Penny hunched forward in the office desk chair, gently swiveling herself back and forth. She closed her eyes and ran her fingers along the edge of David's wooden desk, inhaling deeply. He kept an extra suit jacket here in his office for emergencies, and she'd taken it down and draped it over the back of the chair behind her. It was no use, though. It was fresh from the dry cleaners. The only scent she could detect was from the chemicals.
She couldn't believe her bad luck. Honestly, it was so unfair. She'd spent all summer working as his assistant, and he'd never taken a day off. Not once. Not a single morning had gone by that she hadn't strolled into the office and found him already here at this desk, his hair still damp from the shower, tapping away at his computer. He'd never called in sick. He'd never showed up late. He'd never even skipped his morning run, as far as she could tell. And now it was nearly lunchtime on her final day, and David had picked today of all days to blow off work.
Penny sighed. That's what she got for procrastinating. She should have given notice two weeks ago. She'd planned to give herself a couple weeks off before orientation at Yale. She'd even gone so far as to type up her resignation email.
Dear Mr. Powers: Please accept this email....
She'd sat up late two weeks ago, staring at that unsent message on her laptop screen, but she couldn't quite bring herself to send it. She didn't really need two weeks off, did she? Not when they had that big presentation coming up. She couldn't leave him in the lurch like that. One more week, she'd vowed. She'd moved her cursor away from "Send" and saved the message to her Draft folder instead.
But then the presentation had been pushed back a week. She'd sat up late again the next Thursday, staring at the email in her Drafts. And once again, she'd hesitated. She couldn't quite pull the trigger.
She knew last night that she couldn't delay any longer. Today was Friday. Her orientation at med school started first thing Monday morning. The time had come.
The tears had blurred her eyes last night as she sat with her hands on the keyboard, writing far more than the situation really merited. As if by continuing the email she could somehow delay the inevitable. She'd spent hours on that email, carefully crafting every word. She wanted to leave him with a good one. Something to make him laugh out loud when he read it, and smile to himself whenever he thought about her afterward. If he ever thought about her afterward. . . .
She must have held down the delete key and started over from scratch at least three times before she'd been satisfied – until at last she'd worked up the nerve to hit "Send." And then she'd immediately gone to her Sent folder and re-read her words at least a hundred more times, cringing to herself all the while for her stupidity.
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Penny pulled the email up on David's computer screen again now as she sat there in his chair. She'd logged in to his account. It wasn't too late to take it back. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise that he hadn't come to work. She could still delete this email and write him something else. Something short and sweet – and professional.
