Again, thank you to those who have -favorited, followed, and reviewed. You all are my Ramen. Always wanting more lol. Due to an unforeseen issue, I may not update next week. My dad passed away last week and prepping for the funeral is taking its toll. Especially when other family members don't help. I will try to use this as an outlet when I'm feeling a bit out of sorts, which is what I'm doing now to get you your updates. Love you all. Happy New Year to everyone!

Chapter 7: A Surprising Offer for Two

Christmas itself went by quietly. Bella and Charlie still couldn't believe Ava had a voice that enchanted everyone that heard her. Bella had asked why Ava didn't try to get some kind of record deal for music, but all Ava said was that she considered her gift for friends and family only. So, Bella nodded and didn't bring it up again.

When they got home, Ava gave Bella and Charlie their gifts. Even though she didn't know them well, she trusted them. They were her real family after all. They have gone well and beyond making her feel like family. She gave Bella a debit card. When Bella looked at her confused, Ava explained she put Bella on her account. Ava did have a bit of savings and money in her account from working back in New York. Thanks to her 'friend' that got her access to her papers, he didn't charge her the normal fees. He just got her extra jobs to help him rather than have her pay and she took the payout.

Ever reluctant, Bella just nodded and said thank you. She had said she'd cancel her account that she had and put her money with Ava's to which Ava nodded and said whatever Bella wanted. Charlie just kept looking at his two girls with happiness in his eyes.

"Dad? Dad!"

Charlie shook his head and looked at Ava who was shaking an envelope in front of him.

He took it.

"That's for you, enjoy however you see fit," Ava said shrugging her shoulders.

Charlie opened it and saw it was paperwork for a week's hotel stay at a lake a few hours away. Charlie was indeed shocked.

"This is too much Ava," Charlie sighed.

Ava waved her hand, "nothing is ever too much for you and Isa. I told myself if I ever had a family of my own, I would take care of them the best that I could. I have a bit of money saved and I'm spending it the way I want to. I spent some for myself," Charlie knew she was talking about the motorcycle, and he just rolled his eyes, "Isa now has access to whatever she feels she needs, and you, you deserve a vacation without anyone bothering you. You've done so much for me dad; I want to give you something in return. Isa said you loved fishing, so there ya go," Ava smiled.

"And my present goes with hers," Bella said as she went to take something out from under the couch.

"I'll be damned Bella, you're hiding stuff from me now," Charlie chuckled.

Bella laughed and gave Charlie her gift which was a very long wrapped box.

He shook it a bit and eyed the girls suspiciously. He smirked as the girls giggled and started opening the paper, then the box.

"What the devil," Charlie mumbled as he looked inside and saw a few things poking. He then proceeded to take the rest of the paper off and saw fishing pole pictures on the box. He smiled and started taking out the poles one by one. There were three in total.

"Bells, this is, this is, thank you," Charlie said as he looked at each one.

"It's a pro series. At the time, Mr. Newton told me they were pretty good for people who fish a lot," Bella replied smiling at her dad. But inwardly cringing with the thought of Newton, as in Mike, as in a douchebag.

"They certainly are, thanks girls," Charlie said giving each girl a hug. Ava still flinched a bit.

"The ticket for the hotel, it doesn't have an expiration date. So, feel free to use it when you want," Ava said as she started gathering up the paper Charlie tore. "Also, it's all inclusive. Any activities they have, the pool, any other amenities, all inclusive."

They went to bed that night, all of them sleeping soundly for the first time in a while.

Two days later, Sunday, Ava found herself in Seattle. The lady Mr. Acer told Ava about had called her and said she'd be in the office Sunday if Ava could come up then. Ava said she would.

It was a very tall building with a parking garage across the street. Since Ava had a motorcycle, she could park in front of the building which had parking spots for certain vehicles. She got off, adjusted her bag and made her way to the building where a security guard stood by the front doors.

"State your business young lady," he said in a gruff voice. Ava looked at him. The man was maybe in his early twenties. He seemed handsome enough but had a hard look about him. Someone who wanted to be serious but still too young to be that intimidating. You could tell he took his job seriously enough.

"I'm here to see Ms. Cross, she's expecting me." Ava said.

"Your name please," the guard responding getting his walkie-talkie.

"Wilson." Ava responded staring the man down. He was a hard looking man, but she had her own stare down if she needed it.

"Jack to Ms. Yue." He said into his walkie-talkie. There was some static but then a voice came through.

"Go ahead Jack."

"There's a Ms. Wilson to see you ma'am."

"Great, send her in."

Jack put his walkie-talkie to his side clip. "This way," he said as he went to the door and punched in a security code and the door came open. "During the weekend and off hours, you have to have a code to get in, the elevators are to the left, Ms. Yue is on the sixth floor, her office is towards the back, have a good day."

Ava nodded and made her way inside. The building was so tall, but inside it was huge. "I've never been inside a publishing building, place is huge," Ava mumbled as she went to the elevators. She stepped inside and pushed the button she needed.

Once the elevator stopped, the doors opened, and Ava made her way to the back like Jack said. She heard a voice from inside the office up ahead.

"Now I know you're lying to me. I said last week that he needed to make a draft and send it. He's going to lose royalties if he doesn't provide something soon. If I set deadlines, I expect them to be met. Make sure he knows that" the voice said, and Ava heard a beep.

Peering around the wall inside the office, which was huge, she knocked.

The woman turned around and her frown turned into a smile.

"Ah, Ms. Wilson I presume," the lady got up and walked towards her.

"I'm Mrs. Yue Cross, head of publishing here at Seattle Page Core. Mr. Acer told me a lot about you. I'm sorry that I didn't call you sooner, but I was out of town until yesterday. Please, have a seat," she said after shaking Ava's hand. Ave went to sit down in front of a huge desk which had a bunch of papers on it.

"A lot of drafts?" Ava asked pointing to the papers. 'Bella would love reading those.'

Ms. Cross chuckled. "It's never ending at a publishing company. Now, Mr. Acer said you are quite gifted with computers," she said as she sat down.

"I just helped him at the school, nothing major," Ava shrugged.

"Well, he made it seem like you saved his life, always an eccentric that one," Ms. Cross said as she turned to her filing cabinet to get some papers.

Ava just stared at Ms. Cross, she was of Asian descent, which isn't surprising given her name. Ava always liked the name Yue. She had light brown hair in a bun and her clothes were casual given it was Sunday. Her eyes spoke of intelligence and just an hint of mischief.

"Okay, I have a laptop here set up for my future IT's to work on. There are exercises that represent problems that may come up. What you must do is try and work them out. You have thirty minutes to solve the problems. The reason behind the time limit is that there are situations where if you cannot fix something within a certain time, we do have shutdowns that can lose important information that may have not been saved," Ms. Cross said as she handed the laptop to Ava. "You may go to my worktable over there, good luck."

Ava nodded and went to the table and opened the laptop.

She saw the screen come to life and heard a bunch of beeping. She saw a bunch of what seemed like lines going everywhere, but she knew they were codes.

She cracked her knuckles and began typing away.

"Well, I'll say this, you are certainly faster than the supervisor I have on my payroll," Mrs. Cross said as she typed on her computer. Ava was long finished with all the exercises in half the time.

"It's stuff I've seen before, just smaller. I will say the codes you have are unique." Ava replied, handing the laptop over to Mrs. Cross.

Mrs. Cross smirked and took the laptop. She put it down and continued to type away. Ava got up and walked around the office. She looked out at the view from the high-rise windows.

"Nice views. I wouldn't mind working in an office if I had views like this." Ava said looking out.

"It does help ease stress. Now, about the internship. I understand you have school, so of course there will be no coming between that, so I have this offer for you." Mrs. Cross started as Ava turned and nodded her head showing she was listening.

"It'll be Friday evening to Sunday afternoon. Two part-time shifts and one full-time shift. You will have your own keycard which will have access to certain areas only. My office, your office with the other IT's, the utility room and circuit room, and of course the main offices throughout the building. If you need to access other areas, you will need my permission and passcode to get in. But I will provide that on an as needed basis. Unless you are a supervisor, you can't have all access." Mrs. Cross said as she was typing the information. But she glanced at Ava making sure she was understanding.

"Understood." Ava said coming to sit back down.

"Also," Mrs. Cross continued, "seeing as how talented you seem to be, I'm offering this as a paid internship. Six months is your probationary period. Twenty dollars an hour good for you?" Mrs. Cross asked as she continued typing. When Ava didn't respond she stopped and looked at her.

"Twenty?" Ava asked shocked.

Mrs. Cross knew the shock. "I take care of my employees Ms. Wilson. Even the interns, however you are the first one I'm paying. "Now," she said as she entered more information and went to grab papers from the printer. "This is everything we discussed; I need your signatures on these forms."

"You don't need my dad to sign anything," Ava said looking over the papers and signing where she needed to."

"No, Mr. Acer sent the emancipation paperwork that your dad provided already, so we have it on file." Mrs. Cross replied. Ava just looked at her.

"I do not ask questions. I got the feeling from meeting you, that you have a story, but it is not my place to judge nor ask questions. I have what I need, and that includes a good person who's going to be working for me, so don't worry Ms. Wilson. You will be protected here."

Ava didn't know what to say to that, so she continued to sign what she needed and handed the papers over to Mrs. Cross once she was done.

While Mrs. Cross looked over the paperwork, Ava continued to look at the stack of papers on the workstation.

"Okay, seems everything is in order. Now, when you come back on Friday, I will have your keycard ready and badge. I just need to take your picture." Mrs. Cross said as she set up the camera on her desk.

"I noticed you had a lot of manuscripts on your desk," Ava said nodding to the piles of paperwork.

"That's what I get for taking the holiday off and being short an assistant," Mrs. Cross replied gesturing for Ava to get ready for the picture.

"I have a suggestion if you would like to hear it," Ava said looking at the camera as it flashed.

"That's a good picture. I'm all ears." Mrs. Cross said putting the camera away once she saw the picture was good.

"My sister is good with editing. She edits papers as a side gig on the weekends." Ava said standing as she got her things to leave.

"Really. How old is she?" it was clear Mrs. Cross was interested.

"She's, my twin. Same age as me." Ava replied.

"Well, with your skills, and you recommending her, I'll take her. If you could come a little earlier on Friday, we can get her squared away. Except for the card. That takes about a week." Mrs. Cross said as she got up to walk Ava out.

"I'll let her know. She may want to call you with questions." Ava said walking into the elevator.

"I don't expect any less. Give her my cell number. Expect a call from me in the middle of the week to sort out your accommodations." Mrs. Cross nodded to Ava as the doors closed.

Once Ava was out of the elevator, she took out her phone to call Bella.

It was ringing when she walked out the front door. "Congratulations Ms. Wilson." Said Jack the Security Guard.

"Uh, thanks..." Ava said not knowing what to call him.

"Jack," he replied.

"Jack," Ava nodded.

"Hello?"

"Isa, some news for you," Ava said getting on her bike.

"You got the job I hope," Bella said.

"Better than that. How would you like to be here with me working too?" Ava asked smiling.

"Wait, wha…." Bella grew silent.

"Mrs. Cross, the boss, needs an assistant for editing. She's behind on her manuscripts. I told her you edit papers on the weekends. She said she trusts my judgement and said okay. You can call her with questions and we're both to come on Friday. But that's if you're interested."

"Well hell yeah. Come home so we can talk," Bella said laughing.

"I'm on my way to you Isa," Ava said hanging up the phone and starting her bike. A new job for the incoming new year. Can't be that.

Until next time lovelies.