I turn to make my retreat toward marketing but also to keep Benny from seeing the color rising in my face. “Duly noted, Beneventi.”
When I allow myself a final peek over my shoulder just before turning the corner, it’s to see his dimpled full smile. And in return, I go full goo-puddle, all my worries and admonishments from the big bad boss be damned. Goodness, I’m in deep.
The following morning, I get up early for the only two people who can get me to do so voluntarily. Well, it’s mostly my own fault. I’ve been shaken up by the recent events at work, and also by the fact that I can’t stop thinking about Benny’s open-ended offer to be there for whatever I want or need. I’m finding myself more tempted to take him up on all of it—from talking about my problems to the non-platonic hangout—but I just don’t know if it’s the right move.
So I womaned up and told Nat and Clara that I needed to talk. They were on board, of course, but they’re road-tripping and moving Clara into her summer leadership camp in North Carolina and likely won’t have phone service once they get into the mountains. Thus, a seven a.m. prework call for Reese.
I came to one of Seattle’s plentiful coffee shops for the occasion, both to get better Wi-Fi than the crappy stuff in my dorm and to fuel up with caffeine. I open my laptop and plug my headphones in, blowing on my London fog before taking a too-hot sip anyway.
My friends are going to call me, so while I wait, I check my phone and see a couple of texts from Benny. True to his word to Margie and Aiden, he has been sharing the occasional picture of me on his personal Instagram to give me some semblance of a social media presence. He always sends me the pictures to approve before he posts them, and last night after I fell asleep, he sent one of me laughing at something in PK 2 while putting my apron on. I don’t remember him taking it,but it’s not a bad shot. And the fact that he wants to post it is pretty cute.
And hey, maybe this will help with my Perky Problem.Look, I can smile and laugh! I’m a happy, cheerful person!I grimace at the thought even as I grant permission with a thumbs-up text to Benny. Just in time for the call to come through. I answer on my computer, and Natalie’s slightly blurry face fills the screen.
“REESE, CAN YOU HEAR ME?” she yells, causing me to nearly spill my latte and yank the headphones out of my ears.
“Yes, grandma. Please use your inside voice,” I scold her, but I’m stifling a laugh. It’s way too good to see her face and hear her unnecessarily loud voice.
“Sorry,” she says at normal volume. “I’ve never FaceTimed in the car before, so I wasn’t sure if all the road noise would be too much. Enough chitchat, tell us all the latest on your megacool job and celeb status and ball cap boonow!”
“Hey, Reese,” I hear Clara say in her calmer tones, and Nat rotates the phone so I have a view of both her riding shotgun and Clara at the wheel. The latter, always more responsible than Nat or me, does not take her eyes from the road.
“Hi, Clar, and lovely to see you, too, Nat. Nice weather we’re having lately, isn’t it?”
“C’mon, cough up the goods, Camden. We don’t have allday.”
“We have about three more hours,” Clara says, and Nat gives her a stink eye that she can’t see.
I laugh at the familiar dynamic that I’ve been missing. “Okay, okay. So have you been keeping up withAmateur Hour?”
Natalie scoffs. “Of course we’ve been keeping up with our adorable best friend kicking bootyandwith her costar making constant heart eyes at her.”
“He does not make heart eyes at m— You know what, not the point. Well, things at work have gotten a bit more, uh, complicated since I last gave you the rundown.”
While we text regularly, I’ve been bad about giving detailed updates on everything lately, so I start in now. I go all the way back to meeting Geoffrey Block, CEO, at the cookout to the introduction of the head-to-head competitions for the fall internship and end with Aiden’s talk with me yesterday about the suits’ feedback. Nat and Clara listen and occasionally ask questions, and I start to realize I should have cracked open the emotional fire hydrant a little sooner. Letting it all out this way feels good, even before my friends give me their thoughts.
And they sure have thoughts.
“Aiden, you pasty, misogynistic asshat,” Nat fumes.
“You know that’s absurd, though, don’t you, Reese?” Clara’s response is characteristically more contained. “You’re very personable on camera. You smile just as much as any of the other Friends do on their shows.”
I shrug. “I thought as much too, but clearly something about me isn’t working. I don’t know, I just worry that even if I make a push to be the most dazzling ray of sunshine they’ve ever seen,there will always be something else about me that’s lacking. That the people up top already like Benny so much that next to him, I’ll never quite measure up.”
Nat pouts at me. “I want to fly out there and crack some suit-wearing skulls for making you feel that way. You’re perfect already.”
“I know it sucks to get feedback like that,” Clara says. “But unfortunately, you can’t control what other people are gonna think of you. So you have to focus on the things thatarein your power. Like your amazing designs that your boss is in love with.”
“And how good you’ve gotten at fixing your hair and makeup for filming,” Nat adds.
“And your impressive cooking skills.”
“And giving the cute boy who is super into you a big ol’ smooch.”
That gets Natalie an eye roll. “And how exactly will that help me get the fall internship?”
She waves a dismissive hand. “Unrelated. Just another thing within your power that I think you should consider. Any day now, that boy is gonna ask you on a date, mark my words.”
I grimace. “Weeelll…”
