Page 14 of Never Finished

She held eye contact for a long moment before she finally huffed out a dramatic sigh and said, “fine, but I don’t want you telling Abby yet. I love her, but I’m not in the mood to hear her sunshine and rainbows take on it yet.”

I nodded. “You have my word. Now tell me what happened.”

Her shoulders slumped in defeat before she said, “that promotion I’ve been busting my ass over? The one that’s had me practically living in the office? They gave it to Gerard—the guy I just got done training a couple of months ago.”

“Are you kidding? Why on earth did they give it to that guy? He couldn’t possibly have outperformed everyone else in such a short amount of time. Not to mention you’ve been there way longer.”

I knew all about Caroline’s trainee. She’d agreed to take on training him, even though she didn’t have the capacity with her workload. But she was told it would look great to the powers that be who handed out promotions. Now Gerard had usurped her, and all her hard work had been for nothing.

Caroline shook her head. “Apparently, he has one quality I don’t possess—an uncle who works in HR.”

“That’s bullshit.”

“You’re telling me. When they made the announcement, the other candidates just let it roll off their backs, even though I knew they were seething. But I couldn’t fake it anymore. I went to my supervisor and told him how I felt and he said ‘I would have to try a little harder next time’.”

I let out a squawk. “That’s ridiculous. You work everyone under the table. That place wouldn’t still be standing if it wasn’t for you.”

She sighed, staring off out the window. “I love you for saying that, but unfortunately, they don’t see it that way.”

“So what happened? Did you quit? No one would blame you for walking out of there.”

She smiled at me ruefully. “I wish I could tell you I stormed out of there in a blaze of glory. But once I got done shadow boxing in the women’s restroom, I marched into HR and told them I needed a mental health vacation effective immediately. Since I had yet to take off a single day this year, not even when I was sick, they didn’t fight me… that or they saw the unhinged look in my eyes and decided not to push the issue.”

I reached across the loveseat and pulled her into my arms. She was stiff at first, typical Caroline, but it didn’t take long for her to sag against me, and then the tears started. She was always so hard on herself.

“I’m sorry,” she sobbed, “you’re going through all this big stuff being back here and I’m crying like a baby over a stupid job.”

“No, it’s not stupid. I know how much this meant to you.”

“I didn’t know where to go and I couldn’t stomach the idea of holing up in my apartment wallowing. Plus, I was worried about you… it was really shitty of your dad to put you in this position,” she insisted. “The next thing I knew, I was on the next flight to Denver.”

I pulled back, smoothing back her ruffled hair. “Well, I am thrilled you are here. Even if the reason sucks. Now that you’re here, your assignment is to relax and not think about those assholes back in LA.”

“Yeah, right,” she snorted, “I have to figure out how I’m going to walk back in there after my outburst.”

I raised an irritated eyebrow. “I’ve been asking you to come work for us for ages, but you have to be stubborn.”

Caroline sniffed. “The last thing I want is to become a nepotism hire. I know I’m all blubbery now, but I don’t want you to worry. I’ll figure something out. You may be right about one thing though…”

“What are you talking about? I’m right about a ton of things.”

She rolled her eyes. “Ha, ha. It will be good for me to think about something other than work for a while. And lucky for me, now I get to think about what you have going on…” she mused.

I huffed out a laugh. “All I have going on,” I said, gliding off the loveseat and busying my hands with unpacking my suitcase, “is nailing down this deal for my father.”

“And you know… nailing the hot bartender,” Caroline interjected.

I snatched a pillow off the bed and chucked it at her, shaking my head at her cackle. I was so grateful she was here. Maybe the presence of an unexpected roommate would help me control myself around Jaime, though I suspected that would be a tall order.

Jaime

Getting home that night was a blur. I was grateful it was late on a weeknight and there was nobody on the road, because I remembered little about the drive other than it felt like I was floating.

“C’mon man, get your shit together,” I muttered to myself as I turned onto the familiar street and drove towards my childhood home. It was odd to return home as an adult to live in your parent’s house. I have so many fond memories of growing up in this house… and of spending time with Emma. My Emma.

The words sounded in my head before I could stop them. She’s not my Emma, I had to remind myself. We were thirty years old, and had lived completely different lives until now. Still, after spending just an hour basking in her light, I was already pawing at the ground, claiming her as mine once again.

It’s not outside the realm of possibility… she wanted to see me again. And I noticed the flush in her cheeks when I not so subtly studied the curves of her body while we spoke. A thread of giddiness raced through me and I felt like a kid again—until I pulled into the driveway of my mother’s house.

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