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And then came back to win four-three and take the gold medal.
* * *
Every time I walk into Warner Power’s beautifully maintained lobby I feel like I should pinch myself. My shoes – not three inchers this time – make a beautiful clacking sound on the marble floors as I head for the bank of elevators, past the twenty-foot long reception desk manned with five assistants who all wave at me, and the thirty foot palm trees – real by the way – which are planted in huge terracotta pots a New Yorker could comfortably live in.
I hear my name being called out and I turn to see Rachel running toward me, her dark hair streaming out behind her.
“Wait up,” she says, leaning on me to catch her breath. Rachel and I met on our orientation day back when we first joined Warner Power as fresh faced graduates. We shared an apartment for a while, before she moved into an apartment with her first – but not last – asshole boyfriend. Not that I can tease her about them because I’ve had a few of them myself.
She’s the only employee at Warner Power who knows about my family. Mostly because Brad and Johnny knocked at my door drunkenly at three a.m. one night, and I had to explain why two six feet underage lookalikes were stumbling around our living room.
I was twenty-four then, and they were in their freshman year at college. Both with scholarships, and were celebrating a win against Cornell. When I’d finally persuaded them to sleep in my bed, I’d sat down with Rachel and admitted that I’d changed my name from Gauthier to Hunter.
And yeah, she knew the name. Everybody does. But she didn’t change her attitude toward me one bit the way people usually do.
Years later she admitted she Googled my old name. And found out about the incident that shall never be spoken about. And true to her word, she hasn’t mentioned it since.
Did I tell you that I love her?
“So how did the call with your mom go?” she asks when she finally catches her breath. She’s still leaning on me as I press the button to call the elevator.
“My whole family was there,” I tell her and she grimaces. “They want me to drop everything and go help my gramps in West Virginia.”
Rachel frowns. “Seriously?”
“Yep. He’s having surgery and the IRS is breathing down his neck. So they want me to make everything better.”
The elevator pings and we walk inside. “You said no, right?” There’s disbelief in her voice. I’d like to think it’s because she can’t believe they even asked but deep inside I know she doesn’t believe I’d turn down my family.
“Yes I did.” There. Take that. I feel powerful.
Her frown melts away. “Seriously?”
She knows I struggle with not being able to say no to my family. One of the reasons I avoid talking to them whenever possible. “I’m absolutely serious,” I tell her. “It was hard but I did it.”
She throws her arms around me. “I’m so proud of you.”
I wrinkle my nose but hug her back anyway. “Shaddup.”
We stop at the second floor and two guys walk in, blinking when they see we’re in the middle of an embrace.
Rachel lets me go. “Just making sure she’s warm enough,” she tells them, then pats my arm. “Yep, perfect body temperature.”
They give her a weird look then start a conversation between themselves about Bitcoin.
“Sorry,” she mouths at me.
“It’s okay. You give good hugs.”
She grins because she knows I’m right.
When we walk out onto the first of Warner Power’s three floors we’re faced with Carmine, our receptionist and security guard. He tips his head at us and then holds up his hand.
“Miss Hunter?”
“It’s Mackenzie,” I tell him for what must be the hundredth time.
He nods. “Mr. Power left a message. He’d like to see you at nine.”
