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And making plain, boring, casual-and-completely-friendly-and-nothing-more small talk with my daughter’s swim coaches.
When I was done with my first cup of coffee, I worked my way through a semblance of a morning routine on auto-pilot, and settled back in the kitchen. No news from Kandace, not that I expected any overnight. Colin’s name still sat in my inbox, teasing me.
It was barely eight when someone rang the front bell.
“I’ll get it, so you can keep working,” Alana was already on her feet.
Did she know who it was, or was this part of her campaign of helpfulness? “I’ll get it.” If she’d done something nuts like call Colin or Tanner, what would I say?Nice to see you, have a nice day?
I had to.
I opened the door to find Kandace on the other side.
She gave me a warm smile. “I’m sorry to drop by unannounced. I was on my way into the office and I realized I need to have this conversation face to face with you. You deserve that.”
“Come on in.” I stepped aside, squashing my curiosity under the heavy weight of professionalism and being a good hostess. “Do you want some coffee? Anything else?”
“I’m really trying to cut back on the caffeine, thanks.”
“Alana, will you and Harmony go play upstairs for a little while?” I expected a protest with my request.
Instead, Alana grabbed Harmony’s hand and led her up to their rooms.
Kandace and I took seats at the table. She let out a short sigh. “I’d love to make small talk, but I think you’re anxious to hear what I have to say.”
“I am.” I hoped it didn’t require me to use that lawyer’s number from Colin, but we’d see.
She nodded. “I’m sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I had a lot to get through, including some red tape with the other partners, but we pushed things through because of the critical nature of the situation.”
It sounded so serious. It was to me, but she had to be talking about more. I didn’t dare interrupt.
“We’ve been having issues with Bernie for a while,” Kandace said. “Every one of us was invited to join the firm because we all share some key values that make an organization like this work. It had become clear that he wasn’t on the same page as us after all, so we’ve parted ways with him. You weren’t the cause, but your firing was that final straw.”
“Oh.” That was good news, wasn’t it? Not for him, but the asshole fired me, and that wasn’t the first run-in I’d had with him.
“Come back to work for us. If you’ve got other offers, we’ll match them.”
I stared at Kandace, processing the words, and then the damn in my mind broke. It was a good job. They’d given me a lot of opportunities, I enjoyed the other partners, and working with Carly was awesome.
“I can’t go back to the way things were before.” The words tumbled out, contrary to my thoughts. My mouth knew me better than my mind sometimes. “The long hours, the last-minute business trips… I don’t want it to be five or ten years from now, or even one, and I realize I’ve missed my girls growing up.”
Kandace smiled. “That’s more than reasonable. I’ll put that in your rehire offer, and if you say you’ll come back, you will be paid for last week and any days this week. You’ve got skills that will be hard to replace, and not just at the resume level. You know our business, you know how to work with our people, and we like your approach to work and your drive.”
“Put it all in writing, that I get at least a week’s notice for travel and I’m not on call on weekends, and I’ll come back.”
“Fantastic.” Kandace grabbed her phone and made some notes. We agreed I’d start again tomorrow—she offered to give me the rest of the week, but I’d go stir crazy if I took that long—and that she’d get me an updated rehire offer within a few hours.
I sent Kandace on her way and tried to fall into the fantastic news. I didn’t have to look for a new job, or sue the old one, or do the math about how long my savings would last.
Which meant I could save the lawyer information from Colin for a different rainy day.
As his name passed through my head, the gnawing that had been inside for days was back. The pit that missed them both far more than was reasonable.
It had only been a few days. I’d get over this feeling. There wasn’t another choice, because I had two wonderful lives, two children, who needed at least one parent that cared. Me dating Colin and Tanner would detract from that. As Alana put it, that would hurt her as well as me when things didn’t work out.
And I couldn’t walk into any relationship knowing that.
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