Never Really Meant It When We Said 'Goodbye'

College Relations

Amber closed her laptop and sighed, leaning back in her chair. She could barely think or speak, and it was a struggle for her to keep her eyes open. As her boss said, the legal team did reach out to her, and she was now partially working with them to take care of legal work as a paralegal. The job was nice and she got a bit of an increase in her pay, getting paid over $120k a year, but the work flow increased heavily. In the last two days alone, she was close to being in twenty different meetings, with tons of paperwork for her to look over and sign. New projects also came in, which she had to make budgets for and approve the finance plan before anything was signed. Her eyes were red practically 24/7 and all she wanted was to just sleep for a whole week, not doing anything. She wanted a fucking break.

Her phone began to ring, probably for the billionth time this day alone, and without needing to look at the screen, she picked up the call, placing the device next to her ear. Her eyes were closed, her free hand pinching her nose. As if on autopilot, she said, "This is Amber Freeman, what can I do for you?"
The chuckle that came from the other end of the line was enough for her to release the tension in her body just a slight. "I didn't know my own daughter was my business partner. That's actually kind of nice."
"Dad!" Amber opened her eyes and sat straight, elbows on her desk. "Sorry, it's been busy. What's up though? Is everything okay?"
"Everything is fine. Just wanted to give you a call since we haven't seen you or Jade for two weeks and wanted to know if everything was okay." Her father replied, and she could hear in his voice that he was worried, but also that he missed them a lot.

"Yeah, no, everything is fine." Amber reassured, taking a quick look at the time to make sure she wasn't going to be late to pick Jade up. "I'm sorry, work has been so hectic lately that I literally don't have the energy to do anything on the weekends. The apartment is obviously cleaned, and I cook and take care of Jade, but other than that, that's all. I'm in need of a break."
"Believe me, I get that." Mr Freeman chuckled on the other end. "How about this: your mother and I will drive down to you and we'll take you and Jade out for dinner. It'll be a bit of a combination for your birthday dinner and just a moment for us to catch up and spend some time together as a family."
Amber smiled a little, despite the fact that her father couldn't see it. She completely forgot about her own birthday coming up in a week and a half, which only proved how busy she had been. It was nice that her father understood where she was coming from, as she remembered her own childhood and how busy and tired both her parents were for the majority of the time. Back then, they were in the process of getting their company up with the big boys, meaning that all the work they were putting in was triple the work they do now.

"That sounds really nice." Amber told her dad, holding her phone between her shoulder and her ear as she put her laptop in her bag. "Would next Friday be a good day for that? I don't think I have any open nights until then."
"Yeah, your mother and I are free." He told her. "Are you doing anything for your birthday? Did you take time off for it?"
Technically, she was doing something for her birthday, at least according to her friends, but nobody would tell her what it was as it was a surprise. All she knew was that she needed to take time off and arrange something for Jade, as the young girl would be unable to come with them. Amber didn't need to ask why, she had a sneaking suspicion that she knew why her daughter couldn't come with, and that was fine.
"The group planned something for me, so if you want to know what it is, I would ask Tara, as she planned it." Amber felt her heart ache at the woman's name. It's been a few weeks since they had had the conversation about where their relationship was going, and honestly, everything since then just felt awkward.

Any time the group would get together, even for a brief moment, the tension between her and Tara was so thick, one could cut it with a knife. They talked, but the conversations felt like they were strangers who didn't know each other well and were still trying to figure out if they liked each other as people. Even Chad, who usually didn't pay attention to his friends' problems unless he was told about them, was asking questions. And don't even get Amber started on his curly haired twin sister, who was always giving them weird looks. Only Kirby and Sam were aware of what happened, but even they asked her constantly if any new developments happened and if they had talked it out since Tara got discharged. The tension was causing more problems within the friend group, as the longer their awkwardness lasted, the less friendly and caring everyone was. Everyone was just tired of dealing with Tara and Amber's behavior, and she couldn't blame them. She was tired, too, it's just that she couldn't really do anything about it.