This is the seventeenth part in a series, so if you have not already done so, you might want to read Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII, Part IX, Part X, Part XI, Part XII, Part XIII, Part XIV, Part XV, and Part XVI before continuing.
Uncle Phil took pity on me and let me have the day off, which just meant I had to get back to job hunting.
I was in the process of rewriting my Statement of Purpose when my phone buzzed with a text. I was struggling with the stupid document, so I jumped at the chance to procrastinate.
It was a picture from Emily, my coworker at the law firm where I had been working. She also happened to be my best friend, and, yes, I know what it says about me that I worked with my best friend. But how else am I supposed to meet people when I regularly work 80+ hours a week?
The “text” was just a picture of her in front of my office making an exaggerated sad face. I laughed, considered making my own sad face and taking a selfie, then thought better of it. Instead, I took a picture of Cordy, who was lying on the floor with the full length of her back up against my thigh.
The moment I hit send, my phone buzzed again with a FaceTime.
I swiped to accept the call. If it had been anyone else I would have been self-conscious about the fact that I looked like a mess, but this was Emily. We had been through the fires of legal marketing hell together. I could be myself with her.
“How is my sweet, little baby doing?” she asked in a baby voice.
I rolled my eyes and said in a deadpan, “I’m fine. How are you?”
“You know I meant Cordy!”
I laughed, because I had known, but I hadn’t been able to resist teasing her.
Although I had just shown her a picture of the exact, same image, I switched the camera on my phone so I could point it at Cordy while I was still able to look at Emily on the screen.
“Oh, sweet baby! Are you so tired from all the moving around?”
“I think she’s a little weirded out,” I said. “She loves exploring the cornfields and the woods, but she’s been more clingy than usual.”
“Oh, she’s afraid you’re going to abandon her.”
“I very much doubt that. I think it’s just that I’m the only constant in her life right now, so she’s holding onto me for dear life while we ride out the chaos that is our temporary homelessness. I had to crate her yesterday.”
Emily gasped and put a hand to her chest. “How dare you!”
“I know, but I had to go help my uncle with the cattle, and I couldn’t risk letting her loose in a new place all on her own. If she had done any damage, we really would be homeless.”
“Help with the cattle? One week out of the city and you’re already a cowgirl.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not a cowgirl. It’s regular farm work that real people do every day. You would know that if you weren’t such a pampered city slicker.”
Emily responded the only way she could: by changing the subject. “I told you, you could always stay with me. Cordy is welcome any time.”
“Thank you, but I don’t know when I’ll get another job, and I couldn’t impose myself on you for an indefinite period of time.”
“I know you think you can’t impose yourself on anyone but family, but you know I consider you my family, right?”
“I know. It’s just different when someone has decades of guilt I can prey on. Although, in Uncle Phil’s case, it’s more like I’m the one with all the guilt.”
“What do you mean?”
I told her about the conversation Phil and I had had over breakfast.
“Yikes,” she said when I had finished.
“I know. And I’d love to blame it all on Vincent for keeping me away from here, but I know he didn’t do this. I did this, and now I have to clean up my own mess.” I made a face expressing my intense displeasure at the prospect and Emily giggled.
Then she cocked her head and said, “How are things with your uncle and Cordy? I thought you never visited him because he won’t let dogs in the house?”
“Apparently, Mike came to her defense.”
Emily’s face lit up. “Mike? As in the hot cowboy you were so enamored with growing up?”
I could feel my cheeks burn with a tell-tale blush. Then I got mad at myself for blushing, which only made me blush harder.
Emily gasped. “Charlie Turner! You still have feelings for him!”
“I do not.” But the words came out in a whine that made a liar of me. “Besides, he hates me.”
“How could he hate you?”
I filled her in on how Mike had dressed me down for not being in touch.
“Ouch,” she said when I finished.
“Yeah.”
“I mean … he has a point.”
“I know,” I whined. I pulled my knees up to my chest so I could bury my head in my knees. The movement woke up Cordy, who snorted her displeasure. Then, realizing I was upset, she sat up and looked at me, her head cocked to the side, eyes wide and brow furrowed in that way that said, “Are you OK?”
“Oh, she’s worried about you,” said Emily.
I put the phone down so I could pick Cordy up and snuggle her in my lap.
“What’s happening?” said Emily. “Did I lose you?”
I laughed, then picked up the phone and aimed it so she could see us. “Awww! So cute!”
“Yeah, she takes good care of me,”I said snuggling the top of Cordy’s head with my chin.
“Good. You need it.”
I nodded, then said, “Do I even want to ask how things are going over there?”
“It depends on which is bigger: your anger for them or your love for me.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s been a nightmare. They’ve given me all these AI images to post to social media. They’re not on brand and it’s so obvious they were just regurgitated by a robot. All our numbers on social media have gone down the drain: our followers, our likes, our comments.”
“Yikes. I’m so sorry.” And I was. Of course I was angry at the firm for firing me, but that didn’t mean I wanted Emily’s life to be difficult.
“I wish you were still here to talk some sense into them.”
“If I were any good at talking sense into them, they wouldn’t have fired me.”
A noise came from behind Emily and she turned her head. When she turned back, she said, “I gotta get back to work. I love you!”
“I love you, too!”
“And I love you, you sweet little babyface,” she said in her baby voice.
I tilted the phone so Cordy filled our side of the screen. She looked at it and tilted her head as if to say wtf?
To be continued…