Page 67 of Mostly My Boss
Me ruling the world. Her by my side.
It hadn’t been easy without her. The letters had helped but they were a poor substitute for her grounding presence.
It’d been over three years since I’d seen her. Almost a year since I’d asked her for a picture. We hadn’t done calls or texts. We hadn’t done Google Hangouts or FaceTime. It was like we could each put the other in the space we needed as long as there were just the letters.
Now I was about to break all of that, and no fucking lie, I was nervous as shit.
A woman brushed by me on the street looking down at her phone. Her blond hair was chin length and streaked with highlights. Her shoes were short heels, but high quality. The dark blazer and pants fit her in a way that showed off her ass, and her bright-red Kate Spade bag saidup-and-comer but not there yet.
I didn’t need to see her face. It was in her walk, in her purpose. In the way her entire look said Fitting In, No Drama Here.
“Jules!”
She stopped on the top step and turned around, slowly, deliberately. When she saw me she didn’t smile. Neither did I.
She stuffed her phone in her purse and took the steps down, stopping on the second to last step so she was almost a head taller than I was.
I handed her the magazine.
Science Today. Front cover. A lead article that suggested a breakthrough in software that would return nearly instant results on blood tests. After the Theranos debacle, scientists were cautiously optimistic.
She looked at it, then at me.
“I’m making six figures,” she said, handing the magazine back.
I shrugged. “I’ll pay you more.”
She sighed. “Why didn’t you come to my graduation?”
I could tell her it was because of my parents. She would know it wasn’t the total truth.
“I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t going to see you again until I had proof. Until I had done something to prove I was worthy.”
“That’s fucked up. We’re supposed to be best friends.”
“We’re notsupposedto be anything. We are friends and you know me. I called you out for being fat on, like, your first week at school.”
“Youwerefat shaming me! I knew it!”
“Jules,” I said quietly. Because this was it. The now-or-never moment. No school degree between us, no family farm to save. I’d already saved it. She really was going to be pissed when she found out. “Are you with me?”
“Where are we going?”
My heart flipped over in my chest and I took a few shallow breaths to control the rush of emotion.
“Back to Seattle for now. I’ve got a building I’m using as headquarters. We’re going to have to think about the next steps.”
She crossed her arms and popped out her hip. It was a very un-Jules-like move and I could see how she’d grown in these past few years. More confident in herself, her power. A dangerous creature to be sure. Not that she would ever scare me.
“Is this the part where I tell you I need to think about it?”
“Do you really have to?” I asked.
“No. Come on inside. I’ll type up my resignation. You’ll tell me what your plans are and then…”
“I know,” I acknowledged. I knew what she was going to have me do.
“You have to, Ethan.”
