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“But I—”
“Called in a favor? Yes, I heard.” And it galled, but he bit his tongue from making a big deal out of it. “You asked your dad, and he called it in.”
“Connections are meant to be used,” she huffed. “I can’t believe he didn’t hire you.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It does matter. It’s the start of your career path and it should have started great. You graduated with top marks. You had all that you needed. Now you are just…”
“Starting at the bottom, as all fresh graduates do?” he prompted, again biting his tongue from saying more. When his phone buzzed, he glanced at the request for a video call and turned it on, smiling when blonde hair and blue eyes filled the screen. “Hey, babe. It’s okay. Don’t think about it now. I will either get another position there or elsewhere. For now, let’s—”
“Let’s take a break.”
He stared at the screen, waiting for her to smirk and say it was a prank. But Hayley wasn’t the type to joke about these things. Trepidation formed at the frown marring her lips and the severity of her expression.
“You are kidding, right?”
But she wasn’t. She bit her lip and looked down, then met his gaze with resolve.
“Sex.”
“What?”
“We always have sex, and we are always together. We always go out on dates and do stuff when you should be focusing on getting a job.”
“I am focusing on getting a job,” he said incredulously. “We barely spent any time together these past two weeks because of my job interviews.”
“Then you need more time, Charlie.”
“Hayley—”
“I can’t date someone unemployed. It will disappoint my family and negatively impact our name.”
The words struck his heart, squeezing hard before it settled. Clarity bloomed, and he expected hurt to come crashing down hard on him. But all he felt was frustration that his first serious relationship had amounted to this: a woman still tied up in a family name and not caring enough to let this go. Charlie swallowed.
“I see.”
His calm tone had her eyes widening before she recovered. “It’s just a break,” she said softly. “Just to clear our heads and keep your focus.”
“Okay.”
“I just want the best for you, darling,” she crooned, switching to her sweet mode. It got to him and had his frustration melting off.
“I know. How long of a break?”
“Just a few weeks, maybe. No dates, no phone calls, no distractions. I will be here waiting for you when the timing’s right.”
Translation: when he got something close to a managerial position.
They ended on a call with her sweet promises and goodbye, ensuring he wouldn’t be mad at her. But restlessness hit him as soon as he hung up. Bitterness flared, reminding him that his worth amounted to a few key things: his connection to a powerful bear shifter clan and top school marks that should have brought him better job deals, and a girlfriend he couldn’t call a girlfriend until he proved himself. What kind of life was that?
Maybe he needed to exert more effort. Maybe he needed to stop lamenting over it and just keep doing better at interviews. Maybe he could look outside of New York, too, beyond the suburbs and towards the other cities….
The suburbs. Daria.
It registered like a gush of water until he was commuting back towards the house’s location and calling her multiple times, only for it not to be answered. Charlie resorted to texting as he got in the cab, waiting it out as he knew it took her time to translate the messages to voice. Half an hour later, he blasted her with more.
Daria? Are you there?
