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Because, damn it, I deserved to be happy.
15
JADE
OnMondaymorning,Iparked my car and walked toward the office with a skip in my step. I hadn’t been in a mood this good in a long, long time. Not since I’d started working atPlacement. I didn’t love my job there––I hadn’t wanted to do admin or even become a nanny––but I didn’t hate it, either.
Today, everything looked different. It was funny how the world changed when I was in love.
My phone rang, and it was Olivia.
“I know you’re on your way in, but you have to tell meeverything,” she said.
I giggled. Last night, I’d sent her a text telling her that Aaron wanted more, but I hadn’t expanded on it.
“It’s a lot to explain now,” I said. “I’m about to walk into the office…but he really does want more! Can you believe it?”
“I told you so,” Olivia said.
I laughed. “Yeah, something like that.”
“How is the nanny thing going to work if you’re more than just his nanny?”
I frowned. “I’m not actually sure how it will work out. We haven’t talked about it. I’m with Ben all this week, and Aaron and I don’t see each other often when that’s the case, but he wants to take me out on a proper date this weekend. That’s what he said. So I guess we’ll talk then.”
“Oh, my God, it’s sodreamy,” Olivia sighed.
I giggled. It really was dreamy. I was living in some kind of fairy tale. The kind that had become real.
“I just keep thinking that it’s too good to be true,” I confided to Olivia. “I have to pinch myself to make sure all this is real, but even when I know it is…something about it makes me nervous that it won’t last.”
“Why would you think that?” Olivia asked.
“I don’t know…after Mike…I guess I’m just nervous about being this happy. It makes me feel like something is going to go wrong.”
“Ornothing will go wrong, and you have finally found your prince charming. Sometimes you have to kiss a couple of frogs first, and Mike was a frog. He wasn’t the end of your story. This is. It’s not a crime to be happy, you know. You deserve this! Especially after Mike and how he treated you.”
I nodded. Maybe Olivia was right––I deserved to be happy, and all this was good. Nothing would go wrong. The fairy tale was real, and I was living the dream. Aaron had promised me. With Ben in the picture, there was so much more on the line, and he wouldn’t just change his mind about me. I just had to keep reminding myself of that and push the fear and uncertainty away. Aaron deserved the benefit of the doubt––it was unfair of me to expect the worst of him when someone else had screwed up.
Maybe Olivia was right––I’d learned and grown.
“I have to go,” I said. “It’s time to actually do my job for a change.”
“Did you get a lot done last week?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I think Hannah will be happy with me. I feel good about this job.”
“It’s been a while since you were able to say that,” Olivia pointed out.
I nodded. Ithadbeen a while. I’d really thrown myself into my work the past week, and having enough time off to be able to do it had helped so much. I’d wanted to prove to Hannah that I could be an asset to her company, even if I made mistakes sometimes. The fact that I’d also done it to hide that I’d been in Aspen with Aaron was beside the point––it had only motivated me to work that much harder.
“Hi,” I said brightly to Marlene when I found her in the office. “It’s great to see you!”
“Hi,” Marlene said, but she wasn’t as upbeat. “How was your week last week?”
“It was good,” I said and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. I couldn’t tell Marlene exactly how good it had been. “I think I’m finally finding my stride.”
“Hmm,” Marlene said. She stared at her screen, avoiding eye contact.
