CHAPTER 23
ONE GIRL + ONE DOG =
“Forgive the furniture,” Erin said, waving me into her living room and pointing to a leather chair that would’ve been nice if it hadn’t been completely destroyed by ... a wild animal? “When Kane broke up with me, I let Hulk tear into his favorite chair. I’m not proud.”
“Where is Hulk?” I looked around for her dog.
“With a friend. I took him over when I thought I had plans for tonight so he wouldn’t be alone. Funny, I’m the one who ended up alone.” She threw a blanket over the chair and curled up in it. “I can’t believe you’re here! I was sulking. This is perfect.”
I handed her one of the to-go containers and a set of plastic utensils from the paper bag they’d given me at W. A. Frost. “Well, my return wasn’t planned, and the proposal was a complete surprise.”
“And you said no? In that dress? That was cruel. You look hot.”
I nodded. “Thank you.”
“Tell me everything.”
I told her some of everything as we ate the torte, and I built up my nerve to ask her to work for me, but oddly, I hadn’t felt compelled to view her as a number. I think I was riding the high of my own self-discovery.
I didn’t know what the job would look like going forward, especially since I didn’t have a workspace for much longer, but I was going for it. If you didn’t ask, you didn’t receive.
I’d turned my phone off because it had been buzzing furiously in my purse. My mother. I couldn’t handle Aurora right now.
“Wow,” she said. “I had no idea he was such a jackass. Now I feel bad.”
“About what?”
“About accepting the job he just got me.”
“He got you a job?”
“I thought you knew.”
I shook my head.
“I never spoke to him personally, but at the interview, they told me I came recommended by Chad. It’s at the law firm where he works. Not finance like I wanted, but it’s a job. And I need money so I can get out of this place. But I can’t work there now that ...”
“Of course you can work there. He’s a good lawyer. He works at a good firm.” I placed half my torte on her coffee table, suddenly feeling sick to my stomach. Chad had gotten Erin a job. I didn’t know what to settle on. Disappointment? Appreciation? Guilt? I was feeling it all. I wanted to leave. My post-proposal confidence was fading.
“Umm, your face is kinda saying it’s not okay.”
A bitter laugh escaped my lips. I started to lie, but I was so disappointed that I told her the truth. “I was going to ask you to work for me. But now—”
She stood up, knocking the last few bites of the torte onto the floor. “Yes.”
“What?”
“Yes, I’ll work for you,” she said.
“But you just said—”
“Forget what I said. I want to work with you.”
I was silent for a few beats.
“I was actually going to suggest it until this job came through, and then I felt like you’d helped get me the job, so I had to take it. I’d much rather work with you. I’m trained in finance, and I want to be a part of what you’re doing. Honestly, I moved to Minnesota because of my ex. I grew up in Nashville. My family is there. I’d like to come back. I want to help you. I think I could.”
Hope pulled at my muscles until I was smiling. “I think you could, too, but I haven’t even worked out the details. I wasn’t planning to ask you this now at all.”
“If you want me, I’m there, but there’s one thing.” Her tone went cautious.
“What?”
“Could Hulk and I stay with you? Just temporarily?”
But her family. She said she had family in Nashville. Stay with me? Me? I don’t—
“Oh, thank you,” she said. “Thank you!”
Why was she thanking me?
Apparently, I’d said yes.
Erin and her ferocious dog were moving into my house in three weeks.
After leaving Erin’s in borrowed sweats, I stayed overnight in a hotel but managed a flight home the next day. The Uber drove me straight to Deanna’s from the airport. I needed to see her and tell her that she’d been right, that I was going to give this my all, for real this time. More than anything, I needed to apologize.
We picked up right where we’d left off as if I hadn’t left without a word. I told her about the whole trip, though not the reason behind it. I couldn’t mention Grant. No one needed to know about that; he wasn’t an issue anymore. I was over him.
“I’m proud of you,” Deanna told me.
“Thanks. But in a few days, I won’t have an office space anymore because—”
“Because someone else leased it for three months?”
I stared.
Her eyes twinkled, the light catching the moisture in her eyes. “It was William’s idea, actually. We believe in you. If you give up, then I might be tempted to give up.”
Thatwas why I could make this work. She’d surely taken the money she was saving for her B and B and sacrificed, for me.
I’d lived my life alone, unsupported, pulling myself up from my own bootstraps, when I pulled myself up at all. Now, there was a hand on my back, pushing me forward when I didn’t think I could take another step.
“Thank you,” I whispered, and threw my arms around her. I’d work twice as hard because I was no longer just working for myself.