✅ The Last New Start [NaNoWriMo2021]

128. Big Question

Tess started to have second thoughts as she sat on the train to Upper Ashfields. She knew where Gabby's office was, or at least she had the address in her phone in case of emergencies. She had a vague idea where to find the building, too, because she'd managed to run into Gabby unexpectedly when walking through a park with Spike.

Would Gabby be angry to see Tess during work hours? It was hard to tell. Some people liked to keep their home and professional lives completely separate. But if she got into an online chat, there would be all kinds of questions about other messages she still hadn't responded to. Tess thought that for her own mental health, she would be better not checking the messages on her phone – from Gabby or from anyone else – until she was sure that everything was sorted out, and she didn't have any big worries again.

She kept on reassuring herself that she was doing the right thing, but it was hard. She needed to make sure that this solution would work for everyone. She couldn't just sweep Gabby's needs under the rug, not when her cousin had tried so hard to make her feel comfortable. Not when Gabby really seemed to care. But while she walked across one of the many parks in Upper Ashfields, while she checked a map posted in one of the parks, and as she finally strode to the main entrance of the Fitzgerald Building, Tess was fighting an internal battle against all the experience that told her she should let someone more experienced sort out this stuff. She told herself that voice was wrong, and there was no reason for her to listen to it. She needed to look after herself, and to look after Spike. She would never be comfortable unless she was doing it herself, and that realisation made everything different. What had changed, over the last few months, was that she knew now what she needed. She knew that letting someone take care of her would only make her feel stifled, and that taking care of problems made her feel free.

The reception area was like corporate offices everywhere, she guessed. Although she'd rarely been in one of them before, she knew from film and TV that an office building would always have a big room with a bank of elevators and some obstructive person sitting behind a desk. In this case, the figure at the desk was a cute blonde just a couple of years older than Tess herself, probably fresh out of university.

"Hey," the receptionist said, which Tess guessed might not be a corporation-approved greeting. "What can we– Hmm, I don't know you, and no smartbadge. Are you a visitor?"

Tess mumbled for a second, before the words rearranged themselves in her mind in a way that made sense. This wasn't any kind of head office. Almost everyone coming to the desk here would be coming from another branch of the same company, from thirty other office buildings all over Upper Ashfields. This wasn't the public-facing address for any company department, so the receptionist had initially assumed she was another employee coming over for a meeting or something.

"Hi!" she said. "Sorry to show up like this, I guess you don't get many random people walking in. I'm looking for my cousin, if she's not in a meeting or something. I can wait."

"Oh, cool. I guess if you're not corporate I don't need the creepy customer-service smile and one-hundred-and-twenty-percent all business all the time attitude. Right?"

Tess knew the girl was exaggerating, and she couldn't help laughing about it. She was right, there was no reason to be formal here. And she'd correctly judged that Tess was nervous about coming into a family member's place of work. She'd just acted appropriately, acting in a way that would make the visitor comfortable, by reminding her that even in a corporate office everyone was a human being with a real personality. Tess thought that was the most professional attitude to customer service that she'd ever seen, and she was starting to understand why SYL was the undisputed market leader in whatever it was that they did.

"Yeah, thanks. Sorry, I know it's not a normal thing to ask for. I mean, if I was asking to see my Dad that would be a little more normal, I guess. But I haven't got one... I mean, my parents are out of the country, so my cousin's being a stand-in mum, and that's why I need to talk to her, it's about a serious issue I wouldn't be comfortable talking about on the phone."