Second Chances

thirty-nine

a l e x

I finished my report and got probably two hours of sleep in, which was better than what I was initially expecting. For some reason, I was still full of energy after my date, and I was ready to go. I didn't even have to drink a lot of coffee to keep myself awake.

The folder was on my mom's desk before I even stepped into the building. I sent the file to Janet after the third time I reread it for any errors so she could print it, put it in a folder and have it already on my mother's desk, just in case I came in later than she did.

It went pretty well, I think, because she didn't call me to see her in her office at all in the morning nor did Janet tell me that she scheduled something. Yet.

It was either that or she absolutely hated everything I wrote and threw it in the trash so she'd never be reminded of what a failure I was ever again.

But we like to be positive here, so let's go with the former.

"Your necklace is really pretty, what's on it?" Janet asked me as she helped me file some old paperwork so I could store it in my cabinet. My desk was getting a little crowded, so I figured it was time for some clean up.

"Oh, LGT. It's Luke's initials, Lucas Grant Thompson," I told her, lifting it up so she could see it better. "I ordered it two weeks ago, and it just came in the mail this morning, so I thought, hey, why not?"

"And if your mother sees? I know she's not a huge fan of him," Janet wondered. "What will you tell her?"

I continued to sort through the papers with her and grinned. I thought about that on the way to work.

"L for Lexi and Lia, G for Grace and T for Tootsie, something I call Paige sometimes."

"You're lucky you have a lot of siblings, huh?" she mused. "Or else you wouldn't be able to get away with that."

"Tell me about it. Thank goodness Jax calls Julia "Lia" or else it would've been weird not including her. Plus the T, I thought about that for a long time in the car this morning," I revealed.

"Well, I doubt your mother will notice it, but at least you're prepared in case she does," she shrugged. "It's a nice necklace. You two are getting serious, huh?"

She couldn't see me nod because she was concentrating on the papers in front of her, but I nodded anyway. "Uh, yeah. We only got together around three weeks ago, but he makes me happy. Plus, we kind of have quite the history."

"I figured you two knew each other in some way. You wouldn't have reacted the way you did when you saw him here the first time if you didn't," she mentioned. "And the way you look at him, I just know how in love you are. It's the same way I am with my husband."

We continued to make small talk to fill the silence in the room as we worked, and before I knew it, we were finished with everything and it was time for my lunch break. Of course, I barely had time to eat again because my meetings were always scheduled after everyone else had their break.

The meetings were the same old. They never really are exciting, except for when we have a new collection and we get to pick designs. Speaking of which, I stopped designing already because I was getting swamped with other work to do. I sketch for fun from time to time, but they never make it to the final cut anymore.

"So, the store we're about to open in New York will lead to an estimated five to ten percent increase in sales. That means we wouldn't need too many extra promotions to reach the target. We will surely get the expenses paid back within a maximum of three years, given the steady growth of profit throughout the years."