Page 85 of Love & Other Disasters

Twenty-Nine

In a restaurant parking lot, Violet rage-cried in her car. A knock on the window caused her to jump. A woman held a wad of napkins. Violet accepted them, and the woman left without a word. She’d opted to get out of the work lot as fast as possible in case Jordan came looking for her. And she shut off her cell phone so she didn’t have any awareness of the selfish bastard calling or texting. This was the worst betrayal she’d ever suffered. How could he think it was acceptable to have her investigated?

Her fingers gripped the steering wheel. She drove until she was in Franklin. Violet used the last of the napkins to dab away the rest of the tears and checked herself in the rearview mirror. She didn’t look as bad as she feared. Elle was the only one who would understand.

“Violet, what a lovely surprise.” Elle’s assistant, beamed.

“Hey Jeanne, good to see you, too. Is Elle available?”

“I’ll let her know you’re here.” Jeanne picked up her phone and spoke into it. “Go on in,” she said.

Elle sat at her desk tapping away on the keyboard.

“Sorry, I know you’re busy,” Violet began, but Elle had said her relationship with J.P. would come back to bite her. She wasn’t ready to admit that Elle had been correct in her assessment.

“No worries. I’m super excited about getting this new skincare line ready for launch. It’s getting a positive response from all of the testers. Have you eaten lunch?”

Violet nodded. She’d eaten, cried, and drove at the same time. Multitasking at its finest.

“Were you serious about that job offer?”

Elle stopped typing and looked at Violet. “Are you accepting now?”

“Yeah,” she replied, not feeling the thrill that one should have when handed a job right after storming out of the last one.

Elle smiled and picked up the desk phone. “Rico, Violet is starting today. Come get her and get started on the onboarding paperwork.”

Was it that easy to walk away from Medi-Health and J.P. straight into a new job? Nothing had ever been that simple. Violet had never taken the easy route. She could have taken the job with Elle two years ago. Was this the right move?

“What’s the job?” she asked.

Elle smiled. “Accounting. I do need another person.”

“You know I never finished my CPA certification, right?”

The door opened and a man with jet black hair and a neat beard appeared. He wore a maroon sweater vest over a button down and dark jeans. Elle introduced her to Rico Kongsaysy, the director of human resources.

“Oh, and Rico,” Elle said before they left, “after you get Violet’s paperwork squared away, help her get enrolled to finish her CPA.” She turned to Violet. “My company helps with education costs.”

Violet followed Rico out of Elle’s office and through the open air room with the walls decorated with photos of Pure Botanicals products and painted flowers. White tables with matching white drawer units served as desks. A large, round wooden table sat off to the side with mismatched chairs. She’d never strayed from the path between the lobby and Elle’s office and not paid much attention to her surroundings.

A guy sat at a desk wearing large red headphones and dressed in a plain black T-shirt and jeans. The office had a blend of business casual and fashionable. The other desks were empty. She guessed that everyone else was at lunch. Would she have to wear makeup while working for a cosmetics company? She’d have to check out the other women and avoid looking like the office troll.

Rico opened a door, and she followed him into an office. Another white desk, and an exercise ball sat in place of a chair. The room had a funky lime green shag carpet under the desk. And thankfully a real chair for her to sit in as he took the exercise ball. He was about her age, and on his desk, sat a framed photo of him and another man smiling at the camera, arms around each other.

“Is that your boyfriend?” she asked.

“Yeah, taken on our trip to San Francisco last year. So fun.” He stopped rummaging in the drawer for a moment and smiled. “Here it is,” he said, handing over a tablet and stylus.

After she filled out all the forms and applied for a CPA program, Rico took her on a tour of the facility. She couldn’t believe that all production happened right there.

“Have you ever toured our facility?” Rico asked.

“No.” She’d didn’t want to seem nosey, but maybe she should have taken more of an interest in the empire her friend was building.

“So, here’s where HR, IT, purchasing, and accounting sit,” he said exiting his office and pointing at the desks they’d passed earlier. Now most of them occupied with people tapping away on computers, a few people wore headphones. That was a simple way to block out the surrounding noise in an open room, and she made a mental note to bring earbuds.

“Here,” he said pointing to an empty desk, “is where you’ll be. Hopefully Hailey will be back at her desk when we come back. She’s the CPA you’ll be working with.”

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