Two Sides of Us

Chapter 1. Emily

I sat in my cubicle, fingers hovering over the keyboard, pretending to work. My computer screen flickered with the half-written article on city council corruption I'd been assigned, but my mind was a million miles away—or rather, a few inches away, glued to the small clock in the bottom right-hand corner of my monitor. 11:57 AM. Just three minutes left. Three agonizing minutes.

Behind me, Madison was perched on the edge of the filing cabinet that barely fit in my cramped cubicle. She swung her legs back and forth, her phone clutched tightly in her hand. Her normally bright blue eyes were clouded with tension, just like mine.

"Three minutes," I muttered under my breath, barely loud enough for her to hear. I glanced over my shoulder at her, noticing how she stared at her phone like it was a lifeline. We both were.

"You'd think HR would have some mercy on us," she said, her voice a little higher than usual, betraying the nerves she was trying to mask. "Announcing a job like this and making us wait until noon to find out? Torture."

I forced a smile, though my heart was racing. The job we were both gunning for wasn't just any assignment—it was the assignment. Two years in Cordovia, a country teetering on the edge of political chaos. A chance to report on the kind of stories that would make careers, the kind that would put us on the map as serious journalists. The salary alone was enough to make my green eyes widen when I first saw it, but it wasn't the money that had my heart in a vice. It was the sheer magnitude of the opportunity.

"I swear, if you get this job and I don't, I'm going to be pissed," Madison said, half-joking, but I caught the sharp edge in her tone.

"You'll get it," I said, trying to sound more confident than I felt. "You're incredible, Maddie. They'd be crazy not to pick you."

Madison let out a short laugh, swinging her legs more vigorously. "Yeah, well, you're amazing too, Em. But we both know only one of us is getting this job."

I didn't say anything, just bit my lip and stared at the clock again. 11:59 AM. The tension in my chest tightened, the same way it always did before a big story broke. Madison was right, of course. Only one of us would get the position, and the other would be stuck here, writing about city council meetings and budget cuts.

I refreshed my email for the thousandth time that morning, my finger hovering over the mouse. The screen blinked, but there was no new message, no subject line announcing the news I'd been waiting for. My hand trembled slightly as I hit refresh again.

"Dammit, why is this taking so long?" Madison grumbled, her phone still clutched in her hand as she refreshed her inbox for what seemed like the millionth time, too.

"I don't know," I said, my voice tight. "Maybe they're running late."

"Or maybe they're messing with us," Madison snapped, her frustration boiling over. "Typical HR. Probably sitting around, laughing at us poor suckers, hitting refresh like idiots."

I tried to chuckle, but it came out strained. I couldn't shake the knot of anxiety that had settled in my stomach. Maddie was usually the calm one, the one who could brush off disappointments and keep moving forward without breaking a sweat. But this job—this meant everything to both of us, and I could feel the tension between us, like a silent crack threatening to split open.

And then it happened.

A sharp ding sounded from Madison's phone, cutting through the thick silence. I whipped my head around to see her face pale slightly as she stared at her screen. I saw the disappointment flicker across her face before she quickly masked it, but I knew. She didn't get it.

"Well, that's that," Madison said, her voice flat as she shoved her phone into her pocket, trying to look nonchalant.

"You got the email?" I asked, my heart pounding so hard I could barely hear my own voice.