Page 80 of Caught in the Middle

“About what?”

“About why you aren’t lit up about it like you normally are with new jobs. And don’t feed me the line about everything else going on again.”

Emma sighed. “I’d be crazy not to take the job.”

“Why?”

She looked at her aunt like she was the crazy one. “Because it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

“So?”

“What do you mean ‘so?’”

“Who cares if it’s once in a lifetime if that’s not how you want to spend the time in your life.”

Emma shook her head, feeling frazzled and confused.

“You said so yourself, that you applied not thinking you’d get it. Then you hesitated once the job was offered to you. Why?”

Emma frowned. “I don’t know. It was unexpected I guess.” She rose from the table and began grabbing their trash to dispose of. Her aunt gave another knowing look that was starting to rub her wrong. “Look, this is the kind of work photographers dream of,” she said, more aggressive than necessary.

“Says who? I don’t know any wedding photographers who are dying to take pictures of ruins and rocks.”

Emma rolled her eyes. “Well I’m not a wedding photographer, and you know what I mean.”

“No, I really don’t.”

“What’s the point in me building my business and a career if I turn down a huge opportunity?”

“I think you’re asking the wrong question,” Aunt Mel countered.

“Okay, so what question should I be asking?” Emma placed her hands on her hips.

“How about, ‘Is this opportunity going to help me achieve the goals I have for the direction of my business?’ Or how about, ‘Do I want this job? Does it give me what I’m after?’ Emma, the point of working so hard to create a life for yourself is so that you can access the freedom to choose how to live. How do you want to spend your free time? Your money? Does this trip align with your goals for yourself?”

“I can’t say no just because I met someone,” Emma groaned, a hand going to massage her temples.

“I never said anything about you meeting someone,” her aunt replied. “But if that’s something on your mind or why you hesitated, then what’s wrong with listening to it?”

Emma gave her a look that suggested she should know the answer. “I can’t be one of those women who choose a man over their career.”

“Why not?”

She was taken aback. How could her aunt not get this?

“Would it be choosing a man over your career or choosing a better path for yourself? Going after the life you want versus the life you think you’re supposed to want?”

Emma stopped, dumbfounded at the questions. She hadn’t stopped to think about it that way. She couldn’t see past the way it would make her look if she chose to say no to the job.

Her aunt continued with a light-hearted laugh. “If I cared about the unspoken rules of society then I’d be a self-loathing woman by now. I’m not married, I live alone, I raised a child on my own, and I spend more time with my friends than I do on dates.” Emma couldn’t help but smile. “And yet, I’m perfectly content and happy,” her aunt said.

“Yeah, but you were going against the grain,” Emma countered.

“What’s that got anything to do with it?”

“If I chose Cam over a job, then I’d be the woman who gave up her career for a man.”

“Is Cam asking you to give up your career?”

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