Page 101 of Saved By the CEO

My stomach drops so hard I swear it lands somewhere near my knees.

“Answer it.”

“I can’t.”

“Don’t be a wuss,” she bullies me.

I grab the phone with a hand that no longer feels like mine and swipe to answer.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Carly. It’s Marissa.”

“Hi,” I say in a surprisingly normal voice, considering I’m currently having an out-of-body experience.

“I hope I’m not calling at a bad time.”

I look at Annie, who is now standing directly in front of me, wide-eyed, with pasta sauce on her chin.

“No,” I say. “Not at all.”

“Good. I wanted to call personally and let you know that we’d like to offer you the Communications Coordinator position.”

The kitchen goes silent as I try to process what she just said.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “What?”

Annie grabs my arm.

“We’d like to offer you the position.”

I stare at the wall.

Marissa continues. “The panel was unanimous. We were very impressed with your interview, and HR felt you handled yourself professionally. You brought relevant experience, strong internal knowledge of BenCo, and a perspective we think would be very valuable on the team.”

My eyes fill up immediately. Annie’s practically jumping in place, sounding like a kettle about to explode.

“HR will send over the formal offer and transition details tomorrow. We’ll coordinate timing with Mr. Bennett, of course, but assuming everything works on your end, we’d like you to join us as soon as possible.”

“Yes,” I say, almost a little too quickly. “Yes, that sounds great. Thank you. Thank you so much.”

The rest of the call is a blur. I’m pretty sure I say thank you four more times. Possibly five. Marissa says congratulations again, and then the line goes dead.

I lower the phone. Annie stares at me. I stare back.

“I got it,” I say, almost breathlessly.

Her face breaks into a grin. “You got it?”

“I got the job.”

She screams. It’s a full-blown, neighbors-might-call-someone scream.

“You got the fucking job,” she yells, throwing her arms around my neck and jumping up and down.

I hug her back, mumbling into her hair. “The panel was unanimous.”

“Well, duh.” She pulls back and grips my shoulders. “They’re not idiots.”