later, he called me back in and said they’d been wanting to build out their Midwest client coverage and had decided to make me a vice president in our Indianapolis office, with a 10 percent raise. It’s actually a 40 percent raise if you factor in cost-of-living adjustments.”
“Damn.Do you think someone told them about Co-wannabe’s assault?”
Rae felt very exposed all of a sudden, even though she was safely within the confines of her stall. Her body burned, raw and shamed, in places he hadn’t touched directly but would have if he’d had his way. “I don’t think so,” she told Ellen. “Everyone was too drunk last night to notice, and Co-wannabe seems set on pretending it never happened.” Still, now she wondered if the reason they’d agreed to her terms wasn’t because they didn’t want to lose her but because they didn’t want to be sued by her.
“Doesn’t matter,” Ellen said quickly. “You earned this.”
“I told him I had to think about the offer,” Rae said. “But I’m going to take it.”
“You’re leaving me?”
Ellen’s whimper scraped.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Ellen said quickly. “I just—shit, I’m going to miss you.”
Rae nodded, which was a silly thing to do, given it was an audio call, but she knew Ellen could feel the motion, just as she could feelEllen nodding in acknowledgment that it was the right decision for Rae, not just for her career path but for her life path.
“I’m taking you to Per Se tonight to celebrate,” Ellen said.
Per Se had been on Rae’s bucket list for so many years now, but she’d still never gone. There were so many things like that—restaurants, museums, shows—all deferred and now, in a couple weeks, dead. She felt an odd peace at the thought, at how she’d no longer be deceiving herself that these things might, and could, happen next week.
“Per Se books up months in advance,” Rae said.
“You’re forgetting Aaron’s culinary connections,” Ellen said. “It’s why I’m marrying him, remember?”
“I thought it was because he folds your laundry,” Rae said.
“That’s a close second,” Ellen admitted.
They said good-bye, but before leaving the banker bunker, Rae called her mom.
Her grandpa picked up. “Who’s this? If you’re another political survey, I haven’t changed my mind about my right to own a damn rifle—”
“It’s Rae,” she said, and then corrected herself. “Raelynn.”
“Raelynn? What the hell’re you calling in the middle of the day for? Did those white-collar sharks fire you?”
Rae let out a laugh, and for the first time in a while, it sounded like her own. “Not quite.”
“Hold on,” her grandpa said. “Let me call your mother in—she’s just out shoveling the driveway. Five inches last night and the plows still haven’t come round.”
Rae pictured her mom, over sixty now, lifting heavy shovels of snow. She was glad she’d be closer again to help out with things like that.
“Raelynn?” her mom said a moment later. “Everything all right?”
“Everything’s fine,” Rae said. “More than fine. I got a promotion. And a raise. And they’re transferring me to Indy.”
