Page 9 of Party Favors

I spent the morning checking up on Adrian, reminding him about what was next on his agenda, and showing Vella the ropes. She managed to keep her sarcastic comments about my boss to just four, which I took as a good sign.

She also got to attend her first department-wide meeting, where the expectation was that she would take notes. I could tell how bored she was, given the comical faces of distress and exasperation she kept making, and I had a hard time not laughing.

At one point she texted me,This meeting is sucking my will to live.

Stay strong, I texted back.

How do you do this every day?

Mostly caffeine and a love for my job, but I knew she didn’t want to hear that. I just shook my head at her and went back to listening to Claudia talk about new possible clients. She made deliberate eye contact with me, and I glanced over at Adrian. I was going to have to ask him. Claudia would absolutely check up on whether or not I had done it.

At lunchtime I knew that Adrian had plans to take Colette out, so that freed me up to actually go out somewhere to eat instead of having lunch at my desk. I took Vella to a little bistro around the corner that I’d had cater many meetings at work.

The manager greeted me by name. “Everly! I’m so happy you joined us. I’ve saved the best table for you.”

“Thank you, Joe.”

“How do you do that?” Vella asked, actually sounding impressed. “How do you know everybody in New York?”

“I have a lot of contacts,” I said, picking up my menu.

“You like everybody.” She said it accusingly, like it was a bad thing. “It must be exhausting being you.”

I did like everybody. “Only sometimes. How’s your first day going so far?”

“Other than that torture method you called a meeting? Pretty good.”

I laughed. “It wasn’t that bad.”

She made a face at me. “Not that bad? My mother once told me after I got my first tattoo that I’d never be able to work in an office because tattoos weren’t professional, but she was so mistaken. If anything, they should show potential employers that I have the ability to stay still for long periods of time while sharp needles prick my skin over and over, because that’s what that meeting felt like.”

I laughed again and thanked the waiter who brought us over some glasses of water.

“Spill,” Vella said when he’d left. “What’s going on with you?”

I filled her in on everything that had happened last night with Claudia, but I left out how Colette’s showing up this morning was probably what had made me appear a bit off. Because I already knew how my best friend felt about my crush.

When I finished, she nodded. “Okay, here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to stop waiting for that spine donor and tell Adrian you want to pitch. Today. When we get back from lunch. If you put it off, you’ll never do it.”

She was right. I couldn’t wait. The new-client meeting was tomorrow. I was running out of time.

“I’ll do it,” I said, determined.

If I wanted things to change in my life, I was going to have to be the one to take that first giant leap forward.

No matter how scary it was.

CHAPTER FOUR

When I’d pictured myself being brave, I’d never imagined that I’d be in the office bathroom splashing water on my face and trying to calm down.

It didn’t help matters that Vella was glued to my side, encouraging me like a demented goth cheerleader. “You can do this. I believe in you!”

“Right. I can.”

There was a fleeting expression on her face, so quick I nearly missed it, but I saw the annoyance mixed with pity, and it made all my nervous feelings intensify. I had to calm down, to focus. I remembered a trick my mother had once taught me and put my fisted hands on my hips, widening my stance.

“What are you doing?” Vella asked.

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