Finish Line

24

I drove through the day and most of the night, but I finally made it to Santa Barbra by 4:30 the next morning. I parked my car in my spot and began to unload my things. I lugged everything up to my apartment. Opening the doors to the apartment felt amazing. The balcony doors were closed but looking out of them I could see the beautiful beach. 

I needed to go grocery shopping. I had stopped and done some regular shopping while I was driving through LA. I unpacked all of my things and started to move back in. I also informed Boston that I was in town and ready to start working whenever he was. He was thrilled that I could be home sooner than we had originally planned. 

I was going to go into the office at eight this morning for a meeting with my new editor, publisher, and all that. I was able to learn how this whole process worked through speaking with Boston who filled me in on everything I needed to know about the company and my new editor. Then later today, we'll have an overall staff meeting about the overall message and concept of the magazine. 

I was able to purchase all of my groceries and get all settled into my apartment by 7:30 this morning. I then took a quick shower, blow dried my hair, and got dressed in time to get to work. Although I was exhausted, I made it happen. 

I got to work on time and sat down for our first meeting. Although I was supposed to be focusing on meeting and working with my editor, all that was going through my mind was Dylan. I couldn't stop thinking about what was to come or what he meant by saying don't give up on us. I know that we aren't meant to be, and if we are I guess it'll happen. 

"Does that sound good Raimy," I hear my editor speak up from the across the table. 

"Yeah that sounds perfect," I pretend to be apart of the conversation even though I've been daydreaming like an idiot the entire time. 

"So we'll plan on that, for the first few months and see where it goes. Who knows, we might end up having you travel," Boston smirks at me, looking across the table at the others. I can't help but feel like I'm missing something here. 

"Yeah that'd be awesome," I confirm. 

"Well then great, we'll work on that. For now, you just work on anything and everything we give you. You have a lot of talent, you're gonna take us places," That was new to hear. 

Most of the time, in meetings like this, the people in power are the ones saying that they'll be taking you places. However in this scenario, he told me that I was taking them places. It was such an interesting thing to see. It made me think, so of course I wrote about it. 

I shook their hands and headed back to the apartment where I could finally get some sleep until my next meeting. I passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow. I had an alarm set for 2:30, considering I would need to be at the office by 3:15. 

While I was there for my meeting prior to this, Boston had showed me my new office. It was filled with creative posters and sticky notes. My desk was perfectly organized and Boston even told me that I could paint it. I could paint it! I was thinking about having Ally paint it. In high school she was super into that kind of stuff. She was always painting rooms in her parents house. They allowed her to paint her room, the loft, and the basement. Her paintings were some of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen. I wanted her to paint a piece of home into my new office. 

I made a mental note to make sure to talk to her. She is more into traditional painting now but painting on walls was her parents way of keeping her off the streets. For awhile, we would take trips into Portland just so she could paint. We'd go into allies in downtown and she'd paint away. I'd watch, take photos, and write as she worked away. Then we'd go home and pretend it never happened. Until junior year, when her parents caught her. They saw one of her sketches and found one of the photos I'd taken.