Chapter 17
Victoria
It was the Friday the world lost its mind, because after several months of searching, I got two job offers on the same day.
I’d been out at the coffee shop, back on the same grind—I’d found myself in a nice rhythm of spending some days working from home, interweaving with Bridget through the day for a lunch together or a coffee break or, my personal favorite, a break to help Bridget with her work, and spending some days working from the café I used to frequent.
The familiar sights and sounds and smells of the café set me back into work mode right away, and I’d been deep in the trenches when a tap pulled my gaze up, and I looked at where Mark Castle set a coffee cup down at the other end of my regular table, a big smile on his face.
“Hey, Victoria,” he said. “I was hoping I’d catch you here.”
It was kind of a relief to finally run into the man when I wasn’t in the middle of some kind of weird sex thing.
It had happened again with a certain long-wear piece of equipment involved just two weeks ago, when he’d come in to sit down across from me and chat about the office on his lunch break, and I’d never been less interested in what a person was saying.
I shut my laptop, sliding it to the side to face him. “Good to see you again,” I said, even though I didn’t remember much from the last times I’d seen him. “How are things going? Am I slated to steal your whole lunch break again?”
“Not on break. Actually came here hoping I’d find you. But let’s get to that in a second. How’s the work coming along? Job hunt?”
“A couple leads, some of them promising, none of them concrete. A few entry interviews, but nothing I’ve heard further from. Freelance work has been good to me, though.”
“Glad to hear it. And Bridget? Did you pass along what I was saying about our hunt for media management?”
“Oh, er.” I scratched my wrist. “She’s, well… I passed it along, but it’s not her field now. Moved more to the entertainment industry.”
“No business like show business,” he chuckled, and I didn’t want him to know just how right he was. “Well, that’s too bad. But let’s talk about you. You remember Gregory, don’t you? Holt?”
“Regional sales director Gregory Holt?”
“He’s stepping aside. Soft retirement, he calls it.
Leaving the office but still on tap for consultations.
Management is looking for someone to take his spot, and I told them you were in town looking for a job, and I figured I’d pass along the info.
They loved it—said they’d be happy to interview you for the position, but even if they don’t have you for the position, they’d want to hire internally and have you fill in the vacancy that leaves, reprise your old role. ”
I froze with my hands on the coffee cup, staring at him. “They said that, directly?”
“You were always good to work with. Reliable, hardworking, clever. You and Bridget both, but shame we can’t get both of you back into the office. Maybe I should look up what Bridget’s been up to.”
He really shouldn’t have. Although I could attest it was hard to track her down unless you rooted through her mail.
“Oh,” was what I managed. “Well,” I said, looking down at my laptop.
“I suppose… it would be a waste to turn down an opportunity like that. It sounds like it’s effectively a free job offer. ”
“Pedro will be calling you at some point to talk about it. That was part of today’s itinerary, but I figured I’d take a chance, see if you were here, try to tell you in person.”
“And to sneak in a croissant while you have the excuse.”
He grinned. “A little sly fun on the side never hurt anyone, Victoria.”
Uh-huh… well, it wasn’t like I disagreed with that.
I was still reeling once he left, fifteen minutes later with his croissant reduced to crumbs and his half-finished coffee in hand, after chats about the office and catchups that made it sound like it was a foregone conclusion I’d be back in the office again soon, and I stared at my laptop screen, not really seeing anything there.
It was kind of a miracle. Job searching was brutal these days, and you didn’t just sit down and have a job come to you.
Let alone with a potential promotion involved, too.
If I knew much about the company, it wouldn’t come with the biggest raise, but…
it was still movement. Still progress. Still security.
And then what? Stay here, around my family, around Bridget?
When I’d been on the run from Seattle, I’d have jumped at the opportunity—as long as I had that security, a safe place to land where I didn’t have to worry about how to cover bills.
But now that I was here, now that the acute panic was a distant memory, the hidden questions I’d stepped over came haunting back to the surface.
Was I going to spend my life like this? Here in the same place I grew up, doing the same things I’d been doing for the past five years?
I should have told Bridget. It felt dishonest to hide it from her—ever since that night at the Mountain View, I was loathe to admit it, but we were dating in all but name.
Kevin and Sam had been slowly pressing on me more and more since Christmas, telling me maybe my heart knew better than my head.
As if I wanted to hear that from my brother.
He’d dated even less than I ever had. Just found one boyfriend, one time, and now he was the oracle of love.
I guess I could have told him firmly stop talking to me about this, I don’t want to hear it. But maybe it was the same part of me that kept hoping Bridget would say something that would chase away the uncertainty.
I spent a good hour drifting between job listings that felt like they were miles away, independent work projects that were suddenly garbled nonsense on a page, and my chat with Bridget, which was now a log of everything from banal household conversations, random anecdotes, flirting, sexting, and deep, loaded conversations that had me aching in my chest, but I didn’t say anything to her.
Not yet. Couldn’t, not until something broke the floodgates, which was a call, and I almost picked it up assuming it was Pedro from management at my old office.
My blood ran cold at the sight of the name—Marguerite, the woman from HR at my job in Seattle. I wasn’t in the mindset for this.
But I picked it up. “Hello, Victoria speaking,” I said coolly.
“Victoria, hello,” she said, her voice warm. “How are you doing?”
“I’m well, thank you.”
“Good, I’m glad to hear it. Is now a good time to talk?”
No, of course it wasn’t. But I gripped an empty coffee cup and said, “I have some time, yes. What can I do for you?”
“It’s about your report. We want you to know we consider these matters with the highest level of respect, and we take concerns seriously.”
“Mm.” Hollow reassurances like that never came along with real action.
“We’ve conducted a thorough investigation, and in light of evidence coming forward, we wanted you to know that Mister Donahue has been terminated from his position.”
I stopped, phone up to my ear, staring straight ahead. It was a messed-up product of society that my first instinct was to apologize and withdraw—that that was extreme and that my complaint had caused all that trouble and commotion. “Oh,” was all I managed. “That’s… I see.”
“In light of the circumstances, we wanted to offer our sincerest apologies. We don’t condone or accept the sort of behavior you were subjected to, and we’ve reevaluated your sudden resignation through the lens of the investigation, and the department manager personally wanted to extend an offer for you to come back to your position, with backpay for the time you were out. ”
I sucked in a long, shaky breath. I felt like I was going to be sick. “I… I see.”
“We hope you accept our apologies and see our efforts to make things right.”
∞∞∞
“Oh—you’re back early.” Bridget sat up off the couch, peeking over the back to look at me as I came in the door.
From the rustling and movement and putting something away, I assumed it was a good thing I hadn’t come back about ten minutes later.
Normally I’d be all for coming home to a sight like that, but now wasn’t really the time.
“Hi,” I said. Her face fell, and she sat up taller.
“Oh, shit. What happened?” She climbed over the back of the couch, hurrying towards me—she wasn’t wearing pants, and I guess if I was being honest, even with the situation, it wasn’t like I minded the sight. Maybe I needed to fuck the feelings out. Or maybe I was delirious. Could be both.
“I got a job offer,” I said.
“Oh—that’s great.” She stood in front of me, hands folded at her waist, looking at me carefully. I set my bag down on the kitchen table. I felt like I didn’t know how to hold myself.
“I got two job offers.”
“Oh. That’s… that’s twice as great.” She scratched her head. “Victoria, what’s happening?”
“Mark Castle came around again.”
“The one from the office? Did he come around before?”
Oh yeah. I guess I hadn’t mentioned him before. Both times he’d shown up before, I’d had… other things to talk to Bridget about. “A couple times at the café. There’s some shakeups at the office, and he offered me my old job back. Or potentially an even better one, depending on how it goes.”
“Well, that’s… that’s great.” I could see it in her eyes, too—the same wariness, not sure how to approach the topic of me taking a job here.
“And the job in Seattle got in touch with me again. Offered me that job back too.”
“What—on the same day?” She shook her head. “Did they take that creepy asshole of a boss you had and dump him in the ocean?”
“No. Probably not. They said they terminated him. I assume they meant from the job. Could go either way, I suppose.”
“Oh. Well, that’s… that’s great,” she said, shoulders falling but not much, still shifting nervously, watching me. I didn’t want to have this conversation. I’d been hiding from it for months now. Been hiding from it for all my life.