AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well, great. I can’t wait to meet him,” I said, only slightly concerned by the thought of Dave bringing up our elevator rendezvous on the UWS, when I pretended to be a completely different person, at my wedding.
“You love me, right?” Collin asked me, curling his knees up to his chest, looking like a small child again. I didn’t care for it at all.
“Collin! What kind of question is that? Of course I do,” I said, waggling my bedazzled ring finger in his face. He often enjoyed the playful side I presented, but this time he wasn’t cracking a smile.
“I know that. I love you, too.” He took my hand. “This is going to sound a little weird, but would you mind keeping some distance from Dave? For me? I mean, say hello, be polite and all that, just... don’t get too close. I like the guy a lot, we go way back, but he can be kind of... I don’t know how to put it. A troublemaker, I guess.”
“Well, I hate trouble,” I lied, kissing Collin on the neck. “At least any trouble having to do with you.” I moaned a little, signaling I was in the mood for some hanky-panky, expecting a warm reception from my fiancé.
“I’m still pretty tired,” he said, rubbing my back. “Do you mind if I get a few more winks in?”
“Sure,” I said, pulling away and picking up on the hint that he wanted me to leave my own goddamn bedroom. I was incensed. Why washeso tired? I just spent what should have been a leisurely weekend afternoon to myself with literal hellhounds in the suburbs. But I’d let him sleep. It would be of no use to me to pick a fight. Eye on the prize.
•••
I SETTLED INTOthe living room sofa with my laptop and shifted focus to my career to take the edge off. I hadn’t lost sight of raising a little hell with Len Arthur and the agency after the Collin kerfuffle. Some casual petty revenge laced with genuine career progression. After all, staying anywhere too long is just leaving money on the table. I gussied up my résumé and LinkedIn profile. I went through pending contact requests and accepted the ones I deemed appropriate, although most were from odd-looking men in middlemanagement all over the country. A fact of life as a woman with an attractive online headshot.
I accepted Syl Austin’s earnest invitation to connect without any hesitation and then began to peruse the litany of vacancies at advertising agencies across the city. One of them would be so lucky. In the midst of hunting, I was surprised to receive a text from her. Strange, especially on the weekend.
Are you looking? I won’t tell anyone,the message said. So she kept up with the lurkers on her LinkedIn profile? Same, honestly.
Won’t confirm or deny,I responded, imagining her laughing.
If youare, I can email you a list of internal no-go agencies. Hayes has a known shit list. I’m assuming you’ll want to take us with you wherever you go?She ended the message with a smiley face.
I do love a long-standing feud. Yes. Please send,I replied.
How about that? Sweet Syl was looking out for me. My initial instinct was suspicion, but that was just my nature. I reframed my thought process, leaning into the logic over general mistrust. My fiancé was Syl’s boss. She wouldn’t screw me over.
Soon enough Syl inboxed me the rather robust list of agencies the Case Company refused to work with or had already worked with, unsuccessfully. Still, that left plenty for me to prospect, and I prepared twenty-seven emails to be delivered directly to the hiring manager of each agency on Tuesday morning around 11:30 a.m. Engaging in new business on a Monday was a fool’s errand. Tuesday late morning would be prime time. I assumed I’d have a new offer in hand within three weeks at the most, following several rounds of interviews. I practically foamed at the mouth, envisioning when I’d give my notice to Len. The devastation that would surely sweep across his wizened face would be such a lovely sight.
I was so productive that I deserved a reward.
•••
DAVE BRADFORD’S SOCIALmedia profiles were sparse, which I respected on a personal level, but selfishly, I wanted to waste away the remainder of the afternoon scrolling through his Instagram. I wanted all the fun of analyzing posts from years gone by so I could rip apart his old girlfriends and scan for visual evidence of his family wealth in the background. But he didn’t even have an Instagram. Just an old Facebook account that was relatively locked down, since we were not friends.
Hmm, no matter. I’d just pop onto Collin’s account to check out Dave’s profile. I’d been regularly hacking into Collin’s online accounts since our third date. I had wanted to know what I was getting into socially, plus it was useful to gather a few grenades to toss at opportune moments, getting him to believe we were “meant to be” based on mutual interests. Collin publicly adored the Yankees,Peaky Blindersand the ASPCA, so I did as well. His bank account balance obviously checked my boxes and his social accounts were full enough to pass judgment: Collin Case was a nice man, but not a particularly interesting one. Ideal for Bea.
Meanwhile, Dave’s Facebook profile was practically an artifact from the golden age of the platform. It was a hotbed of photo albums from years gone by, mostly highlighting innocent debauchery from his years at university, but in that charming way you’re allowed to be when you’re in your early twenties and white and male. The only somewhat recent update was a job change.
Self-Employed/Angel Investor.
Well, if that didn’t just scream independently wealthy?
The most current photos of Dave were tagged by other people, mostly women, women I assumed he had been romantically involvedwith at one time or another due to their close proximity in the images. Dave was supremely photogenic, always smiling with his pristine teeth, the perfect size for his perfect head, unlikesomepeople, and he was always touching the waist, bum or just under the breast of every woman in the frame. Lady-killer indeed.
Dave Bradford’s allure was becoming much too great for me, so I logged out and joined Collin in the bedroom, hoping the tides had turned for some afternoon delight. Dave was exactly the type of man I could have a very good time with, but at what cost really? I wasn’t in my early twenties anymore, cavorting with every bad boy with BDE in a band on the LES in my off time. That had been only temporary until it was finally time to focus. And grown men don’tmarrytwenty-one-year-olds unless there’s something really wrong with them, and I certainly didn’t want to end up with any of that clientele on my then-roster. That was just the day job of my youth. I didn’t start the hunt in earnest until I was an age-appropriate twenty-five. And look at where I was now. I couldn’t derail my plans for a tryst with Dave Bradford, no matter how satisfying it would be.
I tried to arouse Collin, hoping I could coax him from his slumber, making it obvious I would be on top so he could still relax, yearning to scratch my own itch, but he still wasn’t having it. It was disconcerting to say the least, very unlike Collin to rebuff me. I didn’t appreciate it. Literally hot and bothered, I left him in bed and took a shower instead. I’d recently had multiple heads installed.
•••
AS PREDICTED, Ireceived three offers of employment from highly acclaimed advertising agencies within weeks. One was boutique, the second was enormous with thousands of employees globally and the third one was somewhere in the middle. It had a firmhold in the tried-and-true advertising tactics, but still looked to the future without being considered “too modern” for the old-fashioned clients, not unlike the Case Company. They also gave me the highest offer, so I closed the deal with them after a confident negotiation, nearly doubling my current salary.
Now it was time for the best part.
“Rhonda. Len.” I was holding court in my office with the two of them, ready to perform the song and dance wherein I would give the requisite two weeks’ notice, knowing that I would be dismissed immediately. It was the advertising way. “I have decided to move on from the agency,” I continued. “I thank you for the opportunities you’ve given me during my time here and I hope we can stay in professional touch. I have a letter for you, in writing, outlining my resignation with two weeks’ notice, and I wish you both the best. I’m happy to be as helpful as I can during this transition.”
