Confident | Fred Weasley

Chapter 91 | Housewarming

The elevator beeped loudly, and the metal doors slid open. Sarah stepped out, taking in the large windows and narrow corridor ahead. At the end of the corridor, the double set of black doors seemed to glare back at her.

Getting an urgent letter from Betsy Hill to come into work had put her on edge. What could possibly be so urgent that she had to be at work at 7 o'clock in the morning?

Sarah huffed, beginning the walk down the corridor. This floor was far cleaner than the reception and her manager's floor. There had been cardboard boxes everywhere.

She knocked on the door and waited.

"Come in!" Betsy's muffled voice called.

Sarah opened the door, revealing Betsy stuffing her collection of CDs into a cardboard box. Her room was as messy as the other departments with the boxes scattered everywhere. Despite the mess, the office seemed plain without all the art on the walls and the fake plants on the shelves.

"Hey," Sarah greeted, cautiously stepping over some boxes to get into the room.

Betsy, stood at the far side of the room, blocked in by boxes, glanced up at the sound of her voice.

"Sarah!" Betsy exclaimed. "As you can see, a lot is happening!"

"Yeah," Sarah responded slowly, nudging a box filled with parchment documents with her foot. She looked up, her eyebrows furrowed, "What is happening exactly?"

"That's what I've called you in to talk about," Betsy said, sidestepping through the maze of boxes to stand in front of Sarah. "We're moving!"

Ivory Records were moving to another building? Why was that such a big deal? Businesses did that all the time.

"Which part of London?" Sarah asked, staring longingly out the window. She would miss coming to Covent Garden.

"Ah - " Betsy muttered, suddenly appearing very fidgety. She scratched her head, biting her lip with thought, "Well, that's the thing. We're not in London."

"Oh?" Sarah raised her eyebrows in surprise, "If not London, then where? Manchester? I've heard loads of businesses are moving there."

"We're moving to Los Angeles," Betsy stated, watching Sarah carefully to gage her reaction.

"LA?" Sarah repeated breathlessly. "How am I supposed - why - "

There was a moment of silence as Sarah pressed her hand against her forehead, trying to massage the headache that was beginning to form.

"Are you sacking me?" Sarah finally asked, trying to get one coherent thought in front of the other.

Betsy's brown eyes widened, "No, no! Not at all. That's what I've called you in to talk about. I'm planning to call everyone else who's signed to the company, too. You're just the first."

"What's going on, then?" Sarah demanded, crossing her arms.

"Well, you've had a great year with us," Betsy began, "I'm offering a deal with us to move to Los Angeles and keep working under the record label with us."

Sarah took a moment to digest this.

"Move to Los Angeles," Sarah almost laughed at that ridiculous thought. "Everything I know is here. I can't just move away - "

"It can be a new start for you after everything you've been through - "

That statement lit a fire within Sarah, and it quickly infiltrated her mood. She despised when people pretended they understood what she had been through.