“Nice to meet you both,” I said politely, shaking both of their hands.
“I was just telling Madison about your idea to start a tech training program for some of the women we serve in our programs.”
I’d wanted to create more programming to get people living wages jobs for a long time, something that Julia had heard me talk about more than once. We were on the same page though. So many nonprofit training programs placed their clients in hotels, restaurants, or at warehouses. Our ‘women in trades’ program was the only nonprofit program in the city that collaborated with the trades unions to get clients into the relatively high paying jobs in trades. But if we could also get our clients into lucrative tech jobs, it would be life changing, especially for those who didn’t have the physical stamina to work in the trades.
“Tell me what you’re thinking,” Madison said.
Recognizing the opportunity, I launched into my elevator pitch, my initial awkwardness gone. By the time I was done Madison had given me her card and invited me to send her a full proposal for creating a ‘job training to employment’ program at Phoenix Software. I was thrilled.
“Thanks for making that connection,” I whispered to Julia as we walked into the ballroom for dinner.
“Maybe you can show me your appreciation later,” she whispered back. “But for now, we’ve got to get through this dinner.”
We were assigned to different tables, and I found myself sitting at a table of donors where the youngest person was probably seventy. I took a deep breath and started talking to the person next to me who, as luck would have it, was very interested in our employment programs.
We ate our way through the predictable chicken dinners and listened as first our board chair and then our Executive Director gave their speeches. Then it was time for the video that would kick off the fundraising portion of the evening.
Someone lowered the lights and then Julia’s face was on the screen, talking about the program with her usual sweet earnestness. The video cut to scenes of the shelter and some of our clients participating in various programs, all carefully shot to protect the identities of those who didn’t feel comfortablebeing filmed. The last segment was an interview with a program graduate.
“The Sunrise program changed my life,” she said, looking right at the camera. “We spent two years at the shelter, recovering from everything that had happened to us. By the time I moved into my own place, my family had gone through therapy, I had a good paying job as a welder, and my kids were thriving. This program not only saved my life, it gave my kids the chance to have a better life than me. And that’s every mom’s dream, you know?”
As the lights came up I turned to the lady I’d been talking to earlier. “That’s why I work here.”
When they started the paddle raise asking guests to make a donation, that lady was one of the first to raise her hands.
Julia
It was a month after the gala, which had turned out to be a huge success.
Along the way Chris and I passed the six month mark in our relationship and were closing in on seven. It was the longest I’d ever dated anyone, and I didn’t want to think about it too much lest something go wrong and ruin this nice little bubble we were in.
Both of our mothers had been bugging us non-stop to spend time with them as a couple and while we’d done our best to not be available it became impossible to put it off any longer.
It wasn’t that we didn’t want to see our parents – we both saw our own parents regularly -- it was because neither of us wanted our mothers interfering with our relationship. They were bothpushing hard for us to get married and have kids despite the short amount of time we’d been dating. Not to mention that it was incredibly annoying that our two moms were so damned smug about us being together, as if they’d known all along that we’d be perfect for each other.
“I don’t understand why we have to get together with both sets of parents again,” I whined. “It’s so much pressure.”
Also I wanted to spend some quiet time with my girlfriend. Both Chris and I had been super busy lately and I hadn’t seen her nearly as much as I wanted to. And believe me when I say, no one was more surprised by that sentiment than I was. I’d never been a woman who missed someone, pined over them, at least until now.
“Seriously. I wish our fathers would do more than just sit there and pretend they didn’t hear what was going on,” Chris said. “I mentioned that to my dad when we went to the basketball game last week and all he said was that he and your dad were way too smart to get on their wives’ bad sides.”
“Drama queens.”
“Is this outfit okay?” Chris asked. “I’ve never been to Laberge.”
Somehow my mother had scored us a reservation at a fancy French restaurant that usually had a long waiting list. I had no idea how she’d pulled it off, but she’d declared that it was perfect for our ‘special dinner’. I wasn’t sure why we even need a special dinner, but I wasn’t going to argue about a free dinner.
“You look sexy as fuck,” I told her, taking in the unstructured navy suit she wore with a white button down, her Doc Martens peeking out beneath the hems. “Very power broker.”
“You look pretty cute yourself,” she told me, her eyes traveling my figure so slowly that I felt hot all over.
I was wearing a short red dress. I felt incredibly sexy in it. The dark red color offset the olive undertones in my skin, and the fabric hugged my curves in a way that I loved. I’d paired the dress with chunky black heels and pinned part of my hair up, leaving the rest trailing down my back in a wave of curls.
“That’s twice in two months we’ve had to get dressed up,” I reminded Chris as I pulled us towards the mirror on the closet door in my bedroom.
“Yeah, it’s two times too many,” she grumbled.
My girlfriend wasn’t fond of dressing up.
