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Of course Joe would figure that out. There wasn’t anyone who knew how much I had wanted this more than Joe. And I really wanted to hug him and share my excitement with him. But he wasn’t my friend anymore. Despite how much the truth was about to roll off my tongue, I didn’t say more.
“If I knew that ending our friendship could push you enough to finally take that step, I would have picked up a fight with you years ago. I wish you nothing but the best. Goodbye, Luc.”
With a final nod and a somber smile, Joe left the room.
My body began to shake with the impending cries. Though I held it back with all my might. Gosh, I was still not over the fallout with Joe. I missed him like I was a missing part of my own being.
Now, it was just Sam and me in the room now.
I waited and hoped that he would stand from his seat first. But he didn’t. He knew fully well that if he remained seated, I wouldn’t be able to pass from behind his chair without brushing with him.
So I braced myself and stood up first. “I’m not sure if you’ve read my whole letter but today’s the start of my two weeks notice.”
“I read it,” Sam muttered lowly while remaining looking at the table.
That was when I noticed that on the table before him was only my letter. Not his laptop. Nor his tablet. He had gone through the entire meeting without following on his devices. If he had followed the meeting at all. I knew I didn’t, even if I had my own laptop switched on.
Sam got up from his seat then and he faced me squarely for the first time since we’ve been in that room. “I don’t blame you for taking some time off. But coming back with this? This is what you settled on? To leave your job? To move away?”
I was sure he had heard Joe mentioning the city.
“The past few days brought a lot of things into perspective. About life. About my future. So I decided to do something about it.”
“Lucille, the other day was just a little dispute. It doesn’t have to make you meditate about anything.”
“When you have a dispute with the two people you trust the most, yes Sam, it does make you question everything.”
“And this,” His fingers tapped on the letter lying on the table. “This is the outcome?” His tone was sounding to be irate.
My voice remained calm. “You once asked me if I had a bucket list. It took that ‘dispute’ to remind me that I still don’t. I’m thirty years old and I don’t really have a plan for my life. The funny thing is that part of my job is to create plans – effective, reliable plans – yet, I never drafted or even thought about planning one for myself. Hell, I don’t even have a savings plan. I couldn’t even think up a single goal. Not even a vague one like eat healthy or buy a car. The last one, I never thought about it with proof. Been renting my car for ages just to evade actually dealing with the process of buying a car. My one singular goal has always been my career. And I procrastinated from ever pursuing anything else because of that.”
“So you made a plan now? Jotted down your first goal: leave everything and everyone behind?”
“There’s not much left to leave behind, is there?”
“Lucille, you could spend a lifetime designing the best plan for your life and you still won’t ever get it right. Life just doesn’t work that way.”
“But I can try. Remember you once asked me yourself why I never moved to the city. Yes, why haven’t I? Now I am.”
My answer silenced him. But seeing his set jaw, I knew he was holding back.
“So,” Sam rubbed a finger at his chin while searching for the right words to say. “you got a new job lined up already?”
“I do.”
“Of course you would. That’s too easy for you. Anyone would want to hire you.”
His words were the ultimate reference to him hiring me. I certainly did not want to get into that subject again.
Sam threw his hands in his pockets. “What I don’t understand is this.” See. I knew he wanted to say more. “So you say you need to focus on other things other than your career but if you move, you’ll just be flipping your life upside down and still be focusing on your career. What other things will you do once you’re in the city?”
Damn him. Always bold. Always hitting the nail right on the head.
My silence made him press further. “Tell me I’m right. You’ve only thought about getting the job. You’ve secured that, now everything else is secondary. I bet you haven’t even found an apartment yet.”
“My life revolves around my career just as much as yours revolves around your company. A great job is an absolute must for me.”
“And you have one already. Can I make it better for you? Tell me how. Double the pay, less hours, new office, anything. Whatever can change your mind, just name it and it’s yours.”
