“Grab me a donut first,” I insisted with a smile that said “I’m your little sister, please give me donuts.”
She rolled her eyes before turning toward the refrigerator and pulling out some leftover donuts and coffee creamer. I filled up our coffee mugs and took my seat across from her once again so that I could fix my cup: 10 parts cream to one part coffee. (The only way to enjoy a cup, in my opinion.)
I stuffed the powdered donut into my mouth and tried to process where to begin for Brooklyn. I still wasn’t sure if I should tell her the truth or keep the interview more private, so instead I shoved another bite of donut into my mouth. The powdered sugar tickled the back of my throat and I started coughing unbearably. Every time I tried to take a breath, it just got worse, and I ended up spitting about 99% of the powdered sugar out onto Brooklyn’s kitchen counter.
She flinched back in mock disgust. “Dude! You are an animal. How am I related to you?” But then when I didn’t stop coughing, she started to feel bad.
“Are you okay?”
I grabbed for my coffee mug and drank a giant gulp. The liquid finally calmed my cough down enough that I could breath normally again. (No thanks to Brooklyn pounding on my back like a wild gorilla.)
Tell her the truth. Just say it. Now.
“Grashsyn admitihehdhe hasfe elingsfhorme,” I spoke against the ceramic mug.
Brooklyn laughed and pulled the coffee mug away from my mouth. “Say that again, this time in English.”
I stared down at her marble countertops, wishing I could take another bite of donut. Tell her and then you can eat another bite. “Grayson admitted he’s attracted to me.” I squeezed my eyes shut. “Or used to be attracted to me. Whatever. I don’t know.”
Brooklyn gasped with mock surprise before bursting out laughing.
I studied her, trying to get a read. “You knew about it, didn’t you? What the hell?”
Had she been holding out on me?
She held up her hands in defense. “No, honestly. I didn’t. I just had a hunch.”
I wanted to throttle her for details. How long had she suspected something? Couldn’t she tell that I’d been hopelessly pining after him for years?
She leaned back against the counter and crossed her arms over her chest so that I couldn’t see the nosy taco on her shirt anymore.
“I swear it was a recent development on my part. I was going to bring it up with you after your interview, which, I’m guessing went well since you haven’t mentioned anything about it yet.”
I smiled wide. “Oh, yeah, that. I totally nailed it.”
She grinned and came around the kitchen island to wrap me in a hug. “Congrats! I knew you would. When do you start?”
“I have a new hire orientation at 8:00 am Monday morning.”
“Perfect,” she clapped. “I’m taking you to get a first day outfit, and then you can tell me all about the interview.”
…
Monday morning I found myself standing in the bathroom on the ground floor of the Sterling Bank Building, studying my appearance in the floor-length mirror. I scanned down my new outfit. My pleated black pants hugged my thighs and accentuated my giraffe-like legs (No, seriously, I’d been teased about it in school. Giraffe Girl. Giraffe legs. Cameraffe. You get the idea.).
My white silk blouse had a black bow that fell against the center of my chest like a soft necklace. My chestnut brown hair fell down my back in artful layers that Brooklyn had helped me blow out earlier that morning.
Would Grayson like this look?
The question popped into my thoughts before I could stop myself, and then an annoying blush crept up around my cheeks and neck, tinting my skin with a blotchy red glow. Dammit.
I fanned my face and took a deep breath, knowing I needed to get a move on if I wanted to be five minutes early for the new hire orientation. I wasn’t sure how many of the applicants they’d hired the other day, but I just prayed I wouldn’t be the only one.
When the elevator doors swung open on the twentieth floor, I stepped out to join three fresh-faced new hires standing in the lobby. I smiled when I realized that among them was the nice girl, Hannah, who’d chatted with me before my interview the week before.
“You got the job!” she said as she watched me step out of the elevator.
“Yeah,” I nodded, choosing not to elaborate any further considering I wasn’t sure what job I’d actually landed yet. For all I knew I was part of the junior janitorial squad.
The other two new hires both rattled off their names and I promptly ran through them again in my head so I wouldn’t instantly forget them. There was Christoph, a tall boy with a bow tie and clear-framed glasses who seemed to take himself far too seriously. He scanned over my outfit when he shook my hand, nodding agreeably at my designer blouse. The other boy, Nathan, had long brown hair that he swept back into a ponytail. He was the most casually dressed out of all four of us in dark jeans and a wrinkled button-down. All in all, I thought we looked like a cool, well-rounded bunch.