Page 135 of February

“Well, Dale and I are only here this morning,” Bridgette’s mom replied. “We’re here to wrap up what we have in New Orleans before we go back to Baton Rouge around lunchtime. We’ll be working from home for a few days. That will give us an opportunity to adjust to this change and time for Bridgette to get settled in.” She met Bridgette’s eyes. “If that’s okay with you.”

“Me? Yeah. Why–” Bridgette stopped herself when she realized that her mom was attempting to respect this new dynamic where Bridgette was in charge and the one making decisions. “I mean, yes. I think that’s a good plan.”

“Great. We’ll need to start preparing the staff there for the transition, too, so let us know how you want that to work when you figure it out,” her mom added.

“I will. I should have an approach today or tomorrow.”

Her mom nodded and said, “The others are all working from home today.”

“They are?” Bridgette asked.

“I hope you don’t mind, but I emailed them last night and told them we had the fire marshal inspection today and that it would be better for them to just work from home. I thought that would give you some time to get settled into the office permanently. Your father and I will be working from home, with the shutdown of the office there, and if we come here, we’ll take a desk like everyone else.”

“Mom, no. Just because I–”

“That’s how this works best, honey. People have to see you as the boss, and having us in the bullpen with everyone else does that. Besides, your dad will be out in the field most of the time, anyway, so he won’t even need a desk, and I think I’d quite like to be out there. It’ll be good to get back to what startedthis company, to begin with: your dad out there, selling my card designs.” Her mom smiled. “And you’re ready. We get that now. We can help you move the second desk out of there, if you want. It’s an old one, so it’s pretty heavy. I don’t think you and Monica can do it on your own. Your dad is out getting coffee, but he should be back in a minute. We can do it together.”

Bridgette looked into the office with the two old, solid-wood desks that had been there since they’d opened this location. She thought about it for a minute. That would be her permanent office now; not just the one she got to use whenever her parents weren’t in town, but hers. She could get a new desk for herself, decorate it however she liked, and have the door open or closed whenever she wanted. She looked at the first desk and decided she’d keep using that one for the time being. Then, she looked at the one her mom usually used. It was definitely the cleaner of the two, and it made her think of Monica in that moment. Bridgette looked over at Monica, who was staring at her, likely expecting her to say something back to her mother.

“Um… Can you leave it, actually?”

“Really? Why?”

“I’m just not ready to part with it yet. I need to think about what I want the office to look like. When I decide, I’ll have the others help me move it,” she replied.

“Well, all right.”

Bridgette’s father came in through the suite door with a tray of coffee.

“Oh, good morning,” he greeted. “I didn’t expect to see you in, Monica. I would have gotten you a coffee.”

“That’s okay. I had some already, so I’m good,” Monica replied.

Her parents disappeared into the office to have their coffees and pastries before they’d pack up their things, and Bridgette didn’t really know where to sit or what to do. She felt like theywere in the middle of the awkward part of this transition. Her parents were attempting to let go, which was unexpected and nice, but she hadn’t been prepared to truly be their boss, to take their office, and to be the one making all the decisions. It was upon her now, and she’d brought it on herself, so she’d have to be ready for it now.

“Conference room?” Monica asked softly.

“Yeah, sure,” Bridgette replied.

They closed the door behind them, despite there not being anyone out there to overhear them, and Bridgette sat down. Monica sat down across from her and pulled out her laptop, ready to work.

“I can give you time to work, Mon. You could’ve stayed at my place.”

Monica looked up at her, confused, and replied, “I’m working for you. I thought I’d pull up some of the Baton Rouge office numbers so that we can review them again and see who we absolutely need to keep on staff. We can’t have everyone decide to take a severance. We’ve only talked about it generally so far, but not the specifics.”

Bridgette smiled and said, “Hey, I have this crazy idea.”

“Is it a forty-year-old going to New Orleans, meeting a sarcastic twenty-seven-year-old, and they start dating?”

Bridgette laughed and said, “No, but it does involve those characters.”

Monica closed her laptop and asked, “What’s going on, Bridge?”

“When we were talking this morning, you said that you told your dad that you’ve liked working here and that you like solving problems; that you’ve missed that.”

“Yes,” Monica said. “And that’s true.”

“What if you really worked here?”

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