reason Emmy hadn’t been promoted already.
“ How can I help you?” Stephanie asked, in that choppy New England accent of hers that set Emmy’s teeth on edge. That and the malice behind it that Stephanie no longer bothered to conceal.
“ How can you help me?” Emmy repeated, fighting to keep her own voice smooth, so Stephanie couldn’t make any of her usual comments about Emmy’s attitude. “Stephanie, I’m preparing for my sister’s wedding, as you know. I’m two thousand miles away. Yet you’ve decided this is the perfect time to restructure our team in a way, I can’t help but notice, that’s a promotion for everyone else and a demotion for me.”
“ It’s my job to make sure the team runs smoothly, Emmy,” Stephanie said in her patronizing way. “That’s not something you can help with while you’re off on one of your month long vacations, is it?”
“ This is the first time I’ve taken off work since I had that flu two winters ago,” Emmy pointed out, and it was an uphill battle to keep her voice as calm as possible. “And, as you insisted, I made this personal, unpaid time. It’s not a vacation.”
“ The firm doesn’t exist to cater to your demands for personal time,” Stephanie said. “Maybe you should spend the rest of your vacation thinking about how to become a better team player.”
Make something else instead, she’d told Griffin. That’s what you do .
It had never been what Emmy did. This was the first job she’d ever had, and sure, she was pretty good at it. But while various coworkers came and went, Emmy had stayed, and the other thing she’d told Griffin was true: she was tired of it. She was tired of writing copy. She was tired of the deadline drama and the never-satisfied clientele. She was tired of Creative Directors like Stephanie who stole credit for her work and had hated her on sight simply because she’d refused to ingratiate herself the way the others had done, claiming it was office politics instead of kissing ass .
Emmy hadn ’t made it big. She’d made practical decisions, one after the next, ever since she’d found herself naked and without Griffin in that barn ten years ago. She’d resolved to keep herself safe after that scarring experience. What kind of person threw away a good job just because she didn’t love every moment of it? Emmy had never been that person. She’d told herself repeatedly that she didn’t want to be that person.
But she ’d also never been the kind of person who sunk so deep into a blistering three-week affair that she almost didn’t care who caught her doing it. Like last night, when she and Griffin had gotten a little too lost in a stolen kiss in his grandmother’s house that had almost resulted in them being walked in on in a very compromising position by Emmy’s aunt and uncle. The old Emmy would never have allowed that to happen. The new Emmy had laughed and hidden in a closet like a teenager.
She liked the new Emmy better , she understood then. She liked who she was with Griffin. And she decided right there on a chaise in a Bozeman, Montana spa that it didn’t matter what happened between them. Griffin was temporary. She’d find a way to deal with that. But this version of herself—the one who did as she liked because she trusted herself enough to know she could handle the consequences—didn’t have to be as temporary as he was.
“ I have a better idea,” she said into her phone, and she didn’t have to fight for that cool, calm tone. It came naturally, at last. “Make me a reasonable offer, Stephanie, and I won’t come back at all.”
It took less than fifteen minutes. When she ended the call, she had an appointment with Human Resources for her exit interview the following week, a very nice package, and a brand new life to figure out because she’d thrown away the old one.
Maybe it was no surprise she felt dizzy. She sat on the chaise and stared at the phone in her hand and wondered what the hell
“ How can I help you?” Stephanie asked, in that choppy New England accent of hers that set Emmy’s teeth on edge. That and the malice behind it that Stephanie no longer bothered to conceal.
“ How can you help me?” Emmy repeated, fighting to keep her own voice smooth, so Stephanie couldn’t make any of her usual comments about Emmy’s attitude. “Stephanie, I’m preparing for my sister’s wedding, as you know. I’m two thousand miles away. Yet you’ve decided this is the perfect time to restructure our team in a way, I can’t help but notice, that’s a promotion for everyone else and a demotion for me.”
“ It’s my job to make sure the team runs smoothly, Emmy,” Stephanie said in her patronizing way. “That’s not something you can help with while you’re off on one of your month long vacations, is it?”
“ This is the first time I’ve taken off work since I had that flu two winters ago,” Emmy pointed out, and it was an uphill battle to keep her voice as calm as possible. “And, as you insisted, I made this personal, unpaid time. It’s not a vacation.”
“ The firm doesn’t exist to cater to your demands for personal time,” Stephanie said. “Maybe you should spend the rest of your vacation thinking about how to become a better team player.”
Make something else instead, she’d told Griffin. That’s what you do .
It had never been what Emmy did. This was the first job she’d ever had, and sure, she was pretty good at it. But while various coworkers came and went, Emmy had stayed, and the other thing she’d told Griffin was true: she was tired of it. She was tired of writing copy. She was tired of the deadline drama and the never-satisfied clientele. She was tired of Creative Directors like Stephanie who stole credit for her work and had hated her on sight simply because she’d refused to ingratiate herself the way the others had done, claiming it was office politics instead of kissing ass .
Emmy hadn ’t made it big. She’d made practical decisions, one after the next, ever since she’d found herself naked and without Griffin in that barn ten years ago. She’d resolved to keep herself safe after that scarring experience. What kind of person threw away a good job just because she didn’t love every moment of it? Emmy had never been that person. She’d told herself repeatedly that she didn’t want to be that person.
But she ’d also never been the kind of person who sunk so deep into a blistering three-week affair that she almost didn’t care who caught her doing it. Like last night, when she and Griffin had gotten a little too lost in a stolen kiss in his grandmother’s house that had almost resulted in them being walked in on in a very compromising position by Emmy’s aunt and uncle. The old Emmy would never have allowed that to happen. The new Emmy had laughed and hidden in a closet like a teenager.
She liked the new Emmy better , she understood then. She liked who she was with Griffin. And she decided right there on a chaise in a Bozeman, Montana spa that it didn’t matter what happened between them. Griffin was temporary. She’d find a way to deal with that. But this version of herself—the one who did as she liked because she trusted herself enough to know she could handle the consequences—didn’t have to be as temporary as he was.
“ I have a better idea,” she said into her phone, and she didn’t have to fight for that cool, calm tone. It came naturally, at last. “Make me a reasonable offer, Stephanie, and I won’t come back at all.”
It took less than fifteen minutes. When she ended the call, she had an appointment with Human Resources for her exit interview the following week, a very nice package, and a brand new life to figure out because she’d thrown away the old one.
Maybe it was no surprise she felt dizzy. She sat on the chaise and stared at the phone in her hand and wondered what the hell
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