Page 1 of A Break in Communications

Chapter 1

Anna

“God, Mom, I know. I’ll be there, okay? Please… trust me when I say I’ll be there.”

Across my desk, Kelcey waved me down, making eye contact with me, trying to scope out my attention. I couldn’t really not look, and I ended up caught in her web. Dammit. I focused on the phone even as Kelcey lit up knowing she’d captured me, sauntering towards the desk with a gleeful look. Save me. Tag-teamed by nightmares. At least Lucy wasn’t here.

Mom’s voice came through the phone, still sounding worried. “Will you be okay tonight, sweetheart? You can’t go working yourself so hard all the time.”

I was always working so late, I just tried to downplay it as much as possible so I didn’t have Mom worrying I was working myself too hard and Veronica showing up at my apartment out of nowhere to call me boring. Couldn’t really explain it was because I had Lucy trying to sabotage my every move, on top of people like Kelcey to put their jobs on top of mine, standing next to my desk with her hands clasped at her waist right now. What a nightmare.

“I know, I know. Just… there’s a lot going on around the holidays.”

“They should be throwing you a party and giving you a bonus, not making you work more.”

“I am getting a bonus and a party,” I said, which was the wrong thing to say, because her voice lit up.

“You’re having a holiday party? Oh, honey, you didn’t say. When is it?”

“Ugh—Mom, you can’t attend. You don’t work here.”

“I get Mom privileges. I can show up just to say hi and bring something. A little Christmas cheer for the office. When is it? Oh, never mind, I’m looking it up now.” I heard her clicking and clacking down the line before I could say anything to stop her, and I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Thursday! Honey, you should have said earlier. That doesn’t give me any time to prepare.”

“That’s because… you’re not… supposed to be there,” I said, punctuating every word like I was explaining to a small child. Speaking of small children, Kelcey mouthedhelpas if I didn’t know she wanted help, and meanwhile, down the office from me, Rickety Rick—that was Richard to his face, anyway—came out of his office holding a laptop that I was pretty sure wasn’t his. Rickety Rick was a menace breaking everything and never asking for help, a seventy-one-year-old man who refused to retire becausethis was his home, never mind that he was burning down the home for everyone else, while Kelcey was a twenty-four-year-oldfast-tracked hirewhich was a nice way to say nepotism hire, breaking everything and always asking for help. Bless her heart, she was sweet, all smiles and sparkling blue eyes, but she was useless. Hard to say which one of them broke more things, but they both equally acted shocked when they broke something, as if it was their first time doing it.

Mom laughed down the line. “I know, I know. Promise I’m not going to make a scene! I’ll just be there to see my little baby.”

“Mom, I’m a thirty-two-year-old communications director with a master’s degree. I’m not a little baby.”

“Then you cancommunicateto them that I’m going to be there. Huh? Get it?”

I closed my eyes, letting out a long, slow sigh. “Ah… I get it. Listen, I’ve got a lot to get to, but—”

“Oh, you’ll be home on Saturday, right?”

“Yes,Mom, I’ll be there.”

Kelcey mimed a phone to her ear, mouthingwill this take long?Could she not hear me talking about getting off the phone? My head was going to explode.

“Okay, honey. If you have anyone you’re bringing…”

“I’m not. Just me.”

“Just saying, we wouldloveto meet them.”

Oh, for crying out loud. I’d made the mistake of telling Mom I had a date back in October—not a romantic date, just saying wehad a date set outfor something around me meeting someone, and she’d been convinced ever since that I had a secret relationship she was always pestering me into giving up details about. “Uh-huh. Well, if I have someone, I’ll bring them. Okay, Mom, I really have to go—”

“Oh, if there is someone, let me know if they have any dietary restrictions, any allergies—”

“Mom.I’m hanging up.”

“Okay, sweetie. Bye, I love you. Let me know if you want us to have anything on Saturday for them—”

“Bye, Mom, I love you,” I said, smashing the end call button, hitting the spot on the screen about a dozen times for good measure before I spun my chair to look at Kelcey. “So—”

“Hi, am I bothering you?”

“That would have been a question to figure out a minute ago. I’m all yours now, Kelce. What’s wrong?”

---