Page 78 of April

“Sure. What’s up?” her boss asked, motioning for Linden to walk into her office. “Have a seat.”

“Thanks,” Linden replied. “And I was hoping we could talk about Dallas.”

“Dallas?” Carolyn looked up at her from her computer as Linden sat down.

“Yes. I was wondering if there was maybe a spot for me there.”

“For you?”

“Yes.”

“You want to move to Dallas?”

“Yes,” Linden replied.

“Since when? You didn’t say anything yesterday when we were talking about it.”

“I know. I thought about it last night.”

“Did you talk to Asher?”

“Yes.”

“And?”

“And what?”

“Well, she hasn’t confirmed with me yet,” Carolyn said.

“Oh. I don’t know what she’s doing,” she lied.

“But you talked to her?”

“Can we talk aboutmemaybe for a second?”

“Sorry, of course,” Carolyn said.

“Is there a spot for me?”

“In Dallas?”

“Yes,” she said, repeating herself.

“Linden, you’re a senior planner here and one of my best.”

“I know.”

“I can’t lose youandAsher at the same time. Besides, you’ve never expressed an interest in Dallas, even when we brought it up in meetings. Asher did.”

“Not really. She was just interested in what her next step could be. She’s been doing this job for a while. It wasn’tDallasthat she wanted.”

“Well,thisis the next step up for her, so it would have to be Dallas.”

“And there’s nothing I can do to get there, too?”

“Of course, there is. But not now. I was going to give you any of Asher’s accounts that need to be transferred if she said yes, and I’d need you here for at least another year or so while she sets things up. In the meantime, we’ll get another planner trained up to replace you here. A few of the assistants are promising, but you know how hard your job is. We would need time.”

“A year…” Linden said.

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