The Job Offer - By Eleanor Webb Page 0,75

looked at her, examining her face for signs of fatigue or illness. She did not find either.

"Are you feeling ok, Carla? It's not like you to be tired so soon."

"I don't mean that I'm tired. I mean I've had enough of waiting for you to tell me what's going on. You haven't been the same since you went to your parents’ last month. It's been seven, make that eight weeks, and you have not told me why you seem so heartsick I guess is the word. Talk to me, Anne."

It was late morning, later than they usually walked and more people were out either walking, running, or in-line skating along the paved paths that wove through the park and the attached nature preserve. Anne leaned back on the bench and watched them as she reached up to pull the clip from her hair. Then she pulled the mass of hair back in her hand and attached the clip again.

"You're stalling, Anne."

"I know, Carla." Anne looked at her friend with a sad expression. "I gave my notice yesterday."

"What? Why, Anne? I thought that you liked Stanford Enterprises. You've only been there a few weeks."

"I do like the company. It's just not going to work, my being there." A young mother pushed a baby stroller by, and Anne could see another young mother further down the path. She thought it was funny how she never noticed before all of the pregnant women and women with babies in the area. Her focus had certainly changed in the last week. "Carla, do you remember Ben Carlson?"

"Ben Carlson? You mean the one from the inn? You're talking about that Ben Carlson? Of course I do. He was hot. You and Ben were kind of an item when he used to come up to the island."

"We weren't an 'item'. Most of the time he did not even know that I was alive other than that I was the Petrovic kid who guided him and Lily around."

"That's not how I remember it, Anne. What about him?"

"He was at the inn that week for Lily's wedding. She got married on the island that weekend."

"Ok. So you saw Ben Carlson. Did something happen between you two?"

"You could say that." She told Carla about pretending to be Ben's fiancée to discourage Chelsea and that she and Ben began an actual relationship during that time. Anne looked over at Carla hoping that she would not see any censure. There wasn't any.

"So, are you planning on seeing him again? He still lives in the area, doesn't he?"

"No, I won't be seeing him again, at least not romantically. It turns out that Ben is actually Benjamin Stanford III, as in Stanford Enterprises."

"No way," Carla exclaimed as she grabbed Anne's arm. "So he's your boss. I can see how that would be a problem. Has he made it difficult for you at work? Is that why you're quitting?"

"No, he was out of the country until earlier this week, and I only saw him for a short time on Monday. He treated me very professionally."

"I see. No, I don't. From what you said, I think that you want to keep seeing him, but he isn't interested. Have I got it right, so far?" Anne nodded in agreement then told her what Ben had accused her of before breaking their relationship off that Saturday. "That's terrible, Anne. But I can kind of see his side, too. Not that you would ever do that, but that if past girlfriends always wanted him for other reasons than him, well, his not knowing that you were the applicant would seem like you were using him. But this is Ben, Anne. The guy was always crazy about you. If you want my advice, hang in there because he will eventually come around. He probably already regrets jumping to the wrong conclusion.

"That's not all, Carla. I'm pregnant."

"What? You're just telling me now?"

"I just found out for sure this week. Before that, I thought it was stress from everything."

"That would make you eight weeks, a month and a half behind me. How are you feeling, otherwise?"

"Fine, I guess. The doctor said I looked good other than the fact that I looked tired. Carla, what am I going to do? Ben had other ex-girlfriends who tried to trap him into marriage with false claims of pregnancy. I can't tell him that I'm pregnant. He will think that I’m trying to trap him. And I definitely cannot continue to work there. The last thing