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“Well, then you know I have reviewed the situation surrounding your termination and I was not happy with what happened to you. That’s why I’m calling to officially offer you your job back, but this time as head writer,” he said.
“Oh, wow! I mean, I’m glad you called me,” I said, fumbling for the right words to say. The ones I wanted to stay wouldn’t come out. Like, ‘I was treated horribly and, had I not been treated horribly by your employees, I wouldn’t have started working for Matt and fell irreversibly in love with him, only to be mistreated further by your employees who sent him a sex tape and caused me to lose him and fall into the sunken place of heartbreak, forever.’ But, I didn’t say any of those things. Instead, I thanked him. “I really appreciate you looking into my termination, Mr. Mallard. I am so grateful and would love to accept the offer.” I sat up and looked down at my pajamas. Outside of cleaning up, I had been wearing just pajamas since driving away from Matt that night.
“Great! Can you start tomorrow?” He laughed on the other end. “I mean, I’m a little short staffed.”
“Tomorrow will be great!” I thanked him, then hung up the phone. That was my sign that I needed to stop fretting over my failed relationship and failed life and get on with it. Mr. Mallard and I said our goodbyes, then I hung up. After I did, I pulled up Matt’s number and started to shoot him a message.
Tasha: Just got a call from Joseph Mallard. I start the job tomorrow. I
I stopped typing and looked at the message as the blood drained from my face. It was so easy to think that I should message him, but I couldn’t finish the message. I quickly erased the text and felt that familiar pit rest in my stomach.
I stared at my phone for a minute, expecting to find something happening, when it started ringing and Dana’s name flashed on the screen. I answered it. “Hello?”
“Well, it’s about time. I’m sorry that you got fired. What happened?” That last question proved that she didn’t know why I was fired, but the truth was, I wasn’t officially fired. Matt never said the words, although it was assumed and rightfully so.
“It’s a long story,” I said. “But I have other news. I got hired and even promoted to head writer at Colorful Times.”
Dana squealed on the other end of the phone. “Then, this requires a celebration, Miss Head Writer. Let’s meet for lunch.”
I willingly agreed, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of impending doom, from not knowing how Matt was doing, or not being able to talk to him. I hung up the phone and got out from under my bed. I didn’t want to dwell on the negative aspects, when my dream job was finally back in my corner. The only problem was, I was no longer certain that working at the magazine was my dream job. Things had changed, and I found my heart was leaning more towards the job I just lost.
Chapter Nineteen
Matt
Regrets
The phone continued to beckon for me to call her, even after two weeks went by. I hated the way things were left between us. Even though I felt it was the only choice I had, I wished we would have been able to at least have a decent goodbye to one another.
I’m not really sure what I expected or hoped for, but I would have done anything to get back that moment, where I could tell her again that I wasn’t disappointed in her and I wanted to hear her out, but instead she left thinking that I had some ill-will feelings towards her and that really wasn’t the case. I just was thinking, well, I don’t know what I was thinking when I let her drive away.
I got so lost in my thoughts that I barely noticed the time creeping towards when I had to get out of the office. I was thankful that Mary stuck her head in the door to remind me. “Cody will be getting out of school soon. You best be going.”
I looked up and gave her an appreciative smile. “Oh yeah…thanks Mary. What would I do without you?” I asked. I knew what I’d been doing without Tasha, dying a slow death.
Mary shrugged. “Hope you never have to find out.” We laughed, and I grabbed my car keys and hurried out of the office.
Since parting ways with Tasha, it really caused me to have to pick up the workload, leaving less time at the office, but that actually turned out to be the best thing to happen, because I got to spend time with Cody and I always loved that. I just wished it would have come before I had to lose the love of my life, but I was learning to deal with that.
I pulled up in front of the school as students started filtering out of the building. I kept my eyes peeled for Cody and inched my car up as other cars pulled away. I eventually saw him coming out of the building. I narrowed my eyes to see who he was walking with. They were talking about something and, as they got closer, I realized the kid looked familiar. I watched the encounter for several minutes, because they stopped about ten feet from the car and continued the conversation. Then, before saying goodbye, they did a boyish handshake that had me widening my eyes. I couldn’t believe I was witnessing such an interaction.
Cody turned to the car and headed over to me, then opened the backseat and tossed his things in. He crawled into the car and shut the door. I looked at him through my rearview mirror.
“Hey…how was school?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Fine. School is school.” He laughed, and I knew exactly what he meant, but I had a nagging urge to ask the question. “So, wasn’t that Bobby, the kid that had been bullying you?” I asked.
Cody nodded. “That was a while ago. That all changed when…” His words fell off as he looked at me. His face was sullen.
I frowned. “That all changed when what?” I asked.
He looked sad and then shrugged. “Tasha told me how to handle it. She said that I should try to friend him, because that was probably what Bobby needed was a friend, and he probably didn’t know how to make friends. I really just wanted to whip his…” He stopped short and a smirk pressed against his lips. “Oh…never mind. But Tasha said that I should be kind to him and eventually he would come around and wouldn’t bully me.” He smiled. “It really worked.”
I looked at him and his genuine love and care for Tasha shone through as he spoke about it. I was forced to really think on it. The fact that Tasha did that for him really made me love her even more. Who was I kidding? I couldn’t love Tasha more, if I tried. I wanted that love to go away, just because I was upset about the revelation that showed up in my mail, but I was lying to her and I was lying to myself. I said I wasn’t disappointed in her, but a part of me was and it wasn’t right to just not hear her out. I should have done a better job of listening, before I judged. I was looking at the evidence, and not the beautiful soul of my woman. I guess being a lawyer really made me have blinders on.
I don’t know how long I was staring at Cody, but when I heard a couple cars behind me honking for me to move on, I knew that I had been there for way too long. I turned around and quickly pulled away from the curb.
We were on the route back to our place, when I heard his voice. “I miss her Uncle Matt,” he said.
