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Chapter One
Kylie Martin slipped through the shiny elevator doors at the last moment, heading up to the administrative floor of the Toronto Children’s Hospital. As the doors closed, she shuffled around the other riders, painfully aware she hadn’t had time to shower that morning. Hopefully, she didn’t still smell of night club and spilled tequila. Her long brown hair was a little greasy, so she’d pulled it back into a braid. All the makeup in her bathroom hadn’t completely hidden the dark circles underneath her eyes, but at least her Carolina K blouse was clean and unwrinkled.
Her phone said 9:35 AM. Damn. The meeting was at 9:30 but considering she should’ve been there an hour early to prepare, she was very, very late. She’d have to wing her presentation, but her brain was foggy with fatigue. When the elevator doors slid open on her floor, she ran out and around the corner toward the offices of Public Relations and Fundraising. The floor-to-ceiling windows let in far too much light that early in the morning.
“You’re late.” Julia, the department’s administrative assistant, shooed Kylie toward the meeting room. “You better get in there.”
Kylie gave Julia a worried glance and took a deep breath before opening the door to the glassed-in meeting room. As she entered, everyone in the room stopped talking and looked at her.
“Ms. Martin.” Her boss, Michael, was standing in front of the presentation board. “Have a seat. Folks, this is Kylie Martin our Social Media Coordinator. She’ll be the one announcing the sponsorship to the public and following the renovations and your company’s involvement over the next few years.”
The glare from his eyes and the cool tone of his voice made Kylie want to shrink and hide under the table. Across from her sat two older women in sharp pant suits. One of those suits was a blue satin Alexander McQueen piece, and she almost drooled. They were the representatives of a large telecom firm in the city and were there to discuss donating the funds to renovate a wing of the hospital.
Swallowing the lump in her throat, she thought of the notes on her desk. She debated slipping back out of the meeting to go and get them, but it would mean admitting her screw up. She’d have to improvise.
~ * ~
“Kylie!”
Her body jerked awake. She was disoriented for a moment, forgetting where she was or what was happening. Michael was standing across the table from her. They were in the meeting room.
Oh god.
Sometime during the meeting, she’d fallen asleep. Dread crept up from the pit of her stomach.
Oh no. Oh please no.
“What the hell was that?” Michael’s arms were folded over his chest. The two women were gone.
“Oh my god. I’m so sorry, Michael.” Kylie held her burning cheeks with sweaty palms.
“You might’ve cost us the sponsor. What’s wrong with you?”
“Michael, I—”
“Are you sick? Are you coming down with something?” He threw up his arms. “I can’t be mad at you if you’re sick, but I’m really mad right now.”
Her heart sank thinking about lying to him. “No. I’m not sick.”
“Then what happened? You sounded like you hadn’t prepared for this meeting at all and then right after your terrible presentation you fell asleep.”
“Was it obvious?” She winced.
“You were snoring. Look, you’ve been great at this job, but lately you’ve gotten sloppy. Today was the last straw. The Board of Directors will have your head for losing this sponsor for us if we aren’t able to renovate the orthopedics wing.”
“Okay, I can fix this. I can write a formal apology. Maybe send a gift basket to the sponsors. I mean really, it’s kind of funny when you think about it. I’m sure those women are laughing about it right now.”
“I can assure you, they’re not laughing.” Michael rubbed his forehead then leaned on the conference table.
Her stomach turned to lead. If only the office floor would swallow her whole. She lost the sponsor? This was a huge setback for the hospital. They desperately needed to renovate the severely outdated department.
“I’m so sorry.”
“Me too.” His voice softened. “But you’re fired.”
~ * ~
A week later, Kylie turned up the volume on her car radio as an old Backstreet Boys song came on. It had been two hours since she drove out of Toronto, and another twenty minutes since the highway off-ramp to the long and winding road north to Camden. With the open windows letting in the mild mid-May air, she could almost forget she was driving back home to the tiny lakeside town.
