Forgiving Who You Are

Into the Movie

Elodie Pov

I was stuck in New York traffic when the car's blue tooth went off to the ringing of my phone. It interrupted the radio station which for some reason I had on today instead of my playlist from my phone. The radio was on a station that played oldies, which I didn't mind because I grew up in a household that would play them. When looking at the caller ID, I saw that it was Hannah, my assistant. I had hired her as demands for my growing business became impossible to handle on my own. Hannah and I were the same age, but she had experience working as an assistant to editors in fashion magazine companies. I tapped the screen and pressed answer.

"Hey H, what's going on?" I answered into the speaker.

"Hey E, I have some good news. I got a meeting a potential investor. And guess who it is?" She asks.

"Who?" I ask. 

"Marilyn Keene. She wants to make your brand nationwide. I set up the meeting for next week." Hannah says excitedly through the phone.

I nearly crashed into the car in front of me as they beeped and cursed at me. Marilyn Keene was well known in the fashion industry. I followed her on Instagram. Having her as an investor would shoot my company right into the fashion scene.

"Wait what?! Are you kidding? That's amazing. " I said trying to sound professional, but failing. Here I am, at 22 years old and my career has already began to take off.

"Yes, this is exactly the next step we need. They scheduled a meeting for Thursday at 3. I'll text you her number." Hannah said, and at this my smile fell.

"Next Thursday. I can't I'm heading to Vegas to visit my dad. " I said frowning.

"Well can't you just postpone the flight. I mean this is a huge opportunity, E. you can't pass this up." She says, her voice sounding stressed.

"I can't postpone, there won't be another straight flight to vegas until the next day and my Dad took the day off to come pick me up from the airport. " I pause thinking about the situation at hand. I've already canceled going up to vegas many times before, but this is an opportunity of a lifetime... "You're right. It will be fine, I can take the next flight and call for an uber." I say. After having reassured Hannah, I ended the phone call. It was times like this that really had me deep in thought. I loved my job, but sometimes it takes a lot of sacrifices.  I've spent the past year and a half before graduating to start up my business. However, it has taken a toll on my personal life. I haven't seen my family in person since the start of 2020, and then the pandemic hit. I barely had time to spend with my former boyfriend who decided to separate a couple months back because he was a journalist and transferred to D.C. so we agreed that with our busy lives, long distance wouldn't work out. 

Sometimes I wish I had more time to live my life- I thought, as traffic finally began moving. I was too deep in thought that I didn't hear the radio host begin to talk after a commercial.

"Since the new Elvis biopic was released last week we've been getting requests non stop to play his songs, so here's It's now or never, by the King himself." the radio host said as the song began to play. 

I looked down at my phone. I knew I shouldn't be doing this while driving, but I opened Hannah's text and copied Marilyn's number, attempting to leave her a message of confirming the meeting.Within a flash I felt the harsh impact from the right side of my car, as I am derailed off the highway, and my vision tunnels.

It feels like it has been hours before I awake. I look around to see that the sun had already set, and my car was stuck. 'Great, a hit and run, this is just what I needed right now' I thought. I got out of the car and look at my surroundings. It was deadly quiet and void of any cars.