Page 121 of April

“Hi. Come in. Thanks for coming so fast,” Carolyn said, motioning for her to head into the office.

“Yeah. Is everything okay? You said it was good, but you’ve never needed me immediately on my day off forgoodnews.”

Linden sat down across from Carolyn.

“Well, it’s been an interesting day so far, so bear with me.” The woman closed her laptop. “And I am sorry. I try to leave all of you alone when it’s your day off. I know how grueling this jobcan be. We work most, if not all, weekends, and we still have to work during the rest of the week, meeting with vendors, clients, and everything else. So, know that I appreciate this.”

“I know.” She smiled. “Is something wrong, Carolyn? You look like you’ve been through the wringer today.”

“Gee. Thanks, Linden.” The woman chuckled.

“I didn’t mean like that,” she replied with a small laugh.

“Look, it’s your day off, so I’ll keep this brief and hope you say yes.”

“Okay,” she said, wondering what in the hell was going on.

“I want you to run the Dallas office,” Carolyn stated.

Linden wasn’t sure she’d heard her right.

“The Dallas office?”

“Yes.”

“Are you openingtwoDallas offices?”

“No,” Carolyn replied.

“Okay. Then, I’m confused.” Linden leaned forward. “Asher is running the Dallas office.”

“Not anymore. Change of plans. I came in here so that I could rewrite the offer letter and print it out, hopefully for you to sign.”

“I’m sorry. What do you meannot anymore?”

“Asher isn’t going to Dallas anymore. I can’t say anything other than that, Linden. It wouldn’t be fair to Asher. You’re peers.”

“So, you’re offering the job to me?”

“Yes. You wanted to move to Dallas. You told me so this week. You asked to go as a planner, and I’m ready to send you as more. You’d run the office, and you can bring whomever you want from here. We would talk about that, obviously. I have an offer letter for you that I think you’ll find to be very generous, and I’ll pay for you to relocate, of course. I’ve been on the phone since I got here, talking to a few possible vendors to helpyou handle the move from start to finish to make it as easy as possible on you. Plus, you’ll have a raise, a bonus, and I’ve added in a nice office decoration stipend for you, too, so you can make your new office your own space.”

“Carolyn, I can’t go to Dallas,” she said, and she pulled her phone out of her pocket, still finding no messages from Asher.

“Of course, you can. You told me you wanted to.”

“That was more on impulse than anything else.”

“Is this because you were my second choice?”

“What? No. Asher deserves the job. She’s been here longer, and she’s the best planner you have. It made perfect sense to me that you’d offer it to her.”

“Well, that didn’t work out. Now, I’m offering it toyou, Linden.” Carolyn picked up a piece of paper and put it on the desk closer to Linden, facing her. “Here’s the number. Take a look and tell me that’s not more than you’re making now by a large margin. And I know you’re from here, so you’d be able to fly back at least once a quarter to see friends and family. Plus, you’d only plan a few big weddings a year, so you’d have your weekends back. If you want to be out of planning entirely, I can make that work. We’d just need to get everyone staffed up and trained in Dallas first.”

“This is how much you offered Asher?” Linden asked, staring down at the large number on the paper.

It was almost double what she made now and would really help her start to save some money, which she’d been meaning to do for years, but she’d never been the best at saving and probably spent way too much on drinks when she went out. This amount would allow her to buy a house within a couple of years; it was that life-changing. There was one moment when she thought about accepting the offer, but it was only one small millisecond that passed by because something had happened with Asher, and she wasn’t going to Dallas, which meant thatneither was Linden because this kind of life-changing money only mattered if it was for the life she wanted with the love of it.

“Yes, but I added the office stipend for you as an added incentive,” Carolyn replied.

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