Authors: Debra Doxer

Sometime Soon (26 page)

I immediately reply, attaching my
updated resumé to the email. The possibilities are exciting, although I need to
keep things in perspective. Karthik has just gotten there himself. How much
influence can he have?

When my cell phone rings again
later, I grab it without checking the caller ID, figuring it’s Laura again. But
it’s David.

“Hi there. Did you get my message?”
he asks.

“I did. I was just about to call
you back, actually.”

“Oh, good timing then, huh?”

“It’s like you read my mind,” I
reply cheerily. My good mood is coloring my words with enthusiasm.

He chuckles. “I wanted to tell you
what a nice time I had and to see how the rest of your weekend went.”

“Thanks David. I had a nice time,
too. And the rest of my weekend was good. You? How did the game go?”

“Really well. We had around 40
people.”
“Is that a good turnout?”

“That’s a really good turnout.”

“Great.”

“I also wanted to let you know that
I don’t think the Red Sox game is going to work out on Friday.”

“Oh?”

“I have a closing in Worcester, and
because of the train schedule I won’t be back in time. But we could still do
something later.”

I want to ask why he can’t just
drive to the closing, and my teetering indecisiveness begins to sway back in
the negative direction. “That’s fine,” I answer, because it’s easier than
telling me him otherwise. I wonder if he’ll offer to pick me up that night. I
suppose I could be more sympathetic to his transportation issue and offer to be
the designated driver.

We chat some more and end the
conversation with David promising to call during the week to finalize plans for
Friday. I have between now and then to decide what to do, assuming he actually
calls.

I’ve barely hung up the phone when
Laura calls. No one is waiting for me to call them back today.

“How did it go?” she asks, offering
no greeting.

I sigh and rehash it all for her.

“LARP?” she chirps. “He never
mentioned that to me.”

“I guess I’m special.”

“That’s weird, huh?”

“Yes. Yes, it is.”

“So, I’m guessing he’s out of the
running.”

“I haven’t completely closed the
door yet, but it’s not looking good.” I hear someone talking in the background.
It sounds like Mom. “Where are you?” I ask.

“I’m at some crazy hippy lady’s
house looking at wedding invitations with Mom,” she explains, her voice low.

“I didn’t know you guys were doing
that tonight.”

“Neither did I. Mom heard about
this woman that everyone is using, called her up, and found out that she’s
pretty booked already. That, of course, developed into a wedding invitation
emergency.”

“Oh no. Does she have anything you
like?”

“That’s irrelevant. You know that
by now.”

I roll my eyes, but Tiger is my
only witness. “Okay, then. Does she have anything Mom likes?”

“That may actually be irrelevant,
too. This lady is wearing a sundress and she obviously doesn’t own a razor or
any deodorant. I’m estimating that we’ll be out of here in less than ten
minutes.”

“Ewww.”

“Tell me about it. I’m trying to
keep my distance while still pretending that I can actually see her invitation
portfolio. Mom is sitting right next to her. She keeps throwing these pained
looks at me.”

I chuckle. “I’ve got some
news.” Then I proceed to tell her about Karthik and the Cronus
opportunity.

She sounds very excited for me.
“Can I tell Mom?”

“Yes, you can.”

Half an hour later the telephone
rings again. Predictably, it’s Mom. After the initial niceties, she gets to the
point. “But you just got promoted. Are you sure you want to leave now?”

“I didn’t really get promoted.
Besides, so far this faux promotion is resembling my last management experience
a little too closely.”

“But you’ve only been there for
three years. You were at your last job an even shorter time. Are you going to
keep jumping from company to company?”

“Three years is actually a fairly
long time with companies going out of business and getting gobbled up by other companies
all the time.” I understand my mother’s perspective. My father was at his
company for over thirty years, which is really unheard of.

“Well, I’m sure you know what
you’re doing,” she says, using a tone that tells me she doesn’t think I know
what I’m doing at all. It’s amazing how often her tone says all the important
stuff. The words themselves are inconsequential and often misleading on their
own.

“It’s worth seeing what this
opportunity is about,” I explain to her reasonably.

“Oh yes. Of course, Andrea.”

I hang up, wondering what exactly
she meant by that.

After I reply to Karthik, things
move quickly. Another email from him arrives on Monday. He has already arranged
for me to interview with two of his colleagues this coming Wednesday. The interviews
are planned around lunchtime. I could easily walk the block to the Cronus
offices and be back at my desk without arranging for time off or making some
excuse about a doctor’s appointment.

When Wednesday arrives, I go out to
my car at lunch time and grab the black pants and matching blazer I brought
with me for the interview. Hoping no one from the office spots me, I change in
the bathroom located in the lobby of the building. Then I grab my bag, into
which I’ve stuffed more copies of my resumé and some writing samples, and head
over to Cronus.

My initial welcome there feels less
like an interview and more like a social occasion. Both Karthik and Steve, who
I know a little from BTS, come down to reception and greet me in the sleek
glass and metal lobby. Rather than jumping right into the interview, they take
me to a nearby café and buy me lunch. It feels the way it did when I first
started at BTS, and product groups would go out to lunch together or out for
drinks after work.

After we eat, they walk me back to
the office and give me a tour, introducing me to lots of people whose names I
will never remember. The tour ends at a large conference room with a wall of
windows that overlook the Charles River and the red brick brownstones of the
Back Bay. Now the real interview begins. Karthik and Steve introduce me to the
VP of marketing and then leave me with him in the sunny conference room.

He appears to be in his early
forties, with a slim build and a friendly expression. He seems laid back and
even somewhat sedate as he sits down across from me in jeans and sneakers, with
my resumé flat on the table in front of him. Then he begins with the typical
interview questions, inquiring about the positions listed on my resumé. This
goes on for some time. I try to covertly peek at my watch by the time I begin
the second interview with the director of marketing. I had no idea that I’d be
spending the entire afternoon here. Surely, I’m starting to be missed back at
the office.

Both the VP and director of
marketing ask me what my aspirations are and why I want to work at Cronus. I’m
prepared for these questions, and I provide them with the answers I’ve
practiced and used in many interviews before this. I tell them that I want to
continue to be challenged and to work to meet those challenges in a dynamic
environment where I can keep learning while I make a real contribution… blah,
blah, blah. I could spout this stuff in my sleep.

By the time I leave Cronus, I’m
exhausted. My throat is sore from talking and my jaw aches from smiling. I was
there for just over four hours. Once again, I wonder how much pull Karthik
really has. The position itself is very similar to what I’m doing at BTS, but
the team at Cronus is much larger, much younger, and far more invested in their
endeavors. I liked what I saw and what I heard there. I only hope that I have
impressed them. I know that I appeared enthusiastic and that I provided decent
answers to their questions, but I am far from the dynamic, eccentric types I
saw walking the halls there.

I’d purposely said nothing negative
about BTS and why I wanted to leave. It never looks good to bad-mouth your
current employer. I can’t help but envy the people I met today, and the way
they seemed to enjoy the work they’re doing. I used to feel that way, too. I
didn’t really think I was unhappy at BTS until I went to Cronus today.

I needn’t have worried about the
office missing me. Rob is out of town again. Nate has already left for home
when I get back, and other than a dozen or so emails that require responses, it
appears that no one has even noticed I was gone. Ken, Anand, and Christopher
have each sent more emails today about various issues they’re having. I want to
send one reply back to all of them that reads “Suck it up!” But, of course, I don’t.
I do realize that I haven’t heard a peep from Tracy, the other Napa addition to
the team. This unsettles me, but not enough to stay late and try to check up on
her. That can wait until tomorrow, and I’m completed exhausted. My couch and my
television are calling me.

twenty-three

“Beautiful day,” Joan announces
when I walk past her desk with a large coffee in hand. I have a couple of irons
in the fire today. I need to check in with
my team
to see how their work
is progressing. I’m already missing the days when my own work was all I had to
worry about. I doubt I would be hearing anything so soon, but I begin watching
my personal email account for news from Karthik and Cronus.

I barely drop my bags on my
cubicle floor when Rob appears, startling me so I nearly spill my coffee.
“Hey,” he says brightly.

“Hey,” I reply much less
enthusiastically.

“So, how are things?”

“Fine, I think. I have a question
for you though.”

He eyes me expectantly. It’s too
early for Nate to be here, but I wonder if Ken and Anand are at their desks.
“Can we talk in your office?” I ask.

“Sure.” He nods, appearing curious
now.

I take my coffee and follow him. In
his office, I sit in my usual seat across from his desk, which he now settles
himself behind.

“When you give people assignments,”
I begin, “do they just do them or do they try to weasel out of them or complain
about the work you’ve given them?”

A smile blooms on his face.
“Welcome to my world.”

My exasperation is immediate. “So,
this is typical?”

“Part of the job,” he says. Then he
leans forward and rests his arms on the desk. “When you get to hire your own
people, you generally have better luck. When you inherit them, it’s a lot
tougher.”

“The way you inherited all of us?”
I ask.

He nods.

“You could have warned me.”

“You’ll be fine,” he says,
unconcerned. Then his expression brightens. “Hey, did you catch
The Bachelor
finale last night?”

His ambivalence about my
predicament is hardly encouraging. “Yeah, I saw it.” I cringed during the
entire two hour finale, anticipating the ending.

“Well, I think I’m done with that
show. It’s a complete farce.”

I nearly gape at him.
The
Bachelor
is his life.

“He chose the blonde gymnast over
the down-to-earth redhead. I think it was the splits that did it,” he says
thoughtfully. “As soon as he saw her in that position, his mind was made up.
But that’s not much of a foundation on which to build a relationship. You
know?”

“I guess not,” I laugh.

His answering smile and the twinkle
in his eye cause me to laugh harder. Maybe there’s more to Rob than I thought.

Nate turns up over an hour later,
looking especially haggard today. He’s wearing a wrinkled purple T-shirt that
reads
Sarcasm is just one of the services I provide
.

“Bad night?” I ask.

He grunts at me and drops heavily
onto his desk chair. “Emma has an ear infection. We took her to the doctor this
morning. She screamed the whole night.”

“Ear infections hurt,” I say.

“Yeah, I got that.” He turns toward
his desk and begins hitting buttons harder than necessary, powering up his
computer and monitor.

I wisely decide to turn away and
mind my own business. Next week Nate begins his traveling. I could remind him
of this to cheer him up, but now that he’ll be leaving his wife with a sick
baby, he hardly deserves cheering.

I really need to think about my own
travel plans. I’ll have to be in Portland for at least a few days either this
month or next. But if the Cronus job comes through, I won’t be here to make
that trip. I could probably put off booking it for a few more days, but that’s
all.

When I open my email and see that I
have more messages from my wholly inadequate team, I decide to procrastinate by
calling Katie again. I left her a message yesterday, but she hasn’t called
back. I get her voicemail at work and leave a message there. Then I try her at
home, where I leave another message.

About a half hour later, I have my
head in my hands when my phone rings. The entire team, including the formerly
silent Tracy, is having issues. I’m ready to march into Rob’s office and cry
“uncle.”

“Hello,” I say curtly in the
receiver.

“Geez, that wasn’t very friendly.”
It’s Laura.

“Hi. What’s up?” I ask softly,
self-conscious as always, as my whisper seems to echo in the quiet of the
office.

“You sound moody,” Laura comments.

“I am.”

“Why?”
“I can’t talk Laura,” I reply, hunching over the phone.

“Oh, right. All those computer
nerds are
so
interested in what you have to say.”

“I’m hanging up now.”

“Okay, okay. I just wanted to know
if you’ve heard from Cronus yet.”

“Nope.”

“What about David?”

“Nope.”