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I bunched up the fabric of my skirt in my hand and waited for her to go on.
‘So, okay. I have news, and I’m not sure how you’ll take it.’
‘Okay,’ I said slowly. ‘Hit me with it then.’
‘So you were gonna be here the last week of this month. That’s how we talked, but the situation changed and we kinda need you to be here in forty-eight hours.’
A few seconds passed in silence from both ends.
‘New client?’ I thought to ask and my voice came out scratchy.
‘Exactly. Can’t share the name yet until you get here and sign the confidentiality docs, but we really need you to be here right away. It’s a big name celebrity and you know how it goes. And I realize we’re not giving you any time to prepare for a move across the country, but as soon as you get started with the new client and it calms down a bit, you can go back and handle everything.’
‘How long do you think that would take? I know you can’t tell me what’s happening with the client, but can you give me a rough timeline?’
‘It’s hard to say because you never know with these things and it depends on how you work – but I’d say you’d be able to head back to NY in a month? Around that time.’
The driver hit the brake a little too hard when the car in front of us suddenly stopped and my box slid forward on the back seat next to me. I grabbed hold of it, pulling it to my lap and clutching it to my chest. Trying to think. Trying to make it work. I had Pepp. I couldn’t just jump on a plane with him. There’d be paperwork I’d need to get ready and that meant time. Time, apparently, I suddenly didn’t have.
‘Do you need some time to think? If you can’t make it, Charlie, I completely understand. We’ll have to go with someone else for the spot, and I hate doing that because I was looking forward to working with you…’
Nora kept talking, but I was still thinking and her voice slowly drifted to the background in my mind.
Work wouldn’t be a problem since I’d literally just quit, but Pepp… My mind was racing, trying to fit everything together so I wouldn’t lose this opportunity. Because if I did, I knew it would take me some time to recover from it. For a quick second I thought about William, but he still hadn’t called. What would me leaving so abruptly mean for us? But if he wasn’t even around, did he get to be a part of my answer?
And I realized in that moment, among the noisy NYC traffic, that I wasn’t going to put someone else before me again. I was done. Not a guy. Not even family in my case. I wanted this and I was going to reach for it. I was done pushing my life back. I knew William was different, he wasn’t like Craig or anyone else for that matter, but I needed to do this for myself.
‘I can make it,’ I announced over her voice. ‘I can absolutely make it. No problem.’
She stopped talking, and I was grinning like an idiot.
‘You can be here in forty-eight hours?’
I nodded enthusiastically. ‘Yes, I’ll be there tomorrow actually.’
‘Okay! That’s good. That’s really good, Charlie. We are paying for the ticket since it’s so last-minute. We’ll book your flight for tomorrow then. That works for you?’
The gears in my mind worked overtime. ‘How about very early tomorrow morning? If you can find a flight, can we do that?’
‘Done. I’ll have it handled. See you tomorrow then. I can’t wait.’
I laughed, unable to hold in my excitement. ‘Same here. Talk to you soon, Nora.’
We hung up, and I just watched the buildings and people pass by. I didn’t hear a single sound; my mind was abuzz.
And it was a new beginning for me. For Pepp and me.
A little part in my heart ached a little, and I put my hand against my chest, surprised to feel it so acutely. I’d wanted to move away and start anew for so long that this hurt that I was feeling was unexpected enough to make me frown.
William, I thought, feeling a new crack form in my heart. What would happen to us now?
William…
31 William
16 hours later…
It was 6 a.m. when I exited the cab and rubbed my temple, only just seeing where I was going. There was hardly any light outside, and I hadn’t gotten any sleep at the hospital, which only fuelled my headache after the day I’d had.
Charlie, I thought, as I had done more than a few times ever since I’d left the office. I realized I shouldn’t have left the way I did, but I was too frustrated and angry at what happened at the meeting to think clearly. She had nothing to do with it, that much I knew, and she hadn’t deserved me snapping at her.
