Her eyes darkened slightly as if she was looking back in time in her mind, and she began to tell her friend about the day she lost her parents.
"My mom and dad lived in a little house in upstate New York. They always lived there; it was the house they moved into when they were married and they never lived anywhere else. I think my mom wanted to move south, like to a warmer state, but then I came along and they focused their whole lives around me. When I was growing up, and even into adulthood, it was always all about me. They never thought of themselves." Her throat tightened and she had to pause to take a deep breath and steady herself.
"I knew how much they loved me, and how supportive they were of me. None of my friends' parents ever seemed to do as much as mine did, and I saw it when I was really young. It became so important for me to do everything I could to meet their expectations.
"I worked really hard at everything; getting good grades, making sure I did everything I could in school, passing every test, taking extra credit classes … sports, clubs, student body … I just kept wanting to please them, wanting to show them how much I appreciated all that I knew that they were sacrificing for me. So everything I could do, I did. I did it, and I made sure I did it successfully. I almost never lost or failed, and when I did, it was such a blow to me. But my mom and dad would always tell me that it would be okay and that I had done my best and it was enough. But it wasn't; at least to me." She reached over to the small table beside the sofa and pulled a tissue out of the box. Naomi wiped at her nose and eyes and smiled at Andrea.
"You're still just like that." Andrea said with a sympathetic smile.
"Yeah, I am." Naomi shrugged. "My mom worked in a music store and my dad worked on cars, so we were a pretty average family in town; no frills or extra money really, but they saved every penny they could so that when I was ready to go to college, I could. I tried for scholarships and I got some, but not enough to pay for everything. My parents gave me everything they had, and they paid for it all. Every penny of it. They believed in me like no one else ever did."
Andrea nodded at her and listened quietly.
"Then, in January of my last year of college, my mom and dad were driving to see me, and they got caught in an ice storm. My dad was a really good driver, but there was a big semi-truck that jack-knifed on the highway and slammed right into them. They were both killed right there on the spot." She covered her eyes with her hands and breathed in slowly and deeply, just to steady herself and try to assuage the pain and heartache.
"I had to take a little time off from school to handle everything. I took care of their funerals, and got them both buried together in the little town cemetery. Then I found out just how much they had really done to help me.
"Their house had a mortgage on it so I could be in school. My parents never told me that. They hadn't been able to save quite enough to send me, so they took out a mortgage on the house to make it happen. I was still in school with just four months until graduation. I had no money … no way to pay for the outstanding debt on our home, so the bank took it. I lost them and the house all at once. It was the single worst month of my life."
She yanked another tissue out of the box and held it to her face as she breathed shallow breaths, trying to keep herself calm.
"I was able to take a few things out of our house, but most of it was auctioned off to cover debt. The house sold, and I was alone at school with nothing but my graduation ahead of me." She closed her eyes tight for a moment and then looked off into the distance as she rubbed her hand over Harold.
"I graduated and there was no one there for me; no one to celebrate the success I had worked so hard to achieve. After a lifetime of having them both there with me for everything, I had reached the pinnacle of their dreams and of mine, and they were gone. It was so hard. I decided that I would continue to be successful, and that I would always make sure that not everything that they gave up for me was going to be sacrificed in vain. I've worked so hard and I always will, just so that wherever they are, they know how much I loved them and appreciated them." She spoke the last few words softly, as emotion gripped her body tightly.
Andrea watched her and asked, "Is that why you always have unbelievable drive? You're so determined to make everything as much of a success as you possibly can, and I have always admired that about you, but I didn't know that this was why."
Naomi nodded. "That's why," she said quietly as she looked at her friend. "That's why it means so much to me to get this job at Cross Corp. I mean, the other job at the law firm would be great, but it's not the best that I can do; I can do so much better, and I want to. I have to, for me and for them. It's vital. This job would be another huge accomplishment for me. It's what I went to school for. I really, really want it so much. I can't not get it. I can't let my parents or myself down like that."
Andrea pressed her lips together and sighed, her deep brown eyes steady on her friend. "I know that. I understand so much more about you now. I'm glad you told me what happened to them. Thank you for trusting me with that." Then she leaned far forward. "Just go into the job interview with that determination, and you'll get it. You'll do so well."
Naomi smiled and wiped one last tear from the corner of her eye. "I am going to do my best, that's for certain." She vowed.
"I know you will, sweet lady," Andrea told her with a loving voice. "I am sure that they are proud of you and everything that you've done to get as far as you have. You were lucky to have such caring parents."
Naomi nodded. "I was indeed." She raised her eyebrows and sighed deeply, and then gave a more light-hearted smile to Andrea. "Anyway, so I'm going to go do what I always do. I'll give my best and make sure that the job at Cross is mine."
Andrea grinned. "You'll get it. I have so much faith in you!" She leaned a bit further back in the chair and raised one eyebrow at Naomi. "Did you ever hear from Michael again?"
Naomi pressed her lips together and rolled her eyes, sighing in exasperation. "Not really. I mean, he runs super-hot and then he's completely absent and I'm just supposed to sit here and wait for him to decide he's interested in me? It's infuriating. I got so sick of waiting to hear from him all the time that I just stopped being the one to initiate contact and he just drifted off into nothing. I never heard from him again." She shook her head, thinking of her last semi-romantic fling.
"All that time I wasted waiting for him, thinking about him, caring about him … and he kept saying he cared, he kept saying that he wanted me, he kept teasing me just a little bit more, just enough to keep me coming after him, but then he never did anything. He must not have cared enough. Jerk. I don't know what in the hell I was thinking, letting him treat me like that." She reached over to the carafe and poured herself a fresh cup of coffee.
Andrea shook her head and pushed her lips out in disgust. "He might be a good-looking man, but he sure as hell doesn't have his life together enough to be with you. Maybe he knows it and he's just hoping that he can convince you to go after him anyway. It must be quite an ego boost for a guy like that to have a woman as amazing as you are coming after him."
Naomi lifted her brows slightly. "I never thought about it like that, but I guess it makes sense. The good thing is that I'm not going after him anymore. I went after him more than halfway and he wouldn't meet me even less than halfway, so I walked away from it. I don't have time for that kind of nonsense. I'm not a game player. Besides, all he said he wanted me for was friends with benefits. I'm worth more than that."
"A hell of a lot more than that." Andrea agreed with a dark look. "Well, I'm glad that you walked away from it. You deserve a lot more, and you'll get a lot more when the right guy figures out what an incredible catch you are."
Naomi shrugged. "I'm doing alright on my own. I'm not too worried about it. I mean, don't get me wrong, it would be nice to have a guy around here and there. But I'm focused on my own future, on my career, and on making sure that everything I do makes the days to come in my life good days. So, if there's a guy around, then great, but if not, it's not going to be the end of the world and it's not going to be anything I worry about. I'd rather be happy than heartbroken."
Andrea laughed and nodded. "I know that's true! You have to be confident in yourself, and you have to be happy." They both laughed.