The Girl From Spain (girlxgirl)

Day 63/93: Sally

"Do you mind checking the message for me?" Mila asked, gesturing to her phone with her nose as her hands were currently inside a bag of potting soil. She was kneeling on the balcony, repotting one of her plants.

Sally grabbed the phone that had just vibrated and read out loud, Congrats, I just heard! Are you gonna take it? She frowned. "It's from Aki. What did he hear?"

Stunned, she watched Mila hurriedly clean her hands with a towel and snatch the phone out of her hands. She had a flustered, even guilty look on her face. "What happened?" Sally asked.

"My boss offered me a full-time position earlier today." Mila didn't just say it, she confessed it. It gave Sally a feeling she wasn't gonna like the answer to Aki's question. "Someone quit so I could cut the internship short and start right away. I love how unprofessional they are. Did I tell you that on my first day of work-"

She continued rambling and telling a story Sally had heard before. It felt an awful lot like a distraction and Mila wasn't good at lying or any other form of manipulation. When she became quiet, Sally didn't comment on the last part of her speech but repeated, "Are you gonna take it?", with a surprising calmness in her voice while her heart hammered against her chest.

"I... I don't know."

Sally's heart, stomach, hope, whatever it was, sank and she barely registered how Mila quickly said, "I thought I had more time, my boss surprised me today. I asked him when he needs to know the answer and he asked me to give it till the end of next week, otherwise, he's going to publish an ad for the job."

"Have I done something wrong?"

The words stumbled out before Sally could stop them, shaky and hurt. "No! Why would you think that?"

"You said you were gonna consider moving if it all worked well. And I know the job exceeded your expectations. Did you imagine something about us differently? Better?"

Mila shook her head, her eyes pleading but her lips unable to communicate the same. "No! This-" she gestured between them "-is great," she said eventually. "But, I mean, technically it's just been two months and I-"

Sally didn't know why but that part hurt the most. "It's been more than two months," she interrupted her. While Mila's voice was loud, pleading and passionate, Sally could only speak quietly with defeat. She walked inside and Mila followed her, closing the balcony door. "I know but-"

"If you would tell your boss next week that you don't want the job, would you just continue the internship and decide what to do when that's over?" Sally asked, cutting her off.

"It wouldn't make a lot of sense," Mila said quietly and sat down on the nearest chair. "I mean, there's only a month left and the offer was very generous..."

"So you want to go back to Spain?" Sally asked incredulously as some life returned to her voice. "Like, next week? When the fuck were you gonna tell me?"

Mila flinched as if it was news that she could be leaving in a matter of days, as if she hadn't just implied that. She rose to her feet and quickly said, "It's not like I'm gonna jump on the next plane. And I wanted to talk to you about it but I was only told like three hours ago. Is it so horrible that I wanted to think about it on my own first?"

"I suppose not," Sally admitted. As a lawyer, she spent the majority of the day with heated discussions and she never minded. But with Mila, the second the volume rose, to her own surprise, her lips began to quiver and her legs were starting to wobble. Suddenly, she was reminded of the countless fights she had witnessed as a child. This was merely a discussion and not malicious or hateful, but it still became harder to stay in the room with each passing second. Sally felt cowardly and 10 years younger, but she wanted to hide in her bed, just like she always used to.