Page 78 of Choosing You

As much as she hated waking up before she absolutely had to, Sloane got up and made Will a travel mug of coffee for him to take on the drive to the airport and then sleepily kissed him goodbye. She knew they’d talk later that day, but she had to agree with him—saying goodbye sucked.

There was a mild debate going on in her head about whether she should go back to bed for a little while or simply start her day. The smell of coffee was still in the air, so she opted to make herself a cup and get moving.

Grabbing a notebook from her desk, she walked over to the kitchen table and sat down and began making a list of all the things she was going to need to do so she could move to Sweetbriar Ridge and live with Will as soon as reasonably possible.

Tell her parents she was moving. Maybe she’d wait on that one for a day or two.

Call the landlord about breaking her lease. That call could be made at nine o’clock sharp.

Get boxes for packing. She’d start hitting up the local supermarkets and her friends for those.

Quit her job.

Staring at the words on the page, Sloane tapped her pen. Quit. Her. Job. Saying the words before had given her great anxiety, but now? Now it seemed freeing. But she didn’t want to be foolish. There was a healthy balance in her savings account, and she knew that the cost to move would be minimal because she’d do it mostly herself with the help of family. The biggest question was if she should quit now so she could focus on the move, or give her two weeks’ notice and deal with the misery her boss was going to dish out?

Decisions, decisions, decisions…

After a long sip of coffee, she felt herself finally waking up and her brain was starting to engage too. Quit her job. Well, her parents didn’t raise her to be irresponsible, so she’d give her notice.

And if her jerk of a boss gave her any grief, she’d leave earlier. But for now, she would do the right thing.

“Okay then,” she murmured and relaxed a bit. It may only be four items on the page, but having some direction to go in left her feeling like a little bit of weight had been lifted. And with that, she stood, stretched and lazily got on with her day.

Two days later, the weight was back.

Her landlord was fine with her breaking her lease, and because she had been a good tenant, there were no fees to be paid. He asked her for a hard date for when she’d be out, and she had hesitated, but told him two weeks. Looking around her apartment, she already collected her fair share of boxes so she could easily start packing.

But she was definitely going to quit her job.

In normal circumstances, Sloane was not a quitter, and it bothered her more than it should have that she was going to have to leave this way. Why couldn’t people just be decent? Why did her boss have to be such a tool all the damn time? Honestly, she had thought she could make it through the two weeks. After she’d spoken to him on Monday, he thanked her for giving her notice and wished her well.

Then, he took all of her accounts away and simply had her doing grunt work.

Including cleaning the office bathrooms.

So yeah, tomorrow was going to be her last day.

Actually, today should have been her last day, but she didn’t pack up her stuff and that was her fault for not planning better. But either way, tomorrow was it for her. And maybe once she closed that door, she’d feel better about it.

Later, when she was sharing this with Will, he seemed puzzled by her reaction. “Why are you even upset? This guy has been a jackass since forever. You can’t possibly be surprised, Sloane. And besides, think of how much less stress you're going to have after tomorrow.”

“I know you’re right, but…”

“Hell, if it were me, I would go in, grab my shit, and leave. Don’t give him the full day. Just…be done.”

“Will…I don’t know if I can do that. It’s just not who I am. I don’t believe in burning any bridges.”

He sounded like he was about to say something, but changed his mind. “Okay, I get it. Have you told your parents yet?”

“I’m having dinner with them tomorrow night.”

“How do you think they’re going to take the news?”

“My mom already predicted this was going to happen, so I don’t think she’s going to be surprised. But I’m not so sure about my dad. Although…being that he already adores you because you share his hobby, I don’t think it’s going to be an issue.”

And she tried to ease up on the sarcasm.

“Are you going to…you know…talk to him?”

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