“Yes,” I let a frustrated breath out.
“Okay, I am sorry I didn’t tell you that,” William nodded. “I should have been more transparent about my financial situation. I can see how it feels lopsided because I’ve been privy to much of your personal and professional life by proximity, and you haven’t had that same experience with me, but maybe we can change that.”
“Humph,” I responded, my arms crossed. I looked straight ahead.
“Just to be clear. I would not say that I’m rich by New York City standards. Some would say, I was barely making a living there. Now that I am a CEO, and I’m living in Atlanta with a lower cost of living, I’ll be in a financial situation that’s much more comfortable, but I don’t know if I’ll ever feel like I am rich. My upbringing will always have me worried about the other shoe dropping.”
“Okay,” I softened a little and added reluctantly, “By the way, the money you’ve spent on therapy has made you very good at apologizing.”
“Thank you. I’ll let my therapist know during our weekly session,” William said with a quick nod.
“You have a weekly therapy session?!” I cried. “I had no idea!”
“Kit, come on.” William laughed. “I haven’t been hiding that. I have a therapy call every week at nine a.m. on Wednesdays. I just don’t talk about it that much. I have a very high-pressure job. I have to talk through some of the dynamics I experience at work so I don’t internalize all that toxic behavior. Therapy is great. Have you ever tried it?”
I snapped. “Of course. I went to grief therapy when my mom was sick and after she died.”
“Well, maybe it’s something you could try while we navigate all of these big changes in our lives.” William’s suggestion, albeit helpful, was ill-timed. He looked over at me and could see that I was fuming. “Hey, I’m not trying to make you mad. It’s just a great resource.”
William had parked the car in the restaurant parking lot. “Come on. What else do you want to know? I’ll tell you anything.”
I watched as Addison and Meredith got out of their car. “Maybe it’s just that I haven’t spent that much time with you and your friends. Maybe hanging out with Meredith and Addison will help. I’ve already learned a ton about you in one afternoon of house hunting with them.”
“That’s fair,” William said. “Dinner with them will be fun.”
It took me a few minutes to relax at dinner, but the drinks Addison ordered for us helped. Addison had selected a restaurant that had been recently added to the Michelin guide. I liked her. I could see how we might end up being friends. While I was very different from her, I appreciated her honest outlook on life, and I found her humorous truth-telling to be useful.
Meredith and William chatted and anytime they would slip into work talk Addison would gently cut in and scold Meredith. “Baby, no business talk at the table, please. You’ll poison my sweet, innocent ears with all that war talk.” Meredith took a deep breath and tried to pivot the conversation into something Addison would find acceptable. William hardly reacted to Addison and Meredith, so I assumed this was how they always were.
Addison said to me, “Are you excited about moving to Atlanta?”
I nodded. “It’s going to be a big change for me, but I am looking forward to it.”
Addison turned to William. “Darling, it’ll be so divine to be in the same city again. We can start a game night.”
Meredith chimed in, “I have never seen you play a board game, Addison.”
“People are allowed to start new hobbies and interests,” Addison said, narrowing her eyes at her fiancée before a grin spread across her face.
Our food came, and our conversation turned to how amazing the food was. The rest of the evening was Meredith and William sharing stories about their graduate school days. I knew William was making it a point to invite the reminiscing conversation so that I could hear more about him from someone who knew him well. Meredith didn’t hold back. She told amazingly embarrassing stories about William during graduate school. She said it was like watching a blooper reel of an actual graduate student.
The next day we looked at a few more houses with Charles, but none of them compared to the place we’d seen with the guest house in the backyard. We decided William would make an offer, then we’d just see what happened.
We hadn’t decided on a definite timeline, but it felt important for me to make a clean break to move to Atlanta. I worried I’d have one foot in the door with William in Atlanta and one foot back in my old life in Creekstone, so I pushed myself to make the change.
After looking at houses in Atlanta, I headed back to Creekstone to start telling folks I was moving. Aunt Rita and I had talked a few days earlier about me moving to Atlanta. She was happy for me. She gave me a hug and asked dozens of questions about where I’d be living and working, but generally it was all in an excited and ‘I’m happy for you' way and not in a ‘I’mjudging you and worried about you’ way. Even so, I couldn’t get what Veronica had said out of my head.
Next, I had to let work know I’d be leaving. I called and asked Nick if we could meet to talk about my position at the library. In addition to being the mayor, Nick was the Board Chair for the Creekstone library.
We decided to meet for lunch. The next day, I headed to The Pub. I told Nick I wanted to take a leave of absence so that I could spend more time in Atlanta with William.
Nick sat back in his chair and nodded. “I anticipated this. Do you think Trent could take your place while you’re gone?”
“He’s definitely the best person for the job,” I said. “I hope you’ll consider hiring another full-time staff person to help him.”
Nick leaned forward. “Actually, William helped me write a grant for additional funding for county employees, so the city council has just approved two new full-time employee positions at the library.”
“That’s great news,” I said but then went back to something Nick had just said. “Did you say you anticipated this?”
