Chapter 9
9
C ally had just come in from a long day doing a decluttering job with Nina in a hoarder’s house in the next town. Suffice to say, it hadn’t been pleasant. As she walked into the deli building, Alice poked her head around the door and wiggled a couple of letters that had arrived that morning. Tucking them under her arm, Cally smiled and nodded as she walked up the stairs at the thought of what the two letters contained. She’d been paperless forever, but now that she was completely and utterly debt-free and in possession of a very nice healthy bank balance, she wanted it in black and white in front of her. Therefore, she’d ordered paper statements to come in the post.
Chuckling to herself about the power of the little things, she thought that perhaps she’d frame both balances and put them on the wall. Slipping her shoes off, she plonked her bag down, did a wee, washed her hands and face and popped the kettle on. Ten minutes later, she was sitting with a hot blackcurrant and the crinkly credit card envelope in front of her. Splitting open the top, she read down to the bottom. A big fat load of zeros all in a nice neat row. Sighing, she felt a huge wave of relief. The credit card had and still did embody horrible things to her. Like a noose around her neck, it had always denoted her lack of control. It wasn’t as if she’d ever used it for nice holidays, designer bags, fancy shoes or the like, either. It had been for emergency use only and had saved her bacon a few times. The zeros winked happily at her from the bottom of the page.
The information in the other envelope was all the better. She read down the deposit column over and over again. Little bits of money here and there that added up to what was in front of her now. Long hours, three jobs, early mornings, bleary eyes. Sacrifice. All of it looked back at her. Oh, how fabulous did those numbers look? Freedom, security. Time to exhale.
Finishing her blackcurrant, she sat at her desk and thought about packing for her upcoming trip to Scotland, but instead added up her sums for a mortgage application for the hundredth time and then checked her emails. She was pleased to see that here was an email from Birdie’s company with the formal job offer, just as Birdie had promised.
After getting up and making herself another blackcurrant, she sat back down at her desk, opened the email, scanned down its content and felt her chin drop to the floor. Surprise whacked her around the chops a bit. This was no rubbish little add-on job to what she was already doing. Benefits, a very good salary, and bonuses swam in front of her eyes. What she hadn’t realised was that the chemist was part of a co-op type affair in the industry and that a full-time job included all the good things that came with that. Subsidised healthcare, all sorts of discounts on all sorts of things, gym membership, sick pay, a company vehicle, paid leave. Ding blimming dong.
Cally stared at the screen, her eyes wide and unblinking as she tried to process the information before her. The job offer from Birdie's wasn't just a step up as Birdie had intimated; it was a giant leap, as far as Cally was concerned, into a whole other world. She blinked and shook her head repeatedly as she scrolled through the details again, not quite sure it was real. She thought that if she looked away for a minute, she’d realise that she’d imagined the whole thing or that it might all disappear.
As the enormity of what the offer represented began to sink in, Cally felt a lump in her throat. The emotion she felt wasn't entirely because of the offer, the salary, the benefits, the car, or any of it. It was the fact that the job represented the end of holding up the sky. Like the real end. No more having it teetering there on her circumference waving at her from the side.
Tears pricked as she thought about the scrimping and saving she’d done over the years. The nights she'd lain awake in the vile house on the estate worrying about how to make ends meet. The putting up and shutting up. The memory of standing in the supermarket carefully calculating. Deciding on whether or not to choose the blackcurrant with the gold top. All of it dropped on her head like a dead weight.
She swallowed, felt another prickle in her eyes and then a tear. It slipped down her cheek, followed by another. The sky falling down by way of the offer from Birdie was so intense, it almost made our Cally want to be sick. She laughed a strange macabre sound and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
Pull yourself together, she muttered in her head. Security and stability floated in front of her eyes. How long had she been chasing that elusive concept? It didn’t take a rocket scientist to work it out; her entire life. A constant struggle to stay afloat, to keep her head above water, to do all the things. Now, here in front of her, by way of an email in her inbox, it felt as if someone was offering her something on a silver platter. The realisation that Birdie had seen her potential and believed in her enough to put her money where her mouth was blew Cally away. After years of trudging along feeling invisible, another cog in the machine of life, Birdie valued her. Boy, oh boy, did that feel good.
All of a sudden, her mind was back to when she’d been waiting for her grandma to go when money had got really tight. She’d hated that time wrapped up in sadness and worry. She remembered all the invitations she’d turned down over the years, when she’d not been able to afford to go out, the lack of holidays, the fear about taking time off because of the worry about how she'd pay her rent.
Glancing at the balances on the sheets of paper next to her laptop, she again took in the numbers. They embodied the struggles in the front of her mind and how she’d put her head down and got on with it. Now, the job offer represented something else, too: that her future was going to go down a different road altogether.
Cally reached for her phone and scrolled down to Eloise's name. If anyone would understand the magnitude of the moment, it would be Eloise. As she pressed the call button, she felt a really strange, odd sense of coming full circle. From struggling to make ends meet to being offered a position that could change her life, it all seemed almost too much to comprehend.
'Hey, Els. You'll never guess what's just happened...'
'Are you alright? You sound weird. Very weird. What’s that voice?'
Cally let out a watery chuckle. 'I'm fine. More than fine, actually. I just received the formal job offer email from Birdie. We’ve had a few meetings but I now have the nuts and bolts details.'
There was a pause on the other end. 'Oh? Right?' Eloise's tone was carefully neutral.
Cally’s voice caught. 'They're offering me a full-time position with so many benefits and everything. I can hardly believe it. I didn’t think she meant like, well… I thought it was, you know, what I already get but full-time with a few things chucked in here and there.'
‘So what’s the offer? Like what?’
‘Like a company vehicle, an amazing salary, like holiday pay, gym membership. It's overwhelming.'
'You deserve every bit of it. You've worked hard for this, Cally. I've seen it firsthand. Sorry, I’m going to have to say it, but why are you surprised? I’m not.'
'I don’t know. It doesn’t feel as if someone like me should get things like this, you know?'
‘Nope. Birdie wants to scoop you up. You can’t see it, Cal. I've been telling you this for years.’
‘I can’t believe I’ve been offered it.’
‘Why not? You've juggled multiple jobs, learned new skills, and faced challenges that would have broken others. You just don’t see those as worthy things because you just get on with it. Honestly, there are some real muppets out there.’
‘I suppose so.’
'Think of all the doors this will open for you. This isn’t just a promotion, Cal; this gives you a choice.'
‘Right.’
‘I’m serious. This is a turning point.’
Cally thought about all the dreams she'd put on hold, all the things she'd told herself she couldn't have or do. The narration in her head that she wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
‘You think so?’
‘Yep. I know so. You know what? I'm proud of you. Really proud. You need to give yourself a pat on the back. You put in the work, you showed up every day, and you never gave up. This is all you .' Eloise swore. ‘Suck it up, girlfriend and feel how good this is.’
Cally nodded. Perhaps Eloise was right—she usually was. Maybe it was time to just sit back and do just that.
Hello, proper job offer in a good company, hello prospects. It’s Cally. Nice to meet you.