I'm terrible with finishing stories (or even getting past the first few chapters...), but it's summertime for me now, so we'll see where this goes. It's just an idea that came to me; basically a mash-up of a bunch of different ideas that I had. Enjoy!
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Getting Things Right
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Chapter One
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
I'm late. I'm so late. I'm never late. This can't be happening. I feel myself start to hyperventilate.
This is only the most important day of my life, and I'm running late. And now I'm actually running. I'm running down the bustling streets of downtown Vancouver like my life depends on it.
Almost everyone I pass is giving me an odd look and I'm sure that I've ploughed down a minimum of five people by now, but I can't bring myself to care. And that is saying something, because I always care.
I finally catch sight of the building that I'm so desperately trying to reach.
Shit.
I'm still five blocks away and these shoes aren't getting any more comfortable either. In fact, and I'm not exaggerating, one of my baby toes currently feels like it got slammed in a car door and the other one is so blissfully painless that I can only assume that I lost all feeling in it at least half a block ago.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
I'm getting closer to my destination and although I've been full-out running for five minutes now, I can feel my heart rate start to return to normal as I realize that I might only be five minutes late (rather than the twenty that I had originally envisioned).
It's a good thing too, because this meeting is seriously going to make or break my career. My life will either be over, or it will be getting a whole lot better. I know that sounds dramatic, but this appointment really is that important.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
I work for a publishing company that is going through a major restructure. They've been having trouble bringing in a profit for a while now, and last week I was informed that, although I was a great worker, they just couldn't see keeping my job intact.
That's the part about my life being over. I mean, I have worked long hours, I've worked through my lunch breaks, I've even worked through whole weekends on occasion; all in search of my typical level of perfection.
And the point of perfection is that it is supposed to be perfect. Perfection isn't supposed to leave my boss with any reason to lay me off. And that's the catch and the reason for my current sprint across town.
See, after letting me freak out for thirty seconds with worst-case scenarios running rampant in my head, my boss offered a compromise.
All my perfection over the past five years led to a compromise; one single opportunity.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
There's a position being offered as editor of one of the company's newly-purchased magazines; of a magazine that is being counted on to bring money to the company and to bring it fast.
Since I had proven myself in my previous public relations role, my boss, Victoria Eastholm, decided that I should be given a chance to 'win' this new job.
She was giving me a chance to have the job that I had been dreaming of since I discovered journalism in my second-year of university. And it was wonderful of her, I'll admit that.
In fact, if I was only worried about myself, I would've been absolutely ecstatic at the opportunity. But it's not just me. I have to think about my four year old daughter Madison in all of this as well.
Because while getting the new job would put me in a whole new income bracket, the imminent loss of the old one could destroy my precariously balanced single-parent world.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
As I finally make my way through the heavy revolving door and the even heavier security of my office building, I start to let my mind wander to all of the what-ifs that I had up until now been successful at suppressing.
With each worried thought the elevator brings me closer to the woman who will decide my fate.
What if I can't afford food for myself and Madison? What if I can't afford to pay the mortgage on the century-old home that I worked so hard to renovate? Luckily for me, by the time the elevator gets to the twelfth floor there are more then fifteen people in it and my immense fear of elevators has come back to me full force, wiping all of the other equally scary scenarios that were running through my mind.
I exit the overflowing elevator and work my way towards Victoria's vast corner office, not wasting any time to stop and chat with any of the coworkers that I recognize on my way.
I do, however, find myself wishing that I could have just one of those horrible thoughts from the elevator back right now, because my mind has now become a complete blank.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
It hits me that I feel like I'm going to throw up and even in my current state, the irony of that idea is not lost on me. That I would be thinking of my long-lost stepbrother and his strange habits at a time like this is odd, but seeing as it is the only thought that seems to have the ability to be heard in my brain right now, I decide to take what I can get.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Victoria's normally clean office is crowded with magazine spreads and even though it's only nine o'clock in the morning she seems more frazzled than normal.
But that's okay; a frazzled Victoria is something that I can handle. I have experience charming a frazzled Victoria. I would even go as far as to say that I'm good at dealing with a frazzled Victoria.
It's an angry Victoria that I'm really scared of and unfortunately for me, whoever is on the phone with her right now is pushing her a little too close to being flat-out angry.
Nonetheless, I hastily take the seat that Victoria is haphazardly motioning towards and then I proceed to watch helplessly as Victoria's well-honed horns begin to emerge.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Now some nasty words are being exchanged over the phone and I realize that it must be someone pretty important on the other end of the line. In other words, Victoria doesn't get bent out of shape for just anyone.
Nope, it must be someone extremely high up on Victoria's scale of worthiness, because her rage is continuing to escalate at a truly alarming rate. I realize that I'm actually starting to shake, and although it's not in a seizure sort of a way, it is in a way that Victoria will probably pick up on and label as a major character flaw.
So I'm shaking and I still feel like throwing up. The good news is that this interview can only get better from here on out.
And if that's the case, then the fact that I'm getting more and more nervous, something that I wouldn't have thought possible only fifteen short minutes ago, is pretty silly, right?
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
That's who I am though. I'm a thinker. And when I'm put in the right situation and allowed to boil, I easily transform into an over-thinker. Come to think of it, that's another character flaw that Victoria can mark against me.
This thought is about to lead to the further thought that maybe I don't actually deserve this position at all, but my conversation with myself ends abruptly with the slamming of a phone. I can only assume that Victoria's phone conversation didn't improve while I was tuned out.
Before I have time to think about whether or not I should pretend that I wasn't listening to a majority of the previous exchange, Victoria is right back in business mode. I guess that's why she's the boss.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
"Casey, unfortunately there's been a change of plans." Victoria started. "I appreciate you taking the time to come in this morning, but, in light of certain events that have unfolded this morning, it seems like I've led you here under false pretences." She continued.
'Led me here under false pretences'? I have to admit that after the words 'change of plans' left her mouth I momentarily lost my ability to think clearly, but then 'false pretences' registered with me, and now I'm ninety-nine percent certain as to where this discussion is headed.
I had, after all, been working under Victoria for five years and I know that Victoria is very rarely polite, and that, as a rule, she never beats around the bush. Basically, I know from experience that a sincere Victoria bodes even worse for me than an angry one.
Damn it, she's still talking – pay attention, Casey.
"… I know this may be a major, shall we say, inconvenience for you, what with having that daughter of yours to take care of and everything…" Victoria's voice trailed off as though she wasn't quite sure how to finish that statement; almost as though she actually had a heart.
Here it comes, I think. After all of the time I'd spent being stressed out about this interview, she isn't even going to give me the chance that I was promised.
Even worse is that I've been so worried up until now about the interview that I haven't given any thought to what I would do if I was actually left without a job. Even now as I'm witnessing it happen, I just can't wrap my mind around the idea.
I'm Casey McDonald – I have to have a job.
Victoria's voice broke through to my panicked brain again. "… But I know this is what will be best for the company in the long run and that has to be my primary concern, so I really am sorry to say…"
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
As I wait for her to solidify my fate as an unemployed twenty-seven year old single mother, only one thought is going through my head; what the fuck am I going to do?
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
So... Good, bad, interesting, terrible, intriguing? Let me know!