Page 107 of I'm Looking for a Man in Finance
“Bye, Anthea.”
And this time, I didn’t look back.
I dialed Roxie the moment I walked out the doors ofSophisticate.
“This is your resident unemployed roommate speaking,” Roxie said as she answered the phone.
“I guess that makes two of us,” I told her.
There was a pause, then a gasp. “What? What happened? Did that bitch fire you for standing up for yourself? I know an excellent lawyer, Hal. I think you’d have a good case for wrongful termination.”
“Easy there, Rox,” I laughed. “Anthea didn’t fire me. I quit.”
Another pause.
“Youquit?”
I understood why Roxie was shocked. Neither of us ever thought I’d leaveSophisticate. Even when I brought up the idea of our blog, I think both of us thought it would always be a pipe dream.
I guess all it took was Anthea crossing a line for me to finally act. The thought of spending my days churning out soulless clickbait pieces, whether that be for relationships or food, forever at the risk of her completely rewriting them without my consent, had become unbearable.
“Fuck yeah, we are going out tonight to celebrate,” Roxie exclaimed, her voice buzzing. “It’s about time we made our blog a reality.”
“This is going to be a long, hard slog, Rox,” I warned, my voice heavy. “Are you sure you’re up for this?”
Choosing to walk away from a stable job and into your own venture was terrifying. There was no way around it,and part of me might have hoped that Roxie would back out. Say that this was too risky and quell all my anxiety, but who was I kidding? This was Roxie.
“You know that I’m in, Hal. We will make such a splash that restaurants willbegus to cover them,” she replied, her words laced with determination. “And I know just the place to cover first.”
I didn’t even have to see Roxie’s face to know a smug smile played on her lips.
“Roxie, you remember what happened this last week, right?” I asked, ignoring the pang in my chest that was there every time I thought about James, which was a near constant. “I don’t think that’s a possibility.”
“You made a deal with James, didn’t you?” Roxie asked me.
“Well, yes.”
“And you hold up your end of deals, yes?”
I could see where Roxie was heading with this, but part of me wondered if I could even stomach showing my face in front of James’s family after what had happened. What if he told them? What if his mother and grandmother read the article like they had all the others? How was I supposed to waltz back into his family’s pizzeria and have a meal, intending to review it? Would they even want me there?
Despite all the questions circling in my mind, I knew Roxie had hit the bullseye. She knew me well enough to know that I couldn’t possibly walk away from my deal with James, even if we weren’t speaking right now. He’d gone through with four incredible dates, and while I would no longer be getting what I needed out of our deal, that didn’t mean he couldn’t.
“Okay, fine. We can go by the pizzeria and have our first review be Rossi’s.”
Roxie squealed on the other end of the line and while I wanted to join her in celebration of the start of something potentially great, all I could think about was James.
38
Hallie
I was fairly certain I hadn’t changed my underwear in almost three days. Tissues and various old bowls of popcorn littered the couch. Wine glasses and empty plates sat on the coffee table. I was sure I looked absolutely pathetic, but the moment I got back fromSophisticate, it was like the floodgates had opened. I mourned the loss of my job and my potential relationship all at once. The second I crossed the threshold into my apartment, the tears started, and four days later, they were just drying up.
Roxie came out of her room, barefoot and wearing one of her old NYU sweatshirts. She looked at me for a moment, holding something behind her back.
“Before I hand this over,” she said, her voice softer than usual, “can we do a quick check in?”
She stepped into the living room, now cautiously navigating a minefield of tissues and wine-stained glasses. “Do you need help with rent this month? Or bills? I know you didn’t expect to walk out ofSophisticatelike that, and I don’t want you stressing over money on top of everything else.”
