Page 6 of Love Off the Rocks
Over time, I kept trying to one-up myself with each purchase. Make each new one better and more fantastic than its predecessor. Souvenir pens, hotel pens, swag pens, pens from remote out of the way places, pens that double as something else. Don’t even get me started on the colored ink.
It’s a hard habit to break, picking up pens from everywhere I go. I have two shoe boxes at home filled with them. I’ve continued to collect them no matter where I go, as proof that I’m thinking about her, that she’s still in my heart, even though I’ll never see her again. My favorite is a flashlight, screwdriver, level, ruler, pen, and highlighter all in one. I call it the MacGyver maker. Once you have that one, would you need anything more?
But then the unexpected happened, three weeks before we were set to graduate. I got a job offer I couldn’t refuse. I hadn’t even applied for it. One of my professors had sent in my resume along with a letter of recommendation. The job was for a media and marketing specialist at a tech start up, an ISP. My dream has always been to be a part of something from the ground up, and this was that chance.
I took the job without a second thought. I didn’t even discuss it with my girl first. I just assumed she would stay with me.
News flash: She didn’t.
I haven’t seen her since. I tried to contact her a few times that first year, not as hard as I should have. That was my mistake.
It’s been five years and I’ve yet to meet a girl who excites me as much as she does. But I blew it and I know it. So, on the days that I’m feeling emotionally charitable, I admit to myself I hope she made it to Washington, and that she got an amazing job with some fabulous company, and that she’s happy.
Other days, not so much.
“Dude,” Sam interrupts my reminiscing. “I grabbed us a room with two twin beds. Not all the rooms have more than one bed.”
“Shit, I didn’t even think about that. Thanks, man.”
“No problem, boss.” He winks exaggeratedly, making me laugh.
“I think I’m going to unpack and grab a quick shower, try to wake up before the West Coast team gets here.”
“I’ll distract Brittni so she doesn’t try to crawl in there with you.”
“Ha, thanks.” I laugh, but I also wouldn’t put it past her. Brittni is one of those people who comes on strong. No apparent fear of rejection. And why should she? As far as she’s concerned, she has the power of the universe behind her, backing her decisions. She looks together on the outside, then she opens her mouth, and you wonder who hired her.
Not that she’s dumb. Quite the contrary. But her head is in the clouds. She prefers to live in the spiritual realm. Her words, not mine. Where everything happens for a reason and at the same time, she can predict the future. Tarot cards, energy healing, aura reading, palm reading—she does it all. And what’s worse is she really believes in what she’s saying.
I head inside the cabin. And to call it a cabin is silly given the size. While the decor is exactly like what you would expect in a log cabin with lots of wood and windows, raised ceilings and a great room. The livability is more like a communal hotel. Ten bedrooms, six full and three half bathrooms, game room, home theater, dining for thirty people family-style.
The entire downstairs is one great big fifteen-hundred square foot room of living and dining areas plus the largest residential kitchen I’ve ever seen. I know from the brochure that the basement houses a large game room and home theater and that all ten bedrooms are upstairs, five and five on opposite sides of a loft area.
I head up the grand staircase in the middle of the great room leading to the loft, then turn to my left, second bedroom on the right, like Sam told me. I can see everyone unpacking and settling in and hear the murmurings of the West Coast team arriving. I’m going to need to introduce myself at some point, but for now, I just want a moment of quiet. My assistant, Nancy, is here to organize everything and I’m happy to let her do just that.
I’m going to need to stay on point this entire stay. It’s kind of my show. It was my idea to bring the two coasts together and make it a working vacation for everyone. And, since we are the larger company absorbing the smaller, we chose their home turf of Washington for the retreat. Even though the office is in Seattle and we’re in Olympia. Nancy said this was the closest she could get.
The goal being to inconvenience them as little as possible since this trip is also to help us evaluate who we will keep and who we’ll let go. As such, there are going to be a lot of team building and trust exercises. I have Nancy, Sam, and a couple other guys helping me with the initial selection process and then I will narrow it down from there. We automatically elected to keep their tech support on staff, so of the twelve remaining employees here, we’ll be keeping five.
My least favorite thing about this new position is exactly what I’m here to do.
4
Mags
A small, peppy woman welcomes me the moment I step into the behemoth they’re calling a cabin.
“Hello! I’m Nancy. Assistant to the National Vice President of Subscriber Enrollment and Retention. What’s your name and we’ll get you all checked in?”
“Magdalena Stratton.” I hold out my hand to shake hers. “But everyone calls me Mags.”
“That’s so pretty,” she says, staring at me for a moment longer than is polite, before shaking her head as though to clear it. “Well, here you go, one name tag, one swag bag. You should only need the name tag for a day or so until we all know one another. But until then, this will help. The bedrooms are all upstairs and first come, first served. If you pick a queen or king-size bed, you may be sleeping with someone else, so just keep that in mind. But there should be plenty to choose from.”
I nod and gather my things, attaching my name tag as I climb the massive stairwell in the middle of the room to the loft above. I can’t even imagine the horror of having to sleep with someone else. A stranger. I’d rather sleep on the floor before I let that happen. How could they even think it would be okay to have employees do that?
I head to the right and make my way down the hall, passing the two bedrooms on the right, with a bathroom in between. And the two bedrooms on the left, also with an adjoining bath in between. I end up in the doorway of the one large bedroom on the end. Each bed I’ve seen so far already has a suitcase or duffel on it, this one included. Assuming that means someone has already claimed them, I make my way back down the hall and over to the left-hand side of the floor. The first room on the right has an open bed, so I grab it without even looking at the rest of the rooms.
I just want to unpack and settle in before this whole thing starts. Although, now that I’m here, I wish I’d listened to Tricia more about my clothes. From what I’ve seen of the other girls, they are wearing cute skirts and shorts. Suddenly the idea of spending the weekend in leggings feels regrettable. I pull my reusable water bottle from my purse and squirt a long drink into my mouth.
