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Chapter1
Kaitlyn
It’s been one hell of a long week, and I can’t wait to get home put my feet up on the worn coffee table, and chow down on some cookie-dough ice cream.
Everywhere I go in this small-ass town, I see or hear about Brandon and Tiffany’s wedding. God, I’m sick of hearing about Brandon and Tiffany’s wedding.
Like every small town in America, the cozy, personable, welcoming atmosphere of Hailey draws tourists and those looking to live a quiet life. But also, like in every other small town, everybody knows your business, and you know theirs.
I need to move to a city. Somewhere far away, where there’s lots to see and do, lots of people I don’t have to know – and most importantly who don’t know me. Where I can be lost in a sea of faces on the street. A place where I won’t run into my neighbor, my dentist, and my mother’s hairdresser all in the same morning on my way to the local café to grab a coffee, where I’ll undoubtedly run into at least twenty others I’m on a first-name basis with. Did I mention my ex and the new love of his life? I don’t want to run into them, either.
“Kaitlyn, have you seen the drawings for the retirement home project?”
I glance over at Margo. We’ve been working together for four years at the town’s one and only landscaping company and have become good friends both in and out of the office. While I grew up here, Margo is a transplant and two years older than my thirty years.
“I just filed them. I can pull them out again if you’d like?” I’m sure the paper cut I received putting them in there won’t have a problem reminding me of its existence.
“No, that’s fine. If you stick them in my hands I’ll feel obligated to look at them. And on a Friday afternoon, the first weekend of June, I have no desire to dig into something that can wait until Monday. We have,” she glances down at her Mickey Mouse watch, “exactly twenty-three minutes left of this work week. I want to get out of here on time tonight. It’s supposed to be a beautiful weekend and I have gardening of my own to do.”
“Then forget I said anything.” I tidy up my desk, return samples from the small conference table to their rightful spots along the wall, and water the plants. I like to keep things clean and organized so that when customers or clients visit, it looks like we have our shit together.
“Have you decided what you’re going to do yet?”
The dreaded vacation conversation. Again. “No.”
“You should go on a trip.”
“I don’t have the money.” All the money I had went towards my boyfriend’s education. Sorry, ex-boyfriend. I worked so he could finish med school. Some people thought I was quite the martyr for supporting him like that. Others thought I was an idiot.
I wish I’d listened to the latter group.
“Do you have any relatives or friends out of state you can visit? Getting away would be so refreshing. It might give you a different perspective on things.”
Oh, my perspective is just fine. My boss is forcing me to take time off. Time I don’t want to take. “I have no money and nowhere to go.”
“If youhadthe money, where would you go?”
“New York,” I say without giving it a millisecond of thought. “There’s so much to do there—plays, concerts, museums, shopping.” Brandon and I had always talked about New York, or maybe it was just me. I had high hopes of spending our honeymoon there one day.
I hear he’s taking Tiffany to Las Vegas.
“Why won’t they just let me work?”
She sighs, and it’s a ‘we’ve-had-this-conversation-many-times-already’ sigh. “You know why.”
“If I’ve earned it, and it belongs to me, I should have a say in when I take it.”
“You do, honey. But you haven’t taken any vacation days since you started four years ago. Sam has been very generous in letting you carry it over. But it’s costing him money.” Margo is the accountant slash planning person. Our boss, Sam, is not the only one hounding me.
“They can just give me the money.”
“You know that’s not how it works. It’s a mental health thing as well. We all need time to recharge. You have been working non-stop.”
That’s because it’s the only place I can go in town and not be bombarded or reminded that my ex-boyfriend and my ex-best friend are getting married in two weeks.
Did I forget to mention my ex-best friend? She’s a nurse. He’s a doctor. Guess what game they were playing during the night shift?
“Margo, Kaitlyn, let’s go. We’re cutting out early tonight.”
