The Difference Between You and Me(22)

8





Emily


It’s hard for me to tear myself away from Jesse once we start kissing. I’m not going to lie about it, I get really clingy with her sometimes. We don’t get that many minutes together in a normal week, and sometimes I just wish I could call in sick to work one Tuesday and we could spend the whole afternoon in the bathroom there together. Or somewhere else, somewhere nicer. Sometimes I daydream about taking her someplace, like on a camping trip somewhere, or up to the lake house someday in the off-season when no one else is there—someplace where I can have as many hours with her as I want. To do whatever I want with her, for as long as I want to do it.

But then I also think that I’m lucky we can only see each other for short amounts of time. I feel like there are certain things that I can’t do with Jesse without betraying Michael, and we don’t do them ever, but I get so carried away when we’re together… if I didn’t have to tear myself away from her and go back to work after fifteen minutes or half an hour, I don’t know if I could trust myself to stop. Who knows what might happen if we had, like, a whole hour or more alone. I can hardly bear to think about it.

This last time we were together I felt like she was getting sort of sad about the reality of our situation, and I really wanted to reassure her as much as I could, so much so that I almost came out and told her everything about what’s been going on with me and the corporate sponsorship thing. Honestly, I don’t know, but I feel like this is one of the most exciting new things ever to happen to our school, it’s such an incredible opportunity for us, and it feels to me like a sign that everything’s going to be okay this year. Better than okay—everything’s going to be fantastic.

I was this close to telling Jesse all about the totally incredible meeting I had with Howard Willette, director of corporate communications for NorthStar Enterprises, and Martha Rinaldi, assistant director of corporate communications, on Monday afternoon. They were so amazing to me, so nice and welcoming, and so professional at the same time. They referred to me as “Ms. Miller” throughout the entire meeting. On the phone when we talked last week, Mr. Willette had suggested that I write up a brief proposal of possible ways NorthStar Enterprises could get involved with Vander, so I did, like, a whole presentation about what kinds of projects student council could use help with. I started out trying to be realistic and modest in my first draft, like I said they could maybe provide hot chocolate for the volunteers who staff the outdoor drop-off sites for our winter clothing drive in the fall, or I suggested they could pay for student-designed, screen-printed T-shirts for the senior class to strengthen class unity and spirit. But when I showed my first draft to my mom, she suggested that I really try to dream big on the page, really aim high, because this meeting was my one chance to impress this large, significant, and, to be honest, very wealthy company, and I had to make my time with them count. So I went back and revised the proposal and I just went to town imagining everything I could think of that a company like NorthStar could possibly do to support our school, academically, artistically, and athletically. The proposal ended up being nine pages; I had to put it in a plastic sleeve. I titled it “VANDER’S DREAMS” in a 24-point font on the first page, and broke all my ideas down into short-term and long-term goals with, like, subheadings and charts. It was pretty amazing by the time I was done.

At the meeting, before I handed them the presentation, I gave Mr. Willette and Ms. Rinaldi a little talk introducing them to Vander as a school. I told them about Vander’s past, present, and future, and I talked about our college statistics, which are some of the best in the state, and I mentioned our several famous alumni, like best-selling author of the Soul Searchers self-help books Marcy Kirby, nationally known cancer researcher Dr. Ernest Chang, and of course, Channel 8 meteorologist Don Storme. I made sure Mr. Willette and Ms. Rinaldi understood that investing in Vander is investing in the future, not just of our town and of our state but of our country.

Then I handed them the presentation.

I hate to say it, but they loved me. They were so into every word I said. They went nuts over the proposal—Mr. Willette had Ms. Rinaldi run off a bunch of color copies right then while I was sitting there. By the time the meeting was over, not only had Mr. Willette agreed to underwrite the Fall Formal—everything about it! food and entertainment and supplies and roving photographer and everything! all we have to do is use their name somehow in the title of the event!—he had also agreed to partner with Vander’s athletics department to improve the facilities and fields for our teams, and—this is the craziest, most amazing part—he had offered me an unpaid internship with the corporate communications department of NorthStar Enterprises. Seriously. Six to eight hours a week. He offered me a job, just based on my professional performance in this meeting.