Page 118 of The Reboot
‘Yeah. I guess. It’s just … I’d always planned to have an academic career.’
‘Right.’ Dylan nodded. ‘But you’re so good at this.’ His eyes were wide, pleading.
‘Sometimes the best things in life are the things we didn’t plan for ourselves,’ Jake offered.
‘Yes!’ Dylan leaned forward eagerly. ‘I was gutted when I had my knee injury and they told me I couldn’t play rugby anymore. I thought I was going to have this brilliant career, playing for Ireland and everything. That was all I wanted to do with my life. But then I got injured, one thing led to another, and I ended up here. We started this company, and it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I never thought I’d say that about being in business, and if you told my eighteen-year-old self that, he’d say you were crazy. But Ilovecoming to work every day. I wake up feeling excited about coming in here, and I’m much happier than I’d have been playing rugby for a living.’
‘Plus your career would nearly be over by now if you were playing rugby,’ Jake chipped in.
‘I’d have become a commentator, though – or gone into coaching. I could have been the hot rugby coach at a girls’ school.’
‘You still wouldn’t be able to go out on the piss every weekend,’ Jake said. ‘You’d have to stay in shape.’
‘Well … I’m pretty fit anyway.’
‘Not match-fit, though.’
‘Don’t listen to him,’ Dylan said to Ella. ‘I’m very fit. If I get the call, I’m ready.’
She smiled. She was going to miss this. Miss them.
‘So,’ Jake said, in business mode again. ‘Talk to us. What can we do to persuade you to stay?’
‘More money? A promotion?’
Ella shook her head. ‘I don’t think you can. Sorry. Like I said, it’s nothing to do with you. It’s been really great working here, and I’m so grateful for the opportunity you’ve given me. But it’s … time to move on.’
‘Are you leaving us for someone else?’ Jake asked.
‘Well, yes. A friend of mine has offered me a research assistant post at Trinity.’
‘Research assistant!’ Dylan’s eyes widened. ‘I don’t imagine that pays much, does it?’
‘No, it doesn’t. But it’s in my field. It’s what I’ve always wanted to do – what I’d planned to do before I got ill.’
Jake turned to Dylan. ‘I suppose if you’d got over your knee injury and been offered the chance to play for Ireland, you’d have gone for it.’
‘Honestly, I don’t know.’ Dylan directed his answer at Ella, his blue eyes wide and sincere. ‘I mean, yeah, if I’d been offered that when I was nineteen or twenty, I’d have bitten their hand off, no hesitation. But now, if I could go back and talk to my twenty-year-old self, I’d say don’t do it. Honestly. Don’t do it because there are better things coming, and your life is going to be so much more than you can imagine right now. Because the thing is, even if I could have gone back to it then, it still wouldn’t be the same as if I hadn’t had that injury in the first place. Do you see what I mean?’
‘Yes, I do. I get it. I know I can’t change the past. Those lost years will always be lost. But just because it’ll be different doesn’t mean it can’t be as good — or better even.’
Dylan threw his head back against the sofa and sighed. ‘Wow, this so isn’t what I expected you to say when we came in here,’ he said with a laugh. ‘I thought I was going to be giving you advice on your love life.’
‘Roly isn’t my love life.’
‘Relationships, then. Whatever. That’s what I’m good at.’
‘You’re pretty good at the life coach stuff too,’ Ella said wryly. She was surprised how insightful he could be.
‘He’s wise beyond his appearance,’ Jake said.
‘We really don’t want to lose you.’
Ella felt a pang. Was that what was happening? Would she be lost?
‘You’re the best person we’ve ever had here,’ Jake said. ‘And that’s including me and him.’ He nodded to Dylan.
‘Look,’ Dylan said, ‘you’re upset about the Roly thing. Maybe now isn’t the best time to be making big life decisions. Sometimes when one part of your life goes wrong, you make drastic changes in other areas that turn out to be a mistake.’
