Page 8 of September
For one, she’d never been one to enjoy business travel. She had only been on a few business trips since joining the workforce, and she hadn’t liked it at all. The hotels all looked the same. Once, she had forgotten that she had rented a car, and she had spent ten minutes looking for her own car in a parking lot before remembering that she had a rented one. Then, she couldn’t remember the make of the car which she had driven out of the rental car lot, so she had spent another five minutes looking for a red car and aiming the key fob at each one she’d found until one finally beeped and unlocked.
Juliet wasn’t sure that she wanted Jordana’s job, but she could see herself sitting inhischair one day. The only classes he taught were the executive leadership courses, but he ran the entire team, and Juliet had always seen herself in HR management. Training was part of the HR department, so it was close to what she’d gone to school for, but it also opened up the opportunities for her to move into exactly what she had gone to school for by getting visibility and recertifying. She could even go back to school and get her master’s degree in HR administration if she were saving money on her expenses. There were part-time and online programs that she could take, and if she were going to be in business hotels practically every weeknight, she could at least be productive with her time. No, she didn’t want all the travel, but she could deal with it for a while until something else came up.
The second issue, though, was Carly. If Juliet were going to be gone all the time, she would have to figure something out for her dog. Her ex hadn’t asked for any kind of custody arrangement when she left and hadn’t once called or texted to ask how the dogshehad picked out forthemwas doing, so she wouldn’t be an option to take care of Carly while Juliet was gone. Molly might be able to take her every so often, but Juliet couldn’t ask her to take Carly all the time. She’d have to hire someone in the short term and see how it went. If she were able to drive to a location and find a hotel that allowed pets that the company was willing to pay for, she could bring Carly with her, but that would mean that the poor dog would be stuck in a hotel room all day while Juliet worked and not at home where she’d be more comfortable. Juliet would have to figure all this out, but she would.
“Sure,” she replied, probably not sounding all that confident.
???
“Congratulations!” Molly said as she put Juliet’s beer in her hand and held up her own beer. “You have to toast now, or it’s bad luck.”
“Oh, sorry,” she replied.
When she had told Molly the news of her promotion, Molly had insisted that they go out to celebrate, and Juliet had gone along with it, but she hadn’t really wanted to celebrate. For some reason, it didn’t feel like this promotion was earned or one to be celebrated.
“Why aren’t you in a good mood? You just got a promotionanda raise.”
“I don’t know. It’s a promotion, but it’s not exactly Jordana’s job.”
“So? You don’t have to manage peopleandyou get more money? That’s living the dream, Jules.”
Juliet laughed and replied, “It’s the travel. I don’t really like business travel already, and I worry about what to do with Carly. I accepted, but I should’ve thought about it more before I told him I’d do it.”
“You signed the offer letter, Jules. You’re in now. Why didn’t you wait to do that? I’m sure they would’ve given you a few days.”
“I know.” She sighed. “I jumped at the chance because it’s moving up, which is what I want. And like you said, it’s the dream: getting a higher-paying job without having people to manage. It’s a good thing. I think I just need a minute to figure out Carly, and I’ll embrace the continental breakfasts and shampoo-conditioner combos.”
“Bring your own shampoo and conditioner. Don’t use theirs.” Molly shook her head. “Problem solved.”
Juliet laughed and replied, “I will. Don’t worry. I plan to bring all my own stuff. I’ll use their hairdryer, but–”
“Bring your own hairdryer, too. The ones in hotels are awful; tiny things that usually take a year to dry your hair, and sometimes, they’re even broken.”
“You’re right,” she said and lifted her beer to her lips.
“So, when do you start?” Molly asked.
“Now, technically. Well, next week. I have to cover the stuff Jordana had scheduled already. I can’t do it allandmy stuff at the same time, so I need to work out with the other two trainers what they can cover for me, but they don’t know that I’ve been promoted yet, so I have to wait for that. Then, I have to call the hotels Jordana had booked for herself and change the reservations to my name. They also have to add me to the reservation-making travel system thingy. I have a corporate card already, but I’ve never had to book company travel for myself, so it’s just a lot of logistics this week.”
“Sounds like fun,” Molly said sarcastically.
“Yeah,” she replied with no emotion. “So, why did we come here, exactly? Tourist bar on Bourbon? We don’t usually do this to ourselves.”
“Oh, no reason. Gay bar, and we’re both gay,” Molly said, obviously lying.
“Did you hear that Finley might be here from someone today?”
Molly sighed and said, “I overheard India talking on the phone in the kitchen, saying that Finley wanted to go out tonight and she didn’t. This is Finley’s favorite bar, so I thought she might show.”
“And that India wouldn’t?”
“Yeah.” Molly lowered her gaze. “It’s not like I would actually be the other woman. If Finley is taken, she’s taken. I just like talking to her.”
“And staring at her,” Juliet added.
“It’s the cute, messy hair that she’s always touching and making worse, but it’s actually better.”
“Plus, she’s got that hot nerd thing going on.”
