Chapter Thirty-Four
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
The next morning, while Riley was in an Uber heading to the airport, her cell phone rang. She recognized the caller ID—it was Jack’s law firm.
“Hello?”
“Riley? This is Jim Stone, managing director at Waters and Stone. We’d like to offer you the position discussed yesterday.” He mentioned a salary that was ten thousand dollars higher than she’d expected. “And of course, there are our benefits.” He ran through them all and finished with, “Lastly, you will be eligible for a year-end bonus of up to thirty percent of your salary.”
Riley was speechless. The bonus was even better than Jack had mentioned. “We’ll get this off to you in writing shortly. It will go out via overnight mail so you will have it tomorrow. I just wanted to confirm that you want us to send it to the Chatham address, unless you are staying in the city?”
“No, Chatham please. I’m on my way back there now.”
“Very good. Congratulations, Riley! Take a look at the offer packet when it arrives and please get back to us early next week. If you let us know on Monday, we could arrange for the following Monday to be your start date.”
“Thank you. I will look it over and call next week.” Riley hadn’t expected to hear from them so soon. Even though she still preferred the other company, it was flattering to receive such a good offer.
She told her sister about it when she picked her up at the airport and she was impressed. “I didn’t think those roles paid so well. That’s a lot of money.” Amy grinned. “Maybe working with your boyfriend isn’t such a bad idea. Are you still thinking it’s your second choice?”
Riley nodded. “It’s a wonderful offer. I really like the other company better, though. But I don’t have an offer from them yet.” She felt pretty confident that she would hear from them soon.
And she did. Later that afternoon, just as she was finishing up writing a blog post for Donna’s website, her cell phone rang. It was the other company.
“Riley, it’s Alan Sherman. I just wanted to thank you again for meeting with us.” Something in his tone seemed a little off and Riley started getting a panicky feeling.
“I wanted to call you personally to let you know how impressed we were with you. We were ready to put an offer together, in fact, but someone on our team raised their hand and expressed interest in the role. And she’s a great employee. We talked about it and we feel like we need to give her a shot. I hope you understand. We’d love to keep you in mind if anything else opens up. Though I know the timing isn’t ideal, as you mentioned you have another offer.”
Riley’s heart sank. Her disappointment was keen. She’d really wanted that job and it sounded like they’d wanted her, too. But she also appreciated that they wanted to consider their own people first. “I understand. This really was my top choice though, so I would appreciate if you would keep me in mind for future openings.”
“I’ll do that. Thank you for understanding, Riley.”
Riley ended the call and her eyes were swimming with tears. She tried to force herself to look on the bright side. At least she still had a fantastic job offer. And maybe in a year or two, if something opened up at the other company, the timing might work better. She took a deep breath and sighed. She went in the bathroom and dabbed a cold washcloth on her eyes and added a bit of mascara and concealer. It was almost time to go to the inn and she was grateful that it would keep her busy and get her mind off losing her dream job.
When she came downstairs, her mother was sitting in the kitchen drinking a cup of tea. She looked up and instantly knew something was wrong.
“What happened?”
The concern in her mother’s voice made Riley’s eyes well up again. She took a deep breath. She was ordinarily not a crier. She forced the tears back down and then she told her mother about the call.
“Oh, honey, I’m sorry. I know you really wanted that job. You know what I say, though, I really do think everything happens for a reason. You weren’t meant to get that job, not yet. Maybe something will open up there in the future.”
Riley nodded. “They said that they’d like to keep me in mind for other things that may come up. I don’t know if they really meant it, though. It could just be something they say.”
Her mother shook her head. “They called you as soon as they knew and they told you they were prepared to make you an offer. It was considerate that they let you know so quickly so you could take the other job—if you want it. I think they meant it.”
“I don’t know what to do. I really wanted that job. It was flattering to get the other offer, but I never pictured myself working in a law firm. The money is really good, though. But Jack works there. I’m not sure that is a smart thing.”
“Have you had any bites on anything else you’ve applied for?” her mother asked.
“No. Nothing at all. There really haven’t been many jobs listed. Maybe more will open up after the holidays, but I can’t keep the law firm waiting that long. I told them I’d give them an answer early next week.” She sighed. “I really don’t know what to do.”
“Well, you don’t have to decide this minute. Take the weekend to sleep on it and see how you feel on Monday.”
Riley smiled and relaxed a little. Her mother was right. She didn’t have to decide instantly. She could take the weekend and decide on Monday. She tried to look on the bright side. Maybe the law firm might not be so bad. It could even be interesting. And the money was really, really good. But would she be happy there? She decided to empty her mind and try not to think about it for the rest of the weekend.