heartbreak girl | s.m.

66 | yours forever

chapter playlist ⏯
• the 1 - taylor swift
• happy for you - alex porat
• a little bit yours - jp saxe

long chapter alert 🚨
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a week or so later
gemma <<<

"You already seem brighter."

I grinned as I walked into Isaac's office.

"That's what ridding your life of textbooks, papers, and assignments can do," I replied. "I feel...lighter."

He laughed. "I'm very happy for you. Truly," he told me. "And graduation is what, three weeks away?"

I nodded. "Ish."

"Wow," he said, leaning back in his chair. "You're making me feel old. I remember when you were standing there on your first trip to New York."

"You are old," I told him, sitting down across from him. "And so am I. We're a couple of adults."

"I guess we are," he said. "It's not too bad, though."

"No," I said, shaking my head. "Not too bad so far."

He shuffled through some papers on his desk. "How's Jesse? He doesn't come around much anymore."

Yeah, he doesn't.

"I know," I said. "He's good, though. He was just really busy doing research and finals and all that. Now he's looking for a job and stuff, so he's still busy."

"You sound disappointed," he said.

"Well, it's hard to sound excited about such a thing, but I manage," I replied with a shrug.

Truth is, it seems as though Jesse has been avoiding me lately, not the other way around. I mean, I haven't even had to make up excuses or anything for why I don't want to hang out. He's the one making excuses now. It's weird, and I don't know how I feel about it. I'm thankful for all the space, but it's a red flag that I haven't had to facilitate it.

"Good for you," Isaac said. "I have a task for you, actually."

"What is it?" I asked.

"I want you to shadow me," he said. "Sit in on consultations and meetings and just see every aspect of the job."

"Why?"

"Because," he said with a shrug. "You have your degree now—almost—and I want you to take on a bigger role in the company. If you want it. I don't know if you're planning on going somewhere else or anything, but if you aren't, I'd like you to be able to do more. Like, real stuff. Like I do."

Holy shit. Like a real job. He wants this to be like, my real job.

"Isaac...really? You want to like, train me? Me? To work here for real?" I asked. "What about the other actual good employees here? That actually know what they're doing? You don't want to train them."

He chuckled. "You already do work here for real, first of all. And you have something special, Gemma, that the other employees don't have. You're passionate about books and about reading—you're a writer, for God's sake—and that's the kind of person this company needs at the top. Someone who cares, and will put in the time with each book, each author...someone people can connect to. And I know that you'd be perfect for it."

I felt a lump in my throat. It's hard to learn that someone has such high expectations of you. Thinks you have so much potential. Feels like a lot more pressure than before.

However, I feel eager about the opportunity to work here for real. I'd love to do what Isaac does. He reads for a living and helps people make their dreams come true. Sounds amazing to me.