Page 71 of Diverge

“Honestly, I’m doing really well.” I look at her and smile.

“Grace tells me you’ve been travelling all around Europe to follow some bands?” She looks down to the grass. “Finn would have loved to be with you.” She sighs and shakes her head. “I hope you haven’t made reservations for accommodations... you’ll stay here with us.”

“I haven’t,” I admit.

“Perfect. I’ll make up Grace’s room for you—”

“No,” I cut her off. “If it’s okay with you, I want to stay in Finn’s room.”

She smiles and nods. “Of course, honey.”

We sit together the rest of the afternoon and chat about work and family. Mrs. Mackenzie talks about her grandson Harry, telling me about how much he has grown since I last saw him, and I smile at the pure happiness in her eyes as she talks.

“How’s Mr. Mackenzie doing?” I ask.

“He’s doing just fine, love. You know how he is... he dives into his work when something troubles him, and ever since Finn’s passing, that’s all he’s wanted to do.” A sombre look covers her face.

“I guess we all have our own ways of coping.” I give her a small smile.

Mrs. Mackenzie wanders off to do some gardening in the backyard. She’s been in France a lot more now than in previous years, and I believe she wants to work at her marriage with Mr. Mackenzie more than ever since the passing of her son. Heading upstairs, I make my way to Finn’s room. His door is closed as I reach it.

I haven’t been here, in his room since his passing, and the moment I step through the door, I’m transported back into the past, the memories of our last few moments together flooding my imagination. Everything still smells exactly like him, the familiar scent filling my nose as I lay on top of the bedsheets. Taking a moment to myself, I smile about all the wonderful things we got to experience together. Previously in my journey of grief, the only thing I could think about was how I would survive without him, but now that I’m laying here, on his bed, without him, the only thing I’m thinking about is how he made my life better... mademebetter.

Without him, I wouldn’t have had the guts to quit the job I hated so much for such a long time. I wouldn’t have been able to set myself up with my dream job and travel the world as I work from different countries around the globe.

Out of all the things I’m feeling right now, grateful is at the very forefront. Taking my laptop out of my bag, I open it to sift through my emails and reply to all my clients. Then I notice an email from an unfamiliar address. Opening the email, I read through it.

Hi Billie,

My name is Francesca, and I work with the Golden State Warriors as a marketing coordinator. Your previous colleague has kindly shared your information with me, I hope it is okay that I am contacting you directly. We would love the opportunity to work with you on our upcoming marketing campaign with our players to raise awareness and build our fan base even further.

The campaign will run for roughly three months, and we will require a couple months of your time and expertise for building and reviewing.

If you are interested in the opportunity, please give me a call, or reply to this email.

Francesca

My heart skips a beat as I take in the reality of my life right now. Covering my mouth with one hand, I force myself to re-read the email multiple times in case I somewhat imagined it. Golden StateWarriors?If I can land this client, they will be my most famous and largest client I’ve ever worked with. I press Reply and immediately accept the opportunity and propose a meeting in the next week.

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