Abort Mission
It was barely past seven thirty in the morning, and I could tell I was going to need coffee via IV drip to make it through today.
Emma, Rachel, and I stayed out way too late celebrating my twenty-ninth birthday, and I could feel it in the way my body ached.
At this point, staying out until two a.m. and multiple rounds of shots weren’t such a good idea for us, but we wanted to have a good time, and most of them were free.
Things were all starting to look up for us, and it felt like the perfect time to celebrate.
“I truly don’t understand why we have these meetings when it could’ve easily been an email.
Especially first thing in the morning—I hadn’t even had time to drink my coffee and completely wake up.
” I whined to Rachel as we walked to our cubicles.
We each had our own with a big U-shaped desk, set against a wall of windows in our section overlooking part of the Tennessee River and the mountains beyond.
We were also right next to each other, which was nice.
I set my plethora of bags down, started putting my belongings away, and logged into my systems.
“I guess so that we can boost team morale and productivity or something? Ya know, the same old mumbo jumbo they always spout,” Rachel said as she worked on getting her notebooks put away in her desk drawers.
I hadn’t made many friends at work—plenty of acquaintances and connections—but Rachel had become someone I could talk to while working who didn’t feel forced.
She blended right in with me and Emma, and we became the perfect trio.
The unhinged one, the always sweet one, and the small scary one.
Most times, it felt like people only wanted to talk to you to get a leg up in the company and then leave you hanging once they got what they needed.
It was refreshing after working in a corporate office for so long.
She was one of the few people who saw my grumpy personality and didn’t shy away from it.
I could put on a good front most of the time when it was needed, but at a certain point, it got old.
I hated the fake niceness and small talk that most people felt compelled to do.
That was why we worked so well together.
Working my way up the corporate ladder in my PR and marketing job had been tough—to say the least. I had to work twice as hard as my male counterparts, and I always had to go above and beyond to prove myself.
Now, being at Prestige Consultants, I truly loved what I did with the companies we managed, especially in the day and age of social media.
We had the privilege of helping with things such as content creation, strategy development, data analysis, and so much more behind the scenes.
Not to mention our Operations Manager, Celine, was one of the best I’d ever worked under.
She was a hardass, don’t get me wrong, but she treated everyone equally, made sure we understood our duties, and was always quick to jump in if we needed. It was a blessing, to say the least.
“Well, it’s extremely inconvenient for me,” I grumbled as I started to sip on my hot white chocolate mocha before it got any colder, and spun myself around in my chair.
After getting all of our possessions situated, we made our way down to the conference room, our heels clacking against the wood floors.
We filed in with all the other team managers and coaches and grabbed two seats next to each other.
As we were getting settled, I noticed the two men across from us whispering to each other and looking Rachel and me up and down.
If there’s one thing I couldn’t fucking stand, it was when men acted so grossly, and in a professional setting at that.
Where they found the audacity was still a mystery to me.
“I suggest if you’d like to keep your eyes firmly in their sockets, then you look away now and keep your mouths shut.
” My voice dripped with venom-laced honey, and it was only loud enough for them to hear.
Rachel kept her head down in her laptop as she tried to pull her pencil skirt further below her knees, but I could see her face flush from the attention.
If there was one thing she avoided, it was confrontation of any kind.
She was a sweet girl, but avoided confrontation like the plague.
I think sometimes Rachel didn’t notice how pretty she was.
She was shorter than me, standing at five-foot-six, and had long copper hair that was always meticulously styled.
Freckles were splattered across every inch of her, and she had these warm cinnamon eyes that were so kind and inviting. The woman was absolutely gorgeous.
The two mumbled some lame apologies and looked anywhere but at us.
Should you threaten your coworkers while at work?
No, probably not. I’m sure most would frown upon that.
However, the thing was, I really didn’t fucking care.
I wouldn’t tolerate disgusting behavior, especially by those who are in positions of power.
If they would do that so blatantly in front of us, people who were supposed to be equal to them, then there’s no telling what they could be trying to do to people beneath them. They also gave me the creeps.
I was even more annoyed now than when I remembered that we had a meeting first thing.
They were for sure going on my list of people to throw under the bus the first chance I got.
I pulled out my notebook and pens, flipped to the newest page, and wrote in the date and time so I could take notes for what I’m sure is about to be a riveting meeting.
By the time work had finished, I was so mentally exhausted that I didn’t want to do anything except sit and stare out of my windshield after pulling into my driveway.
The meeting went on for two hours, covering how we were bringing on another group of new hires, which would normally have been exciting; however, we were also losing one of our team managers.
Now, not only would their team have to be split between the other three teams, but we also had to fit a team of new people into this, too.
We want our new hires to be successful, and this seemed like it could pose a potential issue for them once they were out of training.
I voiced these concerns to our department manager, who agreed with me, but ultimately, with the timing of everything, it was the best move for them to make.
Then I had computer issue after computer issue, and couldn’t get any work done before the end of the day.
To top it all off, I spilled my iced coffee all down the front of my white silk button-up, so not only was I out of my second caffeine fix for the day, but I also had to sit in wet coffee-stained clothes until it was time to clock out. Could anything else possibly go wrong?
I pulled myself together, climbed out of my 4Runner, and made my way inside.
The summer sun was still blazing, and I could hear the cicadas start to sing as I headed up my walkway, breathing in the scent of the wildflowers I had planted around my front porch.
One of the last projects I did with my granny before she passed.
I made sure I took care of it as she would.
Sometimes I still couldn’t believe how incredibly lucky I was to have this house.
I stumbled across the home by sheer luck when my mom, sister, and I were out for a drive one Saturday morning, looking for yard sales.
We ended up in this quiet neighborhood, only a few minutes away from my childhood home.
Nestled at the end of the cul-de-sac was a beautiful, decent-sized one-story home.
It was painted the most gorgeous shade of green with white trim and a large wrap-around porch.
In the front lawn, an old weeping willow swayed, and the makings of what could be a gorgeous garden.
As we drove by, they were hammering a For Sale sign in the yard, and I felt this tug in my gut that I was meant to find this house that day.
Walking toward the kitchen to throw all my bags down, I heard the tippy tap tippy tap of her paws on the hardwood, making her way to me.
I knew if one thing could fix this shitty day, it would be cuddles with my sweet Dolly before heading to the gym.
She barked at me while she came barrelling down the hall, tail going high speed, ready to take on whoever the intruder she thought had entered her space was.
“Dolly, you silly girl, it’s just me! Stop your barking and give Mommy some love.
She's had a bad day,” I said as I rolled my eyes at this not-so-little blonde beast I loved so much.
Bending down, I hefted her up and pelted her face with kisses as she tried to get as physically close to me as possible.
I’m pretty sure if she could live in my skin, she would.
“Dolly, baby, I don’t think you could get any closer. One wrong paw move and you’re gonna rip my shirt.” I gently set her down so she wouldn’t jump down and risk hurting herself, and walked over to the sliding back door and let her out to go to the bathroom.
I rescued Dolly five years ago when I was twenty-four.
I had recently gone through a rough breakup with Cameron, the guy I had been with for three years.
He said I was “too focused on work and didn’t pay us enough attention.
” Complete and total bullshit. The man wouldn’t hold a job down while I was working full-time and going to school to finish my Bachelor's degree.
On top of that, he would always give backhanded compliments, if you could even call them that, and I felt like I had to do so much to earn his love and praise.
Anytime I would even try to broach the subject of possibly moving in together or the next steps, he shot it down with some excuse.