Burning Bridges (Part I)

Chapter 2

I wake up to the sound of an impact drill. Great! I turn around and see it is 11 a.m. and heavily raining outside. I decide to stay in bed a little while longer and reach for my phone to see I have two missed calls from Jesse, a text message from my mom and an e-mail from my boss, James. Wow, did I oversleep.

First, I text back my mom who wants to know if I am done packing, if I have everything I need and demands I call her before I catch my flight for Toronto on Monday and immediately after I land. Next, I open the e-mail from my boss. It's Friday but I have the week off in order to prepare for my move, and for HR to have the time to transfer all my documents to the subsidiary of Parker Holdings in Toronto. The e-mail is a run through of my position, my responsibilities, when I am expected, all current and future projects Parker Holdings has in Toronto, including a detailed memo on the one I am assigned to, ending with wishes of good luck and commendations on my excellent work ethic.

I really like James. He was the boss you hoped for when you were first starting out. He is in his fifties, smart, experienced, down to earth and always acted fatherly towards me. He is not an engineer, he is an operations manager. What that means is that he is the essential cog in the smooth running wheel that is, or rather was, our team. Everything goes through him. As soon as we got a project approved, James was the link between us and corporate. He made all the planning, made sure we kept the deadlines, oversaw budgeting, made reports that us, engineers, should have been making but were to busy with other workload, and also audited us quarterly to make sure we were on track and prepared for any scenario. James worked in this field for 23 years and had the knowledge to be an engineer himself, although he says he lacked the ambition to pursue that degree when he was younger. Nevertheless, he had more knowledge in engineering than some of the people that were employed to hold that position, and he was the guy to learn from. I owed him a lot, and to be completely honest, I wouldn't be where I am if it wasn't for him.

I reply to his e-mail thanking him for providing me with all the necessary information, for everything he has taught me and wish him all the best.

Lastly, I call Jesse.

" Hey, I thought you would be up earlier" chimes Jesse, all alert and awake.

" Yeah, I didn't set an alarm. I just planed on having a lazy day today" I respond groggy and raspy.

"Well, get up! It is your last few days here and I wanted us to do brunch at Rebbeca's. I'll call Blake and Leah. We can all hang out one last time."

"First of all, it is not the last time. I am moving to Toronto, not Sydney. Second, that sounds like a great idea, I haven't seen those girls in a while" I say suddenly feeling a little more awake.

"Great! I'll text them. Meet there at 12:30?"

"Sounds great. See you there."

"See you babe."

I spend the next fifteen minutes in bed scrolling through Instagram to see who's been doing what and decide it is time to get up. I head to brush my teeth and wash my face and then go to the kitchen to make myself a coffee. Crap! I forgot I packed the espresso machine. Never mind I'll just go down the street and get coffee at Jimmy's.

I go through the works of getting ready. I put on a pair of high rise blue jeans, plain white tee, black heeled boots, small gold hoop earrings and my favorite gold Michael Kors watch that my dad got me for my 21-st birthday. Next, I brush through my heavy, straight hair and go on to put on some concealer, highlighter, mascara and gloss. I look in the mirror and find I look cute.

I used to think that my light brown hair and dark thick eyebrows were too much of a contrast for me to be considered attractive, but as I got older I realized that that which makes me different, makes me special. So I learned to love them. I am pale, I have always been, which I guess is a consequence of living in cloudy climates all my life. I honestly don't know how Jesse finds the will to constantly go to tanning salons. My brown eyes shine underneath my long lashes, and my lips look even fuller with that gloss on. Thank you Fenty.