4. Paige
PAIGE
“ P lease tell me you’re home,” I plead to Lilly without giving her a second to say anything past ‘hello’ after answering the phone.
“Um, yeah, I am. What’s up?” she says warily. I start pacing the length of my small apartment living room, sparing a quick glance at my roommate’s door and lowering my voice. If this were any other subject, I wouldn’t mind sharing with Sam. Hell, I probably would have already unloaded on him. But considering this is about work and assuming no one should know yet, I can’t exactly go blabbing to him about this.
I spent all night after getting home reading through the folders Garrett gave me. Luckily, Sam goes out every Friday night, so it was just me, my dinosaur chicken nuggets, and the overwhelming job proposal.
“Are you home alone or is there a certain hockey player waiting to pounce the moment you’re off the phone?”
Lilly scoffs playfully. “I’m all by myself, for the entire night.”
“Can I call an impromptu girls’ night?”
“That depends…does it require me to put on actual pants?”
A laugh bubbles free and I shake my head even though she can’t see me. “No, I was thinking more of a sweatpants and ice cream on your couch kind of night.”
“Oh, thank God.” The sound of a refrigerator door opens in the background. “You’re gonna have to stop for ice cream. Which if you do, can you get panda paws? I’ll order pizza so we have some actual sustenance, not just a sugar high.”
Tension eases from my shoulders as I head into my room to throw together an overnight bag.
“Perfect, I’ll be there in the next half hour.”
After finishing packing the essentials and grabbing the folders from my nightstand, I make sure to shoot Sam a text that I’m crashing at Lilly’s tonight. I grab my keys and head out, locking the apartment behind me. The quick stop for ice cream ends up taking a little bit longer than planned thanks to the distraction of picking out a bottle of wine that fits the mood for the night. Which turned into me getting one red, two whites, and a case of seltzer to pair with both our ice creams.
A variety of drinks is never a bad thing.
By the time I park my car and knock on Lilly’s door forty-five minutes later, I’ve almost forgotten why I even needed to see her so badly. That is, until I see her face and the weight of a life-changing decision comes crashing back down on me at full force.
“I need your help,” I plead, slipping past her and beelining for her kitchen.
“With what? Sticking to a list that only had one item on it?” Lilly laughs, taking one of the multiple bags from my hands and setting it on the counter. I stick my tongue out at her as I place the rest of my impulse buys on her kitchen island.
“It’s not my fault they make such pretty wine labels that make it impossible to choose just one bottle.”
Lilly raises her brow and points to the case of seltzer. “And that?”
I pick it up, dramatically pointing to the cans on the box. “They have new flavors!”
We stare at each other, both trying to hold a straight face before promptly bursting out laughing at the same time. Lilly gathers the refrigerated goods and turns to put them away.
“It’s a good thing that I ordered actual sustenance to go with all this alcohol and sugar,” she says, motioning toward the oven. “I put the pizza in there so it would stay warm.”
While we set out our food and drinks, Lilly updates me on how things are going with her and Dominik, the hockey player from her dad’s team, who also happens to be her neighbor, whom she’s secretly dating. By the time she’s caught me up, we have an aesthetically pleasing picnic made up on her living room floor. We even moved some fluffy pillows and cozy blankets to the ground for us to sit on.
Lilly nudges me with her elbow and hands me a glass of white wine.
“We haven’t done this since our senior year of high school.”
“Oh my God, wasn’t it that night we decided to binge-watch the entire Star Wars series?” I ask, taking a seat on one of the cushions and grabbing a piece of pizza.
“Yup. My brother’s made fun of us for spending so much time on our setup, but by the time we were finished and had all our snacks set out perfectly, they were begging to join us.”
I laugh, my chest tightening at the memory. That night was one of many nights that Lilly came to my rescue to get me out of my house while my dad was on one of his benders. She always knew when I needed an escape, offering to hang out at her house for dinner and to do homework or to have a last-minute sleepover. It made it even easier that her mom never questioned why I was always over. She simply acted as if I was right where I was supposed to be.
Calling Lilly my best friend almost doesn’t do our relationship justice.
For as long as I can remember, she has always been there. It’s to the point where we could each take one look at the other and know what they need. She’s never once gotten upset or held it against me if I didn’t want to talk about my home life. Just as I never blamed her for needing time after she broke up with her ex.
We both know that sometimes we simply need to sort through our thoughts and that eventually, we will open up when we’re ready. Occasionally, one of us needs a nudge, like when she moved down here to Tampa and spent a week secluded in her dad’s condo. She needed that time, but she also needed to get out and see what this wonderful city had to offer her.
Having spent the majority of my life coming to her for advice, there’s no doubt in my mind that she’s exactly who I need to talk through this job offer with.
“So are you going to tell me what prompted all this or are we sticking with mindless gossip and catching up?” she asks as if reading my mind. A smirk tugs at the corner of my lips but doesn’t quite take hold.
Sighing, I set my plate down and reach for my bag that I dropped beside the couch. After pulling out the folders, I set them on my lap and reach for my glass of wine to keep my hands busy.
“I told Garrett I wasn’t happy in my role.” I hold a single finger up when she opens her mouth to say something and continue, “I didn’t say that I was going to leave or even that I was looking at a new job. Just that it feels like something is missing.”
I take a sip and stare down at the folders.
“What did he have to say about that?” Lilly asks, grabbing her drink and watching me from the corner of her eye.
“He offered me a promotion.” I set my glass on the coffee table and face her completely. Sucking in a deep breath, I finally say everything out loud for the first time. “And not in a normal ‘step up the ladder’ kind. This man handed me the mother of all promotions. Imagine him seeing me climbing a ladder like a normal person and then just casually suggesting to catapult me to the top. That’s what he did.”
Lilly’s eyebrows crunch together in confusion as she brings the can of seltzer to her mouth. “What do you mean?”
“Garrett offered me to be the Chief Operating Officer.”
Lilly chokes on her drink, her eyes widening with surprise as she attempts to get her breathing back to normal.
“Wh-what?” she stutters around a cough.
“My bad.” I grimace and gently pat her back to help. “Probably could have waited to make sure you weren’t drinking.”
She waves a hand in dismissal while turning her entire body to face me.
“Garrett offered you the position of COO?”
I bite my lip and nod as I tap on the folders. “According to him, I’m the perfect fit for his plans with the company.”
My cheeks heat, remembering the intensity of his stare and the underlying intention I could have sworn were hiding behind the words he spoke.
It’s been an effort since I walked out of his office not to read further into that moment. To convince myself that Garrett doesn’t like me like that and an offer like this doesn’t come lightly.
Still, in the safe space of my best friend’s apartment, all my concerns are at the forefront of my mind.
“I don’t know what to do.” I sigh.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Lilly says in exasperation.
“If it were, I wouldn’t be sitting on your living room floor on a Saturday night,” I deadpan.
Lilly shakes her head, her free arm flying up in a ‘what the hell’ motion.
“Paige, you busted your ass off to get the job you have now and have worked every day since to prove you deserve it. I’ve heard the way Sam talks about you when it comes to work. To quote him, you’re a kick-ass boss lady. So why the heck wouldn’t you say ‘hell yes’ and become the badass COO that I know you can be?”
“I don’t know. Part of me feels like I don’t actually deserve this. Like he’s only offering it to me because of our friendship. I mean, yeah, he’s my boss. But outside of that, he’s one of my closest friends. He’s one of the main reasons I didn’t become a hermit after moving down here.”
Lilly raises a single eyebrow at me. “As if you could ever be a hermit.”
I shrug and absentmindedly spin my wine glass, watching the liquid swirl back and forth as I answer.
“It was kinda hard moving down here. I was completely on my own for the first time. I didn’t know anyone, so it was easy to just work all the time. For a couple months, all I did was go to the office, stay way later than everyone else, then go home. There were many nights with just me and my thoughts, and you know how well I do when left alone with those,” I half joke, trying to ease some of the tightness that feels like it’s suffocating me.
Lilly reaches out and takes my hand, squeezing it gently while I continue.
“There were so many times I thought about calling it quits and coming back to Vermont. At least you were there. But back then I thought you were happy with Cam and didn’t want to crash that. And we both know my dad wouldn’t have given me a warm welcome.”
“I didn’t know you went through any of that,” she whispers and I wince when I catch sight of the tears lingering in my friend’s eyes.
“I didn’t want you to. I felt like I was flailing to keep myself afloat, but I was stubborn enough to think I couldn’t ask for help.” A smile finally tugs at my lips. “And then Garrett asked me to plan the first team outing and suggested that we get some lawn tickets for a concert. Everyone had a blast and I finally had fun. The team felt closer and after that, Garrett just kept finding things for us to do. Even when work started getting busier, he would stay late with me and do whatever he could. His company some nights was more than enough. He might not know it, but he helped me finally start living.”
Lilly tightens her grip. “I’m glad you had him.”
“Everything in here,” I point my gaze to the folders and shake my head. “It’s so tempting. It’s the perfect amount of new, exciting, and terrifying. But I can’t help but wonder if I’m actually the right person for the job. I mean, what if I fuck it up completely and let him down? He did say that he consulted with a partner and had them look over my résumé, and they agreed I was the best option.”
“You know what we have to do then, right?”
I shake my head and the laugh that comes out is borderline hysterical.
“Lil, again, if I knew what to do, then I wouldn’t be here.”
My friend smiles, finally letting go of me, and jumps to her feet. She sets her can down on the coffee table before turning toward her bedroom.
“What are you doing?” I yell after her, but the only response I get is the sound of drawers opening and closing.
After another minute of rummaging, Lilly comes back with two legal notepads and colored pens. A giddy grin is stretched across her face as she practically skips back to me.
“It means, we get to make a pros and cons list.” She drops one of the pads in my lap, barely giving me any warning to move my glass. As she sits back down, she puts the pens between us. “You’re in charge of writing out the pros list and I will take the cons. That way, if you say anything that’s a con but it’s actually just you doubting or being overly harsh on yourself, then I get to be the voice of reason and tell you that you’re wrong and to go to the next thing.”
“Sometimes I think you’re like my fairy godmother for positivity.” I laugh, setting my glass down, and grabbing the bright pink pen. Lilly beams at me, reaching down to take one of the blue ones.
“Being your hype girl is one of my favorite things to do. However, glass slippers are outside of my job description. That sounds like something your boss would love to give you, though.”
I snort. “Please, we both know I don’t need any glass slippers…flip-flops are so much more practical.”
“They really are!” Lilly laughs while resting her notepad on her knee. “All right, let’s go over everything in there so that I have all the information.”
By the time we’ve drained an entire bottle of wine, finished the pizza, and had more ice cream than we should have, one of the pads has three full pages while the other barely fills out one.
I drop my pad beside Lilly’s on the coffee table.
“Well, there’s my answer,” I say, staring at the glaringly obvious answer.
Lilly nudges her shoulder against mine and grins. “Told ya so.”
Despite all my doubts and fears, thanks to my friend being my voice of reason and thwarting anything that was my own insecurity, the answer is clear.
I’m going to say yes.