Mel nodded and returned the smile. Well, maybe not everything.
THE SUBWAY JERKED AND vibrated on the rails, turning the granola bar in Mel’s stomach to concrete. Or maybe it was thoughts of Blake—a man she had no right to want and couldn’t have.
She was acting like a love-struck teenager, and she needed to stop. Even their almost-kiss hovering in the air between them like the proverbial elephant in the room wasn’t an excuse. It was one thing to be attracted to him, that much she couldn’t deny, but she needed to stop letting her imagination run wild. Maybe her unconscious desire was merely manifesting itself in their interactions. Maybe his grabbing her waist this morning was truly to prevent her from stumbling and spilling her coffee. His lingering hold on her was only her imagination running wild.
Instead of wasting her energy on a crush, she needed to focus on things that mattered, things that were real. Today was huge, and her thoughts should solely be consumed with this landmark in her career. There were zero reasons that Hillary wouldn’t extend the position as promised. Still, she worried. Once you were on the precipice of getting everything you’d ever dreamed of, it was kind of hard not to fear falling off the edge. She’d always hoped to be in this position, but with Blue running rank, she figured it’d be years, if ever. It was crazy how fast things could change.
Her thoughts drifted to Blake again, and she bit her lip. A whole different set of nerves wrapped around her stomach and squeezed. Something had changed with them this past week. There was an energy that wasn’t present before, or at the very least, had been subdued. But now it was standing to attention, raising the hair on her arms and turning her stomach to knots. When she was around him, sometimes it felt like all it would take was a single spark to ignite whatever was coursing between them.
She sighed and opened her eyes, reminding herself that he’d only be with them a couple more weeks, and then he’d be gone. Out of her life forever. Hopefully, the Triple Threat would be allowed back at school, and Blake would be back to his perfect girlfriend and their perfect life together, and Mel would return to just being Mel with her three kids.
Way to put a damper on things.
The subway stopped, and the doors whooshed open. She confirmed her stop before she took off, walking up the stairs of the station and gloomy corridor, out into the sunshine, heading in the direction of Rockefeller Center. She weaved past a group of tourists and a man hocking Gucci on the corner, toward the building and paused just outside as a tangle of nerves suddenly seized her lungs.
What if Hillary changed her mind? What if this was all some kind of a joke? Or they gave her the position but not the raise? What if they gave it to someone else? A million things could go wrong.
She pressed a hand over her stomach and swallowed over the bile rising to the back of her throat. The buzzing of her phone momentarily distracted her, and she plucked it from her bag on the off chance that it was about the kids. One glance told her it was from Blake, and she smiled.
Blake: I can’t believe I work for the executive editor at PopNewz. If I weren’t leaving in a few weeks, now would be the time to ask for a raise.
Mel laughed as another text came through with a winking emoji.
How did he know what she needed to hear in that exact moment?
She bit her lip, suppressing the smile that now threatened to overtake her entire face and dropped the phone back in her bag. Inhaling, she closed her eyes and tipped her head up toward the sun. This was her day. Her job to seize. Nothing would take this away from her.
The fist around her stomach loosened, and she relaxed. Savoring the moment, she took it all in. Today, she took one giant leap toward the life she had always wanted—a better life for her, Peter, Kinsley, and Brady.
Then she opened her eyes and stepped inside the building.
SUNLIGHT GLINTED OFF the gleaming mahogany in front of her. The office smelled of coffee and printer paper but was filled with silence as Hillary handed Mel her freshly minted contract—straight from HR.
Mel took a deep breath. She was really doing this.
Her knee shook under her desk as she glanced over her contract, skimming the legal jargon, reading more carefully over the job expectations and salary, looking for some loophole or catch. But all was as expected, except . . .
Her eyes widened over the clause below her salary. Her heart thumped, her blood electric. “Um, what’s this?” she asked, glancing up at Hillary.
“Oh, that.” Hillary waved her away. “That’s your signing bonus,” she said like it was no big deal, then went back to reading emails on her laptop as she waited for Mel to finish signing.
“Signing bonus?” Mel croaked. Her jaw practically hit her desk as she continued to stare at Hillary as if a candid camera was hidden right around the corner.
Hillary removed her reading glasses and stared at Mel like she was stupid. “Yeah. It’s customary when you get a promotion of this extent. Didn’t HR tell you when they went over everything?”
Mel had spoken with HR last week in preparation for today, and they never said anything.
She shook her head, speechless.
“Oh, well . . . Congratulations. You’ll get it as soon as you sign,” Hillary said, tapping the table in front of the contract, clearly impatient for Mel to get this over with so she could get back to work. Obviously, this occasion was not as monumental for her as it was for Mel.
Regardless, Mel was no fool. She snatched the pen off the desk and hurriedly scribbled her si
gnature on the bottom of the contract as though at any minute, someone might snatch it away and rescind the offer.
Once she finished, she double-checked it twice, then set her pen down and folded her hands in front of her over the smooth surface of the desk.
She did it. It was now official. She was the executive editor of the digital column PopNewz, and in a few short moments, she’d have a hefty bonus to prove it.