Chapter 2
2
ELLA
Present day
I look at how much money I have in my savings accounts and I let out a groan.
The number is a decent amount, but the second that all the bills go through, that amount is going to dwindle and I’m sure that the new number that is going to replace it will for sure make me cry.
That’s adult hood for you.
Whoever thought that it would be a good idea to make things so damn expensive needs a good kick in the ass. Some of us can barely survive with how the economy is going.
Damn, I guess I’m really becoming a real life adult it I’m mentally ranting about the economy and the amount that things cost.
If I didn’t have my welcome to adulthood moment years ago, this would be it.
Not wanting to get more frustrated by the very few numbers my bank account show, I close the tab and open another and type in four words into the search bar.
Job openings in Chicago.
Another groan leaves my body.
I love my current job. Well, I love the people I work with and the flexibility that the job offers me. The customers I deal with on a daily basis, I can deal without, but everything else makes it hard to want to leave.
But I have either leave or look for a second to help with the bills.
My hours keep getting cut more and more with each coming week and it has come to the point where I can’t work two eight hour shifts and be okay. Especially if Charlie ever gets into that private school she applied to about a year ago.
I need something that is more constant in days and more steady in the money department. A full time job will be perfect, but I will take a second part time job if I can.
I just have to get over the displeasure that comes with looking through all the job listings.
Let out a sigh, I press the enter button and let the page populate.
I don’t know if I should be grateful or discourage with the amount of job openings that pop up. There has to be more than a few thousand listings.
My eyes travel to the time at the edge of my computer screen and I let out a sigh.
It looks like I will be looking for something to apply to all damn night.
“I guess one sleepless night won’t hurt.”
Squaring my shoulders back, I get to work and start scrolling though all the job boards that I can find.
From the looks of things all of Chicago is hiring, because there are job listings for almost everything.
Dog walker.
Nanny.
Personal masseuse.
That last one makes me roll my eyes and gag at the same time.
Who the hell looks for a personal masseuse on a public job board? It’s both crazy and disgusting.
Not wanting to apply for that one specific job, I scroll away and try to look for something else.
A bunch of listing pop up that I meet the minimum requirements for, so I apply to all that I can.
There is even a barista position that is open at a coffee shop a few blocks away that I apply to. I may hate the smell of coffee but I would suck it up for a steady paycheck. I’m not going to be picky at this point.
After about two hours of looking through the listing and applying to anything that I’m able to, fourteen applications in total, I’m about to give up for the night.
Surely one of the positions that I applied for will turn into something. At the very least an interview.
I should go to bed, since I have a shift at the restaurant that I work at in the morning, but apparently my mind and hand have a different idea as I click on the next page of jobs.
Some of the jobs that pop up on the page are similar to the one I found on the previous pages or adds from something else.
Nothing seems overly interesting.
That is until I scroll to the very bottom.
An assistant position at Lane Enterprises.
No freaking way.
This one of the most perigees companies in Chicago, and they’re hiring?
Holy shit.
I don’t even take a second to think about it, I click on the listing so damn fast that if it was any faster I’m sure my finger would have gone through the keyboard.
As soon as the post loads, I read through it and then read through it again.
I meet all the requirements.
They want a master’s degree in business? I have that.
They want someone that is enthused to work? Hell, I’m very enthused.
Ready through the description of the job, I start to think that this is my dream job.
It doesn’t state if it’s entry level, but it also doesn’t state that experience is required. This is absolutely perfect and what I’ve been looking for.
Before I hit the button to apply, I check the time stamp on the listing. A few of the jobs that I found tonight were posted almost a year ago and not active whatsoever. So I want to make sure that I can actually still apply for this job and have it go somewhere.
When I see that the listing was posted only three weeks ago and is about to close, I let out a sigh of release.
I can still apply. So without much thought, that’s what I do.
For the next fifteen minutes, I fill out the whole application, add my resume and my cover letter and read over it about five times before I find the courage to hit submit.
When the words “thank you for applying” pop onto the screen, I have to take a second and think about what I just did.
I just applied for a job at one of the most well known companies in the world.
I don’t know why but that thought makes not only a smile spread across my face but a giggle escape from my mouth.
“Holy shit,” I say to myself between laughs.
There is no much excitement rolling through at what I just did that I can’t help but to do a little happy dance right here on my bed.
Who know that applying for an assistant position at a company of this calaber would be so exiting? It’s as if I just took a hit of a joint and I’m high out of my mind for the first time in my life.
Soon the excitement dies down though once I think about my application some more.
This listing has been open for three weeks, who knows how many applications they have received. Mine is properly one of thousands.
Me submitting my application for this position is almost a fever dream, because who wouldn’t want to work at a company like Lane Enterprises? Applying here is like applying to Google or at some other big tech company out in California. There is a high chance my submission will even get seen, or even move high enough to get me an interview.
But a girl can hope, right?
Right. A girl can hope.
Because who knows? My application for the assistant position may not get me anywhere but one of the fifteen others that I submitted tonight might and that would be a great step in a very good direction.
I just have to keep my hopes up and fingers crossed that something comes my way.
“No more job hunting for tonight.” I say not absolutely nobody but myself as I close my laptop and start getting ready for bed.
Since my shift at the restaurant ran a little late and I had to help Charlie with her statistics homework when I got home, my night routine was neglected.
Given the late hour, I go through it quickly. Showering, changing into my pajamas and checking to see that the stove is off and the front door to the apartment is lock.
Once everything is taken care of, I hope into bed and wait for sleep to take me.
Since it was a long day I had at work and the late hour, I thought that I would be asleep the second that my head hit the pillow, but no matter how much I toss and turn, sleep doesn’t come.
“Great.” I let out in with a groan.
For a few minutes I close my eyes and will my body to fall asleep, but it seems like my brain is wide away.
With a frustrated sigh, I reach for my phone. Scrolling through social media should help with putting me to sleep.
But instead if getting on my social apps and scrolling endlessly, I find myself going to the Lane Enterprises website.
I should know a little bit about the company that I just applied to, right? Prospective employees shouldn’t be going into any application process blind.
Then why aren’t you looking up any of the other companies?
I push that thought away and continue on with my investigation as who and what Lane Enterprises is.
You would think that after spending the last fifteen years of my life in Chicago, I would know something regarding one of the biggest companies that the city has to offer, but I don’t. All I know is the name and the everybody who is anybody wants to work there.
Looking through the website, it looks like the company has a hand in a lot of things.
Technology. Marketing. Even security. From some of the news articles that are attached to the website, it looks like they are trying to get into other fields but have yet to do so.
I wonder what is holding them back.
After reading about what the company does, I start to look at who runs the company.
When I see that it’s a bunch of old men sitting in executive seats, I start feeling discouraged.
If I get this job, am I going to be the youngest person working there? God, I hope not.
Finding the employee list a little discouraging, I head over to the history of the company tab. Surely that’s more interesting than who is running the place.
It takes a few seconds for the page to pop up but when it does it takes me a bit by surprise.
This portion of the website definitely has a different feel to it. Especially once I start reading about the company started out as family company.
Founded by Thomas Robert Lane I and then later ran by Thomas Robert Lane II until his death twenty-four years ago.
That’s sad.
I continue reading to check if possibly the third Thomas Lane took over after his dad died, but it doesn’t say.
Interesting.
There wasn’t a Lane on the list of employees that I found either. I wonder what happened that resulted in a family company no longer being in the family.
With my curiosity at an all time high, I start looking up the family.
I’ve heard the name here and there but I never really paid much attention. Like I didn’t know much about the company with living here for fifteen years, I know squat about the family that formed it.
Apparently I’m not the only one that looks up this family because as soon as I tape in the word Lane, the family is second in the search suggestions.
My heart sinks when one of the first results to pop up is an obituary. Not just for Thomas Lane II but also his wife.
“They died together?” I find myself whispering.
I don’t know these people but a lump forms in my throat out of sadness for them.
Reading through how they died in a car accident one rainy night, has the lump growing a bit more and tears spring into my eyes when I read that they left two kids behind. Robert who was sixteen and Bennett who was eight.
Robert has to be the third Thomas Lane. I wonder why he hasn’t taken over the family business yet.
I scroll to the end of the obituary and find that whoever created it, added pictures of both Thomas and his wife, Catherine.
They look so happy together.
Did they go out on a date night and had all the hopes in the world to come back to their kids but didn’t?
That is heartbreaking and just thinking about it has me tears in my eyes falling down my face.
The tears continue as I swipe through the photos and find one of the Thomas and Catherine with their two boys.
I didn’t have to know the couple to know that the two boys were their entire lives. I can see it in their smile and in their eyes.
All for of them look so happy and carefree together and all of that was taken from them.
Wanting to have something good come from all of this, I leave the obituary behind and search up their oldest son, Robert.
Weirdly enough, nothing passed his parents funeral comes up.
Did he die too?
What would make this story all that more tragic.
I really hope that isn’t the case, though. Maybe he just doesn’t want to be in the public light and wants to live his life as secretly as possible.
I’m really hope that is the reason no search results come up for him.
After not finding anything on Robert, I move over to searching up Bennett and right away I see that while there is nothing on Robert, there is plenty on his little brother.
Apparently Bennett Lane is not only rich, but also one of the most eligible bachelors in Chicago if not the country.
His face is on the covers of not only fashion magazines and tabloids, but also tech and financial ones.
The man is making a name for himself is is slated to be one of the richest men alive by the time that he is fifty. Given that he’s only thirty-two that is a strong feet.
One thing about him that people are obsessed over is the fact that he hasn’t been married yet, or even has a girlfriend.
From the looks of things he is rarely seen out with a woman and if he is, it’s exciting to some but disheartening for others.
And given the guys looks, I can see why.
Bennett Lane is something that I don’t know how to describe.
Gorgeous and handsome don’t seem to cut it. Because he is those things, but much more at the same time.
Looking at his pictures, there is an edginess and possibly even a darkness to him that I can’t really explain, but I like it.
According to the news articles, he still lives in Chicago.
I wonder if I have ever seem him person. If we’ve been in the same restaurant, or same grocery store. Is he a normal guy and goes out in public like everyone else? Or does he have someone to do everything for him?
Give the amount of money that is estimated he is worth, I want to say it’s the latter.
But even if he has someone to do things for him, is he able to live a normal life? At least as normal as one can get when their parents die when they are a young age.
Is that why he isn’t married or attached to someone? Because his life isn’t normal and he is fearful of someone just using him for his money and status?
I’m finding this whole family interesting, but more so Bennett. There is so many question that I have when it comes to him.
I’m just chalking it up to curiosity though, because Bennett and I live in two separate worlds. Yes, I applied for a position at his family’s company, but that doesn’t mean I will actually get to meet the guy and ask him all the questions that I have. I may never be in the same room as him.
Feeling like I’ve gather enough on the Lane family for the night, I exit out of the article that I had been reading and turn off my screen.
I stare up at the dark ceiling feeling more tired than I was earlier.
As bit of the moonlight creeps into the room, I hope for a change.
I hope that one of the applications that I submitted tonight works out, because Charlie and I need it.
I hope that I’m able to keep my promise that I made five years ago and give my sister the best life possible.
I hope that everything will work out.
Sleep eventually takes me, but weirdly enough is with thoughts of Bennett Lane on my mind.
I’ve never met the guy, but in my dreams it feels like I have.
And in my dreams, just meeting him, meeting this individual that is far from reach he is almost a god, changes absolutely everything.
If only that’s what happens in real life.