sounds from the street beyond filtered past the walls and all the big buildings surrounding us, reminding me again that I was very far away from home.
“So, Katie, tell me about yourself,” I said once we each had a glass of juice in front of us. “I’ve never had an assistant before, so I’m not really sure how this is supposed to work, but I’d like to be friends too.”
She smiled, already nodding before I’d even finished my sentence. “I’d like that. I’ll tell you about myself if you tell me how you ended up here. You really don’t seem like anyone else I’ve met since I started working at Killen Cosmetics.”
I laughed and took a deep breath before launching into how my entire life had been turned upside down in the space of a week. Katie was a great listener, and I didn’t hold anything back. If this girl was going to be with me as much as I thought she would as my assistant and become my friend to boot, I figured it was better to be honest from the get-go.
By the time I was done, she was bouncing in her seat and clapping her hands like she’d just watched the greatest performance ever. “Wow. What a week. All I’ve done since last Friday is work, go to yoga, and I moved to my new desk outside your office yesterday.”
“You do yoga?” I asked, leaning forward a little as I sipped my juice. “I’ve never done it myself, but I’ve heard good things.”
“You should join me sometime. I have a yoga group who I meet with three times a week, but then I also try to get in at least fifteen minutes a day before I leave home. I meditate, too. Have you ever tried it?”
“No,” I said. “But I’m intrigued. Tell me more.”
She seemed so worldly to me. So put together and so completely sure of herself. It was almost impossible to think that she was my assistant. If anything, it should really have been the other way around.
We chatted for a little while longer about our hobbies. Then the conversation turned to work. In all fairness to her, however, she was just as passionate and excited to talk about that as she had been when talking about her hobbies.
“I’m the productivity queen,” she said proudly, grinning as she extracted a tablet computer from the leather purse she carried. “It’s also no problem that you’ve never had an assistant before. I’m great at anticipating needs. I’ll have your back throughout this process. Don’t worry about a thing.”
Something inside me breathed a sigh of relief. I hadn’t realized how worried I’d been about keeping everything straight. We kept talking while we joined the buffet line. Then she stared as I piled my plate high with bacon, sausages, eggs, and hash browns.
“How do you maintain your figure if you eat like that?” she breathed, her eyes wide.
I shrugged and glanced down at my body. “In case you hadn’t noticed, I have more curves than a mountain pass, but I love them. They don’t grow themselves, so I have to do my part in keeping them just the way they are.”
“I wish I had curves like yours.” She sighed but then shook her head. “Unfortunately, even my boobs are at constant risk of disappearing. I’m built like a very fine plank.”
“You’ve got the very fine part right,” I said. “If it makes you feel any better, I’d kill to have a body like yours. I just don’t. We’ve all just got to accept what we have, right?”
“Shake what our mamas gave us?” she joked, doing a little shimmy as we headed back to our table.
“Exactly.” I grinned, tucking into my meal when we sat back down. There were no awkward silences between us, which was great.
After we were done with breakfast, Katie told me she’d show me the quickest way to get to the office using the subway. We hadn’t even crossed the first street yet before I just had to go and become a rom-com cliché.
My heel got stuck firmly in a metal grate. I cursed and Katie turned, bursting out laughing when she saw what had happened.
“We’ve got two choices here,” I said through chuckles of my own. “We can either bring this grate with us, or I’m going to have to surrender the shoe.”
“Surrender the shoe,” she said instantly. “As much as I love working for Killen, I don’t think anyone there is going to appreciate us