Taking a deep, steadying breath, I prop my elbow on my desk and rest my cheek against my palm. He does have a point, though. I don’t talk about myself, but that’s because there’s really nothing to say. I have nothing going on in my life, which is embarrassing to admit.
Besides this one program I’ve applied for, which is in a completely different career field. Obviously, anyone with some wisdom wouldnevermention they’re looking for other opportunities during work. It’s basically handing your employer a smoking gun and asking for an immediate termination.
“Is your mom okay?”
“Is it sunny in Malibu?” he counters.
“I’m glad she’s okay,” I say. As much as I dislike Carter, I wouldneverwish for him to experience a fraction of what I’ve dealt with. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
“Me too,” he says finally. “I have to go pick her up, but I’ll be back to check in on the status in an hour or so. You don’t have to stick around?—”
“Don’t worry about it. I know what to do when it’s up again. I’ll work on updating next year’s mission statement or something in the meantime.”
“Mission statement? Did Ed tell us to work on it already?”
“No,” I say. “Just figured it couldn’t hurt to have my team goals updated, since Ed has a history of… springing things on us at the last minute.”
Case in point:the upcoming conference.
“We do have employee evaluations coming up.” He swears under his breath. “All right. We’ll need to make sure our statements are aligned when I get a chance to look at them.Later. You don’t have to stay?—”
“I’m tired of the reports being delayed,” I grumble. With every daily production report being delivered midway through the day instead of seven a.m., my team’s scrambling to meet deadlines without pulling overtime.
Ed has already made it quite obvious to me during our last one-on-one call that no one on my team can stay late to catch up on work. But he’s also made it explicitly clear that the company still expects the amount of output from my team to remain the same. Anything less reflects poorly on my team and, consequently, my capability to lead them.
“They won’t be delayed.”
“Will you say this again next Saturday?” I deadpan, then bite my bottom lip. “And, um, by the way, if I had known your mom was in the hospital, I wouldn’t have made the joke.”
“You’d save it for another day?” comes his response, his words devoid of any warmth, and I wince.
“I mean, when would the opportunity arise for me to make that kind of joke?” I hedge. “That’s not the point. Look, I truly am sorry?—”
“It’s fine. You didn’t know,” he says. “It’s nothing too serious, so don’t beat yourself up over it. It’s just hip surgery.”
My brow raises.Just hip surgery? “That sounds kind of serious, Carter.”
“Don’t worry about it, Barb. In a few weeks, she’ll be as good as new.”
“In a few weeks?” I glance at the corner of my laptop’s screen. “Will you still be able to make it to the conference?”
“You’re not getting rid of me that easily,” he says dryly, and I frown. That’s not what I meant. Truthfully, I donotwant to go to the conference. I’m not even sure what I should expect, given the lack of details Ed has given us since he announced that he’s taking Carter and me with him.
I don’t like being unprepared. Idefinitelydon’t like being around people. More importantly, it takes away one of the weekends I could have spent apartment hunting with Bell.
Betty doesn’t know it yet, but Bell and I are planning on moving out of the office room we’re sharing right now before her school is back in session.
Our older sister’s already stressed out over every oddly specific detail about her wedding. The last thing she needs is to be blindsided by the fact that her younger sisters are leaving, too.
But it’s time.
I’ve definitely overstayed my welcome, even though both Betty and Vincent have been nothing but kind, supportive, and accommodating while I put myself back together after my seven-year relationship went up in flames.
I just turned twenty-nine this February. After scrounging two years’ worth of paychecks, I have enough savings to find a place to live on my own—if I wanted to. It makes sense to move out later this summer.
Besides the program I’ve applied for on a whim, Bell’s got a year left to finish her master’s in social work. Moving closer to LA would be more than practical for us both in the long run.
Also, Betty’s been taking care of Bell and me for seven years now. It’s only fair she gets to start her own life once she ties the knot with her college sweetheart. They’ve been pushing off so many things because of us: getting married, having kids, and even moving to Malibu for Vincent’s career. She didn’t want to move away until our younger sister graduated from high school.
