“Great. I wanted to let you know that you’ve been selected for the promotion to lead the operations division out of our new office in New York. Congratulations!”
My eyeballs popped wide as I struggled to push words out of mymouth. “T—thank you. But um, New York? I didn’t know that was on the table. I thought I would be taking over the operations here in California if offered the job.”
“Let me look over the interview notes here, just one second.”
Her pregnant pause allowed me enough time to put her on mute and step up to the overworked, syrup-pumping barista to place my order. “Hi, can I get an iced venti caramel macchiato with seven pumps of caramel syrup, extra whip, and a hazelnut and mocha drizzle? Oh, and a chicken and bacon panini?” I requested before pulling out my card and swiping it in the machine.
“Ms. Stokes?” Jacqueline called out, back from doing her research.
“Yes, I’m still here,” I answered after taking the phone off mute.
“Okay, it seems like there were interviewing for two positions that needed to be filled. One here, and one in our New York office. The interviewers were impressed with your background and felt you would be best to head the division in New York. Now, should you accept this position, the company will pay your relocation fees given that you do so in ninety days.”
“Ninety days?” I repeated.
“Yes.”
“Okay, and when would I need to give you an answer?”
“As soon as possible but seeing as though we’ve just come off the holidays, I’ll say at least by the middle of next week. Will that work?”
“Yes, the middle of next week. Got it. I’ll be in touch and thank you again for calling.”
“No problem, congratulations again!”
I smiled so hard my cheek started to cramp as I savored the first slurp of my custom drink order. “Thank you.”
The serendipitous callwas the only thing able to put a pause on my downward spiral since things had ended so poorly between Hendrix and I on Christmas, no less. Hanging up and sucking down my custom-made drink order had suddenly made my day ten times better. I wanted to keep the good vibes pouring in and decided to call the one person I knew could keep a smile on my face.
“What up, floozy?” Lauryn answered with a childish giggle.
I quickly smacked my cherry red painted lips together before my smile returned. “I’m gon’ let that slide because I have good news!”
“I like good news. What are we celebrating?”
“You remember the job I told you about? You know, the promotion I was interviewing for?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, they called me like ten minutes ago and told me I got it! I still can’t believe it because I swear to God, I thought I bombed that shit!”
“There you go, being all negative again. How many times I gotta tell you that you a bad ass bitch?”
I rolled my eyes to the bright, blue sky above me. “Yeah, yeah. You sound like—never mind,” I disputed, stopping myself before I uttered his name.
I hadn’t fully processed everything that had gone down between Hendrix and me. I’d finally confessed my love for him and still managed to let him slip right through the palms of my hands like putty. I must’ve stared at the set of keys in the gift box for an hour straight after Hendrix left that morning. A week had passed since then, and he hadn’t asked for his keys back. Without knowing the address to his new home, I couldn’t use them anyway, so I guess he rendered them useless in my possession.
My heels clicked and clacked across the pavement back to my office as Lauryn spoke up. “Speaking of him…have you heard from him? You know, since you told me about all that shit that went down when he showed up at your spot on Christmas?”
His words still floated around my head and messed with my scorned heart. He’d gone out of his way to explain himself to me. No other man had ever driven eight hours to explain himself to my face. The most I’d gotten was a text paragraph or Omar’s sorry ass confession over a shared appetizer.
“We speak here and there, but it’s not like it was. But listen, talking about him is really going to kill my vibe, and I’m havin’ a pretty stellar day, so can we not?” I asked as I swiped my badge to get back inside the building.
“Okay, okay! I’m sorry! You’re right. Fuck him! Back to the job.C’mon and give me details! What’s our new title? What are our responsibilities? And most importantly, what’s that pay ‘bout? Give me all the deets because I’m livin’ vicariously through your ass while I’m locked down in the house on nesting mommy mode.”
“I’d be the director of operations at the new office they’re opening. So, that means I’ll be doing the day-to-day stuff like making sure my employees are monitoring, alerting, and patching any software issues for the company. And the pay is…divine,” I indulged.
Accepting that job would put me in another tax bracket, but I’d been a West Coast girl all my life and didn’t know how I’d adjust to The Big Apple. A part of me felt like the job offer couldn’t have come at a better time. The universe had seemingly delivered the sign I’d subconsciously been praying for. Maybe a fresh start in New York was exactly what I needed.
