Page 15 of The Hand That Holds Me
I eagerly await your response.
Sincerely,
Lucas Walter
Director of Acquisitions and Development
MSJ Media
“What are you going to do?”
I looked over at Caroline and was speechless.
“I..I don’t know. Is this for real? Really? Its seems like a joke. No way does a company like MSJ Media contact a college graduate and give them a quarter of a million dollars with no strings attached. There has to be a catch.” I whispered, afraid the entire building would know about the check I had a death grip on in my hand.
Caroline scanned the letter quickly and shouted “Lucas Walters? Like Mr. Hotness from the bar a few weeks ago? Girl, I told you that night that man wasn’t done with you.”
“It must be a coincidence with the names. No way is this the same guy from the bar. There is almost six million people in the Metro area. I’m sure that there are more than one Lucas Walters in the city.” I tried to reason out loud, secretly hoping that it was my Lucas.
“My” Lucas? Where do all these ideas come from when I think of him?
“Well, let’s look at MSJ Media and see exactly who this Lucas Walters is. That way, you can get back to the amazing job offers you just received.”
Grabbing my phone and typing the information in, I was shocked and aroused when his picture loaded onto my screen.
The things we said as I walked out of the bar is rattling around my head. Words of fate and chance. When in reality, I wished that fate would bring me someone to hold me and love me. Someone who wants to be around me for no other reason than being with me makes him happy.
Feelings of abandonment and loneliness gripped my heart and squeezed.
I played it off to the world that I was okay with being single and carefree. In reality, I was the same seven-year-old girl who was cruelly sent away by my father and then orphaned by my mother.
I wasn’t mad at my mother for dying but losing her at such a young age caused me to build walls around my heart. Walls that I fortified with steel and concrete, afraid to let anyone in. Scared that they would find fault in me and leave me all alone…again.
The only people I’ve ever let in are my Aunt, Uncle and Caroline. Josh tried to crack the walls and he probably got closer than anyone else I have ever been with. Unfortunately, he wanted a life that I knew I couldn’t to give him. Marriage and children were something that I would not do.
I’d never allow my child to feel the things I felt growing up. Unwanted, unloved, and a burden.
I wondered if fate was working on my side. If Lucas would be the one to finally tear down my walls.
Once again, my wondering thoughts caused me to zone out while staring at Lucas’s picture.
“Maddie, Oh my God! It’s Mr. Hotness! You know what this means, he’s been looking for you! You need to call him and thank him for the offer. Or maybe you can go down to his office and give him a proper thank you.” Wiggling her eyebrows at me, she let me know where she stood on the job offers.
She probably thought I should show up at his office in nothing but a trench coat and a smile.
While I have done some crazy things in trying to be carefree, getting involved with someone like Lucas could possibly be my biggest mistake. Especially if I decided to take a job with MSJ Media.
Ignoring her remarks, I looked over the job offers and was pleasantly surprised by the number of jobs and the large salaries and bonuses that accompanied them.
There were offers in literacy and senior development, which would build programs to companion elderly citizens with youth to help them learn to read, write, and build their social skills. Senior positions in finance, even though I had no experience in that field of business, and fundraising and charitable giving, just to name a few.
As I scanned the page I realized that there were a dozen offers that had salaries, with attached bonuses, would equal around half million dollars a year.
I’m glad I was sitting down when I really started scrutinizing the documents or I may have fallen to the floor.
“Recent college grads do not get starting offers like this Caroline! Something is wrong with this whole thing. Why do I feel like Lucas is offering me these jobs with alternative motives attached?”
“What if he is just the person offering you a job, Maddie? You did register with a job service and have been sending your resume out to a lot of companies around the city. Don’t read too much into this. In cities like New York and Los Angeles, I’m sure this is normal. Atlanta is growing, so if you look at it that way, this is just business for him. He probably didn’t even write the letter himself. He probably has some gorgeous young blonde secretary at his beck and call to do this kind of things. I bet he only signed it because it was with other things requiring his attention. You know? Like a rubber stamp situation.”
