AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The phone rang.
“You have to think about what you’re going to do with your life. We can’t keep going in circles like this.”
She picked up the phone and put her hand over the receiver.
“I don’t want it to come between us.”
When she pressed the phone against her ear, I was dismissed. I left and walked to my office. I sat behind my desk with a huff and looked at the screen. I had so much paperwork to get through. It made my head spin. I kept messing it up, losing something, misplacing something, forgetting something. When there was a lot of work to do, it was easier to make mistakes. Someone had to do it, however.
Marlene, the woman I was an assistant to, did the legwork to see the au pairs who wanted to sign on, vet them, and check their certifications so that I could assign them to the right places when the requests came through.
Until I’d started working here, I’d had no idea how many people wanted au pairs all the time.
I opened my email, and more requests came through. I desperately wanted to get out of here––it was easier to focus at home. Here, I had so much pressure on me to do better, and it made it worse. I didn’t want to leave right now, however. I couldn’t afford more mistakes. Hannah would have my head, and then what would I do?
I forced myself to focus, putting on noise-canceling earphones to distract myself from the hustle and bustle and chatter in the office, and tried to focus on the work. I stayed until five on the dot so that Hannah could see how committed I was to making this work.
Finally, it was time to leave. I pulled off my headset with a groan of relief. I peeked around the door to Hannah’s office, but she was on the phone. I could leave now without another lecture. I hated that I tried to avoid my aunt these days when I’d eagerly sought her out before.
I left the building and drove to one of my favorite places in town.
Olivia––my best friend since college––was the head chef at Skylark, a bistro that opened almost two years ago and was situated just a few blocks away from Hannah’s offices in Downtown Seattle.
“Just the person I was looking for,” she said when I let myself in through the backdoor to the kitchen. “Taste this.” She stuffed something into my mouth before responding, and I chewed. She watched me with excitement, her green eyes bright.
Olivia was a perfect chef. She was proof that her food was good––always on the chubbier side, but she rocked it, and I didn’t know a more confident woman. She was spunky and fun, and down to earth, and I loved spending time with her when my life fell apart. Olivia had everything together––we were polar opposites––but she was always there for me and my biggest fan even when I didn’t make it. She made me feel like maybe, I could try again.
“Oh, my God,” I said around the food in my mouth before I swallowed. “That’s really good. What is it?”
“It’s lentils with red pepper pesto. I’m putting it with butternut squash and halloumi for a vegetarian option on the menu.”
“It’s incredible,” I said, and hopped onto the counter next to Olivia. “You’re lucky Evan lets you experiment as much as you do.”
Olivia shrugged and opened the oven, taking out a tray of roasted butternut squash for her dish.
“He trusts me.”
I sighed. “It’s more than I can say about Hannah.”
“What happened?” Olivia asked. She cut fried Halloumi up into strips and added it to the butternut squash before she scattered lentils all over it.
“I’m on my last warning at work. I keep messing up the placement system, and Hannah’s just about had it with me.”
Olivia shook her head. “I’m sure it’s not that bad.”
“It is,” I confirmed. “If I screw up again…I’m out. What will I do then?”
Olivia glanced at me. I watched how she made her food look like a work of art. She always said that if it looked good, it tasted better. I wasn’t sure her food could taste any better––it could look like sludge in a bowl, and I would still eat it all.
“I thought you and Hannah got along so well,” Olivia said.
I nodded. “That was before we started working together. They had a point when they said not to work with family.”
“Who’s they?” Olivia asked.
I waved my hand around my head. “You know…people.”
Olivia smirked.
