Page 5 of Unexpected You

Today was the second kind of day.

“So, I think I’m hiring an assistant,” I announced when I walked into the kitchen. Camille and I both had open door policies in our homes for each other. More than once I had found one or more of her kids sitting on my couch as if they actually did live at my place.

“You are?” Camille said, looking up from her laptop, blinking at me from behind her blue light glasses. She worked part time as a scopist, editing court transcripts for various court reporters and she was damn good at it. She was also my main beta reader, since her eyes were so sharp.

She took off her glasses and stood up from the dining table where she’d been working. Even though she worked from home, she always dressed as if she was going to her office, like me. Mary had always teased me about it.

She had seen my good, my bad, and my ugly. That wasn’t going to happen with someone new. I was going to have distance. Boundaries. Things were going to be professional.

“I think so?” I said, taking the chair next to her and reaching for one of the cookies on the plate in front of her.

“After all these years you’re finally doing it?” She crossed her arms and gave me a skeptical look, raising one perfect eyebrow. Camille was painfully gorgeous, with hair that shaded between warm blonde and light brown and her eyes were warm like melting chocolate.

I nibbled on the oatmeal chocolate chip cookie and savored it. Camille had been making these from her mother’s recipe ever since we were kids and I would never get tired of eating them.

“I think so,” I said, exhaling and wiping away some crumbs. “I had this interview today and it was…” For someone who was good at words, I was struggling to describe the interview with Cadence.

Camille folded her hands in front of her and waited for me to go on.

“She’s young and kind of a mess and she has this energy and…I don’t know. I already talked about it with Sylvia and she somehow convinced me to send her the NDA and tell her that I’m hiring her on for a trial period. What the hell am I even doing?” I put my head in my hands and groaned. I needed to stop making rash decisions before I talked to Camille.

“Sounds like you’ve already made up your mind and hired her, El,” she said. “So, what’s the problem?”

“She’s going to be a disaster!” I said.

“So then you can let her go after the trial period is over. Maybe she was just nervous. Clearly, there was something about her that made you send that email. This is the first time I’ve seen you this excited about anyone. Maybe your mind is telling you that this is exactly what you need.”

I scowled at her. “That’s exactly what Sylvia said.”

Camille smirked. “Good. She and I are on the same page. You need an assistant, and since I can’t do it, you’ve got to start somewhere. Give her a chance.”

Camille smiled at me, and I hated that she was right. I’d gotten so many chances in my career and I prided myself on reaching out a hand and hauling others up the ladder behind me.

“I hate it when you’re right,” I said, shaking my head. Camille beamed.

“No you don’t. You love it. If we leave now, we can stop and get drinks and finish them before the kids get out,” she said, her eyes sparkling as she slammed her laptop closed.

“Deal,” I said.

* * *

We did stop and get silly frozen coffee drinks that we sucked down while I gave Camille more details from the interview. She hadn’t read the alien books, but she immediately went and bought the first few of them and started reading them aloud to me in the car while I shook my head and begged her to stop.

“Hey babies,” Camille said and signed in ASL as Ariel, Kati, and Noah piled into the backseat with their bags and overlapping voices.

“Hi Auntie Elle,” Ariel and Kati said as Noah signed. He’d been born with profound hearing loss, so the entire family (and me) had learned ASL when he was a baby.

Growing up as an only child, I wouldn’t ever get the chance to be an aunt, but here I had the three best kids to call me that. Sometimes life worked out in unexpected ways.

I listened and watched as they tried to tell me about their days and asked their mom to stop for fast food and begged to do things with their friends and all manner of kid questions and queries. The noise was comforting, and I just sat back and let it wash around me.

“Staying for dinner?” Camille asked when we got back to the house.

I shook my head. “No, I have a bunch of things to get done. Tomorrow though, definitely,” I said, hugging her and all the kids. “Say hi to John for me.” No man was worthy of Camille, but John was close. They’d met in college and he’d been an absolute gem from their very first date.

I headed back to my big empty house that didn’t usually feel so big and empty, but lately it did. I’d lived alone for most of my adult life. I’d been engaged once, a long time ago, but we were waiting to live together until after a wedding that ended up not happening when he confessed that he’d felt pressure from his family and did not, in fact, want to be my husband.

Sure, I’d been on dates, but nothing for a while. My career was demanding, and some guys couldn’t handle who I was. They thought that I was a slut, or that I’d write them into my books, or they wanted to try and influence me, or they just didn’t get it or take it seriously. That was fine. Being alone was my default. It was my comfort zone. As someone who had taken a lot of risks with my writing, being able to have the rest of my life be safe was what I had needed.

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