Page 32 of Mostly My Girlfriend
“Lauren,” Jules said to her. “I’m sorry, but I wasn’t kidding about that flight. We really have to go.”
“Yeah, sure. I can always come back. This place seems like a really super awesome place to work.”
“Super awesome,” Jules repeated. She stood and offered her hand again. “We’ll be in touch.”
“I’ll show her out,” Daniel said.
As soon as the door shut behind them, Jules glared at me. “Are you serious?”
“She was the first candidate,” I replied. “Give me a break.”
“She was supposed to have been phone-screened by HR. We need to tell Eileen that any more than one use of the wordawesomeorsuperin a conversation and that person is immediately disqualified.”
“You have to give people a chance,” I pointed out.
“Why?”
I sighed. Finding her an assistant was going to be next to impossible. “Fine. But this doesn’t end here. The minute we get back after the holidays we’re interviewing again.”
“Okay, but just saying, whoever we hire, he or she has to find you equally as dorky as I do or it’s never going to work.”
“Ha-ha.”
“Now can we go see your parents, you big coward?”
I checked my watch. Damn. We were totally going to make the flight.
* * *
New York
Christmas Day
Ethan
“I ordered a hundred copies ofTime.”
“That seems excessive, Mom.” I told her, reaching for the glass of wine in front of me. I remembered the last time I’d been here with Julia and the stink my father had made about my drinking. I glanced in his direction, but he was focused on the tenderloin on his plate.
“I don’t think so at all. Julia, what do you think? Maybe I should order more.”
My mother was beaming at me and it made me shift in my chair. I’d clearly made her happy by coming back for the holiday, which reminded me, again, of the years when I’d cut myself off from them and what it had done to her.
We were sitting around the formal dining room table, stuffing ourselves with more food than any four people could eat. Jules was filling in the gaps of conversation whenever things got too close to being awkward.
And my dad…well, we were both trying.
“Enough with the magazine cover, Rachel,” he said. “You’re going to give Ethan a bigger head than he already has.”
“Oh please don’t!” Jules pounced on the easy joke. We all chuckled, and I thought this wasn’t so bad. This felt almost close to normal.
“And son, you’ve been feeling well?”
“Yes. Feeling fine.”
“Getting enough sleep?”
“Yes.”
