Page 9 of Love Hate Relationship

“Hello?”

“Navie, hello! How are you?”

“I’m, um…” I lifted my head enough to take in my prone position on the floor, only imagining how pathetic I looked. “I’m good?” I had no idea why I answered in the form of a question.

“I’m glad,” Lauren answered. “I was just calling to see how your first day went.”

“It was, uh… um… good?”

Silence came through the line so long I was afraid the call dropped. That was, until I heard her heavy sigh whoosh through the receiver. “What did he do?”

“No! No, it was… fine,” I spouted quickly. “He was fine. Everything was fine. Fine, fine, fine,” I added with a heaping of cheerfulness, hoping it didn’t sound as fake to her as it did to me.

“Navie, please speak freely. I want nothing more than for you to feel comfortable enough with me to tell me the truth.”

While her statement didn’t necessarily put me at ease, it did make me like her all that much more.

“No offense, Lauren. You’re fantastic, but I really need to keep this job.”

“Your job’s safe, sweetie, trust me.”

“Pinky promise?” I asked then quickly face-palmed.

“Swear,” she answered with a light laugh.

“Okay, then. He’shorrible! I can’t believe you’ve worked with him as long as you have and haven’t already been imprisoned for murder. I was seriously contemplating it a time or a thousand today. I can’t stand the guy, and I’m pretty sure he hates me, which doesn’t make sense because I’m a friggin' ray of sunshine! But after the day I’ve had, I’m feeling rather violent. I’ve never felt that way before, and I was bullied in high school, so that’s really saying something!”

After my long-winded rant, I sucked in some much needed oxygen, praying that my mini freak-out hadn’t just cost me my job, but seriously doubting I was still gainfully employed.

“I’m fired, aren’t I?” I asked as I chewed anxiously on my thumbnail, waiting for Lauren to say something.

And what she said was completely unexpected.

“Do you know why I hired you for this position, Navie?”

“Uh… because you secretly hate me, too, and are trying to punish me?”

“No,” she laughed. “I hired you because I saw something in you during that first interview.”

“What did you see?” I asked curiously.

“A backbone,” she answered simply, shocking me into silence. “You’re tough, Navie. It’s not something you wear outwardly, but I could see it in your eyes the moment I met you. And seeing as you just admitted to being bullied, that strength makes sense now. I gave you this job because I had no doubt whatsoever that you could handle it.”

“I think you’re giving me a little too much credit,” I responded humorlessly.

“And I think you’re wrong. A weak person would have gone home and cried into a pint of ice cream. She wouldn’t have gone on a passionate tangent the way you just did. I thinkyoudon’t give yourself enough credit.”

“Thank you,” I said softly, truly touched by her impassioned words.

“Look, I know Rowan can be difficult at times—”

“Understatement of the century,” I snorted.

“But,” she continued, “he’s not all bad. I know it’s hard to see that now, but you’re right. I wouldn’t have been able to work with him going on ten years if he was a constant miserable prick. He’s got some demons in his past that make it hard for him to trust anyone. You can’t take it personally. His life made him hard.”

I could understand that.Boy, could I understand that. The fact that Rowan and I shared messed-up childhoods resonated with me and made me a little more sympathetic toward the callous man.

“I’m going to be honest with you, Navie. My gut is telling me you can handle this job. But if you really feel like it’s too much, we’ll find you another position at Enterprise.”

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