Page 17 of One Perfect Day in Lovely Bay
All of a sudden, her mind was back to when she’d been waiting for her grandma to go when money had got really tight. She’d hated that time wrapped up in sadness and worry. She remembered all the invitations she’d turned down over the years, when she’d not been able to afford to go out, the lack of holidays, the fear about taking time off because of the worry about how she'd pay her rent.
Glancing at the balances on the sheets of paper next to her laptop, she again took in the numbers. They embodied the struggles in the front of her mind and how she’d put her head down and got on with it. Now, the job offer represented something else, too: that her future was going to go down a different road altogether.
Cally reached for her phone and scrolled down to Eloise's name. If anyone would understand the magnitude of the moment, it would be Eloise. As she pressed the call button, she felt a really strange, odd sense of coming full circle. From struggling to make ends meet to being offered a position that could change her life, it all seemed almost too much to comprehend.
'Hey, Els. You'll never guess what's just happened...'
'Are you alright? You sound weird. Very weird. What’s that voice?'
Cally let out a watery chuckle. 'I'm fine. More than fine, actually. I just received the formal job offer email from Birdie. We’ve had a few meetings but I now have the nuts and bolts details.'
There was a pause on the other end. 'Oh? Right?' Eloise's tone was carefully neutral.
Cally’s voice caught. 'They're offering me a full-time position with so many benefits and everything. I can hardly believe it. I didn’t think she meant like, well… I thought it was, you know,what I already get but full-time with a few things chucked in here and there.'
‘So what’s the offer? Like what?’
‘Like a company vehicle, an amazing salary, like holiday pay, gym membership. It's overwhelming.'
'You deserve every bit of it. You've worked hard for this, Cally. I've seen it firsthand. Sorry, I’m going to have to say it, butwhyare you surprised? I’m not.'
'I don’t know. It doesn’t feel as if someone like me should get things like this, you know?'
‘Nope. Birdie wants to scoop you up. You can’t see it, Cal. I've been telling you this for years.’
‘I can’t believe I’ve been offered it.’
‘Why not? You've juggled multiple jobs, learned new skills, and faced challenges that would have broken others. You just don’t see those as worthy things because you just get on with it. Honestly, there are some real muppets out there.’
‘I suppose so.’
'Think of all the doors this will open for you. This isn’t just a promotion, Cal; this gives you a choice.'
‘Right.’
‘I’m serious. This is a turning point.’
Cally thought about all the dreams she'd put on hold, all the things she'd told herself she couldn't have or do. The narration in her head that she wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
‘You think so?’
‘Yep. Iknowso. You know what? I'm proud of you. Really proud. You need to give yourself a pat on the back. You put in the work, you showed up every day, andyounever gave up. This is allyou.' Eloise swore. ‘Suck it up, girlfriend and feel how good this is.’
Cally nodded. Perhaps Eloise was right—she usually was. Maybe it was time to just sit back and do just that.
Hello, proper job offer in a good company, hello prospects. It’s Cally. Nice to meet you.
10
It was the end of the week and Cally and Logan were on a train on their way to Scotland for the family weekend at the Scottish estate. Cally had decided to think about the job offer for a bit. In fact, Birdie had insisted on it until she came back from Scotland. It was a nice piece of news to travel with.
Similar to the races event Cally had attended with Logan, going to Scotland was a non-negotiable part of the Henry-Hicks family calendar. If Cally was being totally honest, which she wasn’t, she wasn’t that keen on the whole idea of the weekend at all. As her relationship with Logan had grown and settled, she had become more used to his family’s extensive social calendar and all that it entailed, but she still wasn’t all that enamoured with it. She kept that very quietly to herself.
However, there was now one major difference from when she’d first been going out with Logan; she no longer withered away with self-doubt about herself when she had to smooch with his family. She was now mostly okay with itandthem. That wasn’t to say she liked it. A lot of the time, the social high jinks were just not her cup of tea in the slightest, but she put up and shut up. The Henry-Hicks family had been more than generous and accommodating to her, so she was prepared to play thegame. Apart from the irritating Alastair and his badly timed comments, and even he wasn’t that bad, she had no reason not to feel fine about being part of the Henry-Hicks contingent. All the doubting, if there was, indeed, any left, was purely and simply her own.
The weekend away in Scotland, though, was a whole different kettle of fish, and it hadn’t taken her long to ascertain that being part of it was abigdeal. As the preparations for the weekend and talk about it had started to circulate as it had got closer, she’d realised that being invited meant that her feet were now well and truly under the family table. She’d sat at worse tables in her life. She liked the nice gilded one she was at now.
The weekend involved various arms of the Henry-Hicks family decamping to their summer holiday estate to indulge in some good old rest and relaxation. As you do. Cally had heard all sorts about what the weekend entailed and wasn’t quite sure what to think. After doing a bit of secret investigating by way of her laptop, she had, though, decided that some parts of the Scottish estate were right up her street.
