The Heart That's Meant to Love You

Chapter 35: Choice

Naomi ran her fingers over the resignation letter in her hands. She should hand it in. Should cut ties with the flagship shoe store that had given her a start in the business world.

Strangely, Naomi found she had come to enjoy working at the store. The store, in a sense, belonged to her. While at work, Naomi found a piece of the world that belonged solely to her. Did she really want to give that up?

What would her world look like once she dedicated all her time and effort to The Plan? Ever-changing as it seemed, Naomi had expected The Plan to be a bit difficult. She just never thought she would feel like this. She had created The Plan herself, so why did her mother keep changing things they had already set in stone?

Did Naomi no longer have a say in her life? Had she lost all her individuality to a plan her mother now controlled?

The paper in her hands crinkled as Naomi clenched her fingers. If her mother kept changing The Plan, did Naomi still hold a right to change it, too?

"Naomi, darling." Michelle appeared from her studio at the back of the shop. "I heard you have something to tell me. Come in."

Since Michelle had personally hired Naomi, Naomi thought it would be polite if she handed in her resignation personally, too. In hindsight, it might have been easier to hand it in to someone else.

Naomi squared her shoulders, determined to get through this with her dignity intact.

She never expected Michelle's directive of, "Shut the door behind you."

In Naomi's experience, nothing good ever came after those words. At home, it only meant that she had done something wrong and should be scolded and punished. She had never heard them at work.

"Do you want something to drink? Water? Tea?"

Naomi shook her head. Though it would help to have something to hold onto, she would face this in a timely fashion and then leave.

"Have a seat." Michelle motioned to a chair. Her own chair rolled silently across the floor when she tugged. It didn't even squeak when she perched atop it. "What did you need to discuss with me?"

This was it. Hand over the resignation, thank Michelle for the job, and leave. Naomi raised her hands, but every inch felt like pulling them through wet cement. Her fingers barely obeyed her when she told them to release the envelope atop Michelle's desk.

Michelle stared at the white envelope for the same amount of time it took Naomi to retract her hands. "This is...?"

"My resignation." Naomi dropped her gaze to her hands, not because she couldn't make eye contact, but because if she did she might be persuaded otherwise.

"I see."

Michelle retrieved the envelope, slid the letter out, and unfolded the creases. With reverent interest, she scanned each line of text. Then she folded it again, returned it to its envelope, and settled her sights on Naomi.

"If I may ask, can you tell me why you wish to resign?"

Naomi should have expected the question. She should have had answers for it.

Instead, she lamely pointed to the letter. "I thought I said."

"Superficially, yes. But that's not my point." Michelle folded her hands on the desk. "Do you hate your job here?"

"No."

"Is it something I did or said that made you uncomfortable?"

A shake of Naomi's head. "That's not it."

"Then why are you quitting?"

Naomi twisted her fingers around the end of her hair. How did Michelle manage to get to the root of the issue so effortlessly? "My mother wants me to come work at her company."

Michelle nodded, long and slow, before she asked her next question. "What do you want to do?"

The question hung in the air like an echo. Rang like a bell. So foreign a sound, those words, that Naomi's brain didn't quite know how to process them.

She must have looked quite a sight, sitting there with her mouth agape and her eyes wide. Blinking like she had lost all rational senses.

"What do you mean?"

Michelle gave a small smile. "Your mother wants you to come to her company, but is that what you want to do?"

What she wanted to do? Naomi shook her head to calm her now-racing thoughts. "It's been in the plan for years. I mean—"

"Plans change, Naomi." Michelle leaned back in her chair. "Do you know why I hired you when we first met?"

"Didn't my mother recommend me?" That's the story that Naomi had gotten at home.

Michelle, however, shook her head. "I never got a recommendation from anyone. You sent a resume sadly lacking in experience of any kind, but I still found I wanted to interview the lacking girl. Then I met you."

Her mother had never sent the recommendation? She had specifically told Naomi that her recommendation had opened the door for this job. "What?"

"I met you. And I saw something in you."

"What did you see?" Naomi's voice came out small and weak, absent of the courage she thought she had.

"I saw colors." Michelle splayed her hands. "I saw a little girl trying to grow into an adult in any way she knew how. But in her hands were all these colors she didn't know how to use. So I hired you. To give you a place to grow. A place to focus on one of those colors. You got here by your own merit, Naomi. Are you sure you want to leave?"

That had been the question that Naomi dreaded most. The truth was, Naomi liked her job as a sales associate in this flagship store. Michelle treated her well, and she liked the satisfaction of seeing a customer smile at their new shoes. Shoes she had recommended.

When all was said and done, Naomi didn't want to bury her life in the corporate mindset. She didn't want to fight to sail higher and higher, only to lose herself in the process.

Humble beginnings were nothing to sneer at, her mother had always said. So why did her mother sneer at the flagship shoe store?

Naomi raised her head, a rebellious choice ringing in her ears even before she said it. "No. I don't want to quit. I want to stay."

"Then stay." Michelle snatched the resignation letter off her desk and tossed it in the trash can. "I can't promise what will come next, but I think the two of us can work well together, in the future."

"I look forward to it." And for the first time in her life, Naomi meant it when she said it.