The Job Proposal

by Wendy Chen

  “Oh,” said Kate. Oh. Kate had never felt so small. Apparently she wouldn’t understand. Why? Because she’d never been engaged before? Never broken up with anyone? Never been in love before. Oh. Kate was surprised to find herself blinking back tears. What was it about him that did this to her? She took a few deep breaths, determined to gather her wits about her, letting the hum of road noise stretch between them. She should have known better than to extend an attempt at a deeper friendship than he was interested in. He was doing her a favor because he was just that kind of guy, and when he was through, he’d go back to California and they would just be email buddies again. In another twenty minutes, they would be at the party, and she needed to be on her toes. Eye on the ball, Kate.

  “So umm, we’re thinking about a spring wedding, something small, just family in Ann Arbor,” she said softly. She continued to review the bits and pieces of their “story” to be sure they had similar answers to the small talk that would inevitably come up. Adam just nodded every once in a while. Whatever was on his mind, whatever his heartbreak, whatever he thought she couldn’t understand about him, she knew he was paying attention and would do this for her. For now at least, that needed to be enough to get her through this day.

  Kate had received pseudo invitations to this Connecticut garden party in past years—the type of hallway mention that came along with the disclaimer that “a single city girl probably wouldn’t want to spend the day hanging out in suburbia.” And the last thing she had wanted was to attend as the lone single person and have people pity her or try to set her up. Or worse, have her boss be in one of his brash moods and ask her what she was doing there—she’d heard that had happened once with one of the lap dogs last year. But this time was different. Her boss’s email was as close to a real invitation as she was going to get, and this annual party had become known to be a fantastic networking event with lots of industry people from other firms on the invite list. Attending was all part of Kate’s plan to get her career trajectory back on track. Her engagement had become the perfect social excuse to go this year. After all, aren’t all married couples supposed to move to Connecticut at some point? And Adam, it turned out, was the perfect prop.

  The garden party was not an exceptionally elaborate affair, and the inclusion of children kept it casual. It could have been any backyard grill-out, really, any one that was in a backyard of an acre of manicured lawns, with hired staff to do the cooking and serving, that is. Even the kids had three sitters to oversee the bubble blowing and lawn games.

  The search for the missing sandal had made them a little on the late side, but Kate was immediately put at ease as they were introduced to other guests. Her boss might be an asshole, but he was certainly a well-connected one, and since he had taken a liking to Adam, he ushered both of them around the party as if they were his closest friends. Kate was meeting people who worked at other top asset management firms and banks, and there was nothing like an old-fashioned party to get her name out there. She almost felt like she really was the soon-to-be-married rising star at her firm.

  By the time Kate was relaxed enough to actually eat something, she found herself at one of the buffet tables with another woman who looked a few years older than she, also wearing a sundress and wedge heel espadrilles. She wore a chunky necklace so intricate that it must have been designer and multiple rings with gemstones the size of gobstoppers. “Jane Koffey,” she said, introducing herself. Kate recognized her name immediately, as that of the Managing Director of a new boutique firm that opened just a couple of years ago. It remained to be seen if they would make it or not since the market downturn had been an awful time to be starting up. But Jane was known to be one of the best there was and had been profiled in New York magazine as one of the most powerful women in finance. Kate berated herself for not recognizing her. “So you work for that asshole, huh?” Jane said matter-of-factly as she popped an olive into her mouth. “Whoops, I guess I shouldn’t insult the host.”

  “He’s a little … rough around the edges,” Kate responded diplomatically. She instantly liked Jane, who looked at her conspiratorially.

  “I used to be his assistant.”

  Kate chuckled and was about to ask how one started as an assistant to become MD of their own firm when a small child came running over to where they were standing, holding her hands out in front of her. There was something dripping from them, and Kate tried not to openly look aghast as she stepped back from the child’s path, just as the little girl planted her hands on Jane’s skirt. “Wipe, Mommy!” the girl was saying.

  Jane smiled and let out a sigh as she picked up the little girl. “Chloe, how many times do I have to tell you not to wipe the bubble water on Mommy?”

  “Sorry, Mommy.”

  Jane gave the little girl a kiss on the nose and put her down. Hands now wiped, she ran off back to the other kids as Jane gave a cursory glance at her skirt. “That’ll teach me not to wear silk.” She made a gesture toward Kate’s dress. “I love that dress, almost bought it myself. Make sure to wear it a lot before you have kids!”

  “Oh, I don’t think I’m going to have kids,” Kate responded automatically. She didn’t even have to think about what their “story” was. This was the real answer that she had given for as long as she’d been of the age where kids entered in the conversation.

  Jane tilted her head at Kate and smiled. “I used to think that, not too long ago, actually.” She looked directly at Kate with an expression that was so disarming that, for a moment, Kate was concerned that Jane knew her engagement was a sham. “You can have the job and the family, you know. You just need the right support—the right man, the right nanny, the right boss.” She looked past Kate over to where the kids were playing. “Looks like you have one out of the three.”

  Kate turned to where Jane was looking and saw Adam standing with the group of kids. He was waving around some sort of bubble-making contraption and creating a flurry of bubbles, much to the children’s delight, if their squeals were any measure. Then one of the boys ran over to Adam and hung on to one of his biceps like a monkey. “You be the tree!” Kate heard the boy yell as Adam swung him around, still holding the bubble-making thing. Adam looked up then and waved at Kate with what looked to be a genuine smile. Kate gave just a small wave back, lest he think to call her over to play with the kids with him. No, she told herself, Adam knew better than that.

  Just then Jane’s daughter started crying—the high-pitched wail of a child that could only be described as shrieking, and Kate inwardly shuddered. “Sorry, gotta go,” Jane said, hurriedly walking to her child. “Drop me a line, we should do lunch in the city,” Jane called over her shoulder.

  Kate was left alone to watch Adam then. She supposed she really ought to make the best of her time and network with some of the other guests. But she couldn’t help but watch him, and how much fun those kids were having, and how he really seemed to be having fun himself. A couple of the other dads seemed glad to leave their kids to play with Adam and be watched by the sitters while they nursed their glasses of beer. That would be me. She just didn’t have a parental bone in her body.

  After a few more minutes, Adam seemed to realize that Kate was not going to brave going through the swarm of kids to reach him, so he made his way toward her. “Sorry, should I be mingling better?” he asked her. “The kids are better company than these blowhards,” he grimaced.

  “Not everyone’s that bad,” Kate said, thinking of Jane.

  “Maybe so, but trying to impress each other at a fake social event doesn’t bring out the best in people.”

  “What, there aren’t any testosterone power plays in Silicon Valley?”

  “Touchè. I guess it’s just been a while since I’ve played.”

  “What is it that you do over there, anyway? All I’ve ever seen is you sitting in front of a computer.” Since they were somewhat alone, Kate wasn’t worried about seeming like she knew too little about her own fiancé.


  “Nowadays I mostly run an angel investment group and take on an advisory role to some start-ups.”

  “You’re an angel?” Kate smiled. “I guess I’m not the only one you rescue.” It made sense. If he was an angel investor, using his own capital to finance new ventures, his conversation with her boss really wasn’t such a stretch. In spite of herself, Kate was kind of impressed. Adam was a great catch—for someone out there. Adam seemed to be in a talkative mood, so Kate took a leap. “So what happened with Claudia? She didn’t need rescuing?”

  Adam’s face clouded a bit, and Kate bit her lip, waiting for him to say something. “The only thing she needs rescuing from is me.”

  “I don’t understand.” Was he trying to get back together with her and she was trying to avoid him? She envisioned Adam leaving voicemail after voicemail for Claudia and then finally hearing from her last night. It would make sense that he would be anxious to take her call. And it would make sense that he would be in a bad mood from it if she was trying to blow him off. God, love did crappy things to people.

  “We probably shouldn’t talk about her now, don’t you think? Look happy, or someone’s going to think we’re having a lovers’ quarrel.” Adam smiled through his words and reached out to caress her elbow, as if it were the most natural gesture. “We should mingle.” He was right, of course, and she followed his lead back to the center of the party, but Kate still felt like he was avoiding the conversation.

  Chapter 14

  Playing house? Kate’s friends thought she was holed up and letting her social life suffer? She fingered the invitation she’d received for a party hosted by Manhattan Magazine. It was nice knowing a few people in the entertainment and media industries since finance people weren’t exactly known for glamorous fetes thrown around movie releases and magazine covers. This was just the kind of party she and the girls would have swooned to attend while they were in their twenties, and still got a kick out of going to in their thirties. When she’d first received the invitation a few weeks ago, she’d thought she’d decline. But now she thought better of it—it was just the type of New York experience that Adam would never seek out himself, but that he might truly enjoy. Besides, he’d already bought a great suit. Why let it go to waste?

  “It’s fun to dress up,” Kate said to Adam, “to wear something totally outrageous that I’d never get to wear in my regular life.” He couldn’t seem to understand how it could be that she had nothing in her closet for tonight’s party, but still he tagged along on her shopping outing. She was surprised that he’d been willing to come; she thought shopping was most men’s idea of torture. “I get to be someone a little different when I go out.”

  “I kind of like the regular you,” he said.

  “I’m still regular me, just a more fabulous me.” She batted her eyelashes in exaggeration and held up three more dresses for Adam’s opinion. He shook his head at all of them.

  Kate scowled. “Men have it so easy. Change a tie, the shirt too if you you’re going all out, and poof—brand-new outfit.”

  “But then you wouldn’t have excuses to buy clothes you don’t need.”

  “Good point.”

  “When did you get into fancy clothes? I don’t think I ever saw you wear a dress in high school.”

  Kate shrugged. “I never saw you in a suit before. We didn’t even go to prom, did we?”

  “What was it that you said about prom? It was for people who didn’t realize there was life after high school?”

  Kate laughed. “That sounds like high school me. You know I secretly wanted to go, right? I bought a dress and everything. It was a ridiculously poufy thing.” She paused for a second. “I thought maybe Harrison Brady would ask me. But he didn’t.”

  “That guy in glee club with you? He was, like, six inches shorter than you.” Adam chuckled. “I would have taken you.”

  “You were only four inches shorter than me,” she laughed. “Could you have imagined us at prom? You hate dancing. We would have just spent the entire night sitting and talking.”

  “Because watching videos in your room was so much better.”

  “Hey, I was a great prom night hostess! I made microwave popcorn, I got us movies …”

  “The complete collection of John Hughes films is not really a teenage boy’s idea of fun.”

  “You’re right, I didn’t put out.” Kate suddenly felt awkward when her joke was met with silence. It felt odd sometimes that she could feel totally at ease with him, but then suddenly there would be a tension that she couldn’t explain.

  Kate turned to another rack of clothes and shopped in silence for a few moments. When she turned back to Adam, she saw a perplexed look on his face as he held a dress up and kept turning it back and forth. “Ooohh, that’s a nice one!” She grabbed it from him and, indeed, it was the perfect look for tonight. She didn’t even have to try it on—her exercise regime ensured that she had remained the same size for years.

  “I don’t understand which is the front or the back.”

  He was kind of cute when he was confused, the way his brow furrowed underneath the hair she constantly wanted to brush away from his eyes. “Thanks for finding me a dress!” Kate kissed him on the cheek without thinking, but was startled when he wrapped an arm around her waist and held her there. She took a sharp breath in. Was she giving him the wrong idea? And then he released her just as quickly, as if sensing her discomfort.

  “Sorry, thought I was your fiancé for a sec.”

  Kate smiled brightly. Maybe a little too brightly. “Just for work people. Doesn’t need to be all the time.”

  If Kate’s life had gotten a little too blasé over the last few weeks, it definitely was no longer. She’d almost forgotten how much she liked going to parties until she stepped out onto the rooftop at The Peninsula hotel and saw Cate Blanchett posing for a press photo. This was when the Midwestern girl came out in her, the one who was still a little starstruck. The first time she’d been to one of these parties—so many years ago, she wanted to forget how long it had been—she’d almost wanted to ask for a photo or at least an autograph. Thank goodness the friend who’d garnered her the invite berated Kate into appropriate behavior. For a split second, Kate wondered if Adam would be starstruck, but then she smiled to herself. Knowing him, he probably wouldn’t recognize a celebrity even if one asked him for computer help.

  Kate snagged a glass of champagne from a passing waiter, just in time to find Suzanne, Mia, and Cassandra, who were all enjoying the people watching as much as the celeb spotting.

  “Va va voom!” Suzanne exclaimed when she saw her.

  “Thank you, darling, I did put in some extra effort tonight. It’s been way too long since I’ve been out, as someone kindly pointed out,” Kate responded, directing a nudge at Cass. Adam had found the skin-hugging silver sheath minidress with the low cut back, but she had sweetened up the look with a side Dutch braid that tucked into the nape of her neck.

  “Where is your fiancé? I thought he was coming with you,” Mia said, looking around.

  “Not the fiancé tonight, just a friend. He’s meeting us here since he might be late.”

  “Fiancé, friend—I can’t keep track,” Mia said dryly.

  “As long as it’s not a work event, I am still on the market,” Kate declared.

  “And so is he.”

  “Well, yes, of course. He’s not really the type, but sure.”

  “Maybe you’re rubbing off on him.”

  Mia discreetly pointed to a small group several feet away from them. Adam was at the center of a group of young women, and Kate could have sworn he was writing something on a cocktail napkin. He had apparently said something clever that Kate couldn’t hear since the women were twittering with laughter. And once again, Kate noticed the guy really did clean up well. He had combed his hair back again and had kept the perfect amount of stubble along his jaw. He hadn’t worn the same suit as the night of the dinner, as Kate had
assumed he would. He was dressed in all black tonight, which was a difficult look for most men to pull off. Somehow on Adam, it made him look, well, like a movie star. If he weren’t her friend, she might have been tempted to take him home with her.

  Adam finally seemed to notice Kate and her friends had arrived and excused himself from his newly formed group of fans. He greeted Mia, Suzanne, and Cass, and then to Kate, he put out a hand to shake. “Adam West, actor. And you are?”

  Kate laughed. “An actor, really? And what were you in?”

  “You know that movie when the guy meets the girl, doesn’t realize she’s the one for him, and then he does? I play his best friend. I’m just starting out, you know.” The group laughed.

  “Those girls bought that?” Suzanne marveled. “Adam West is the actor who played Batman.”

  “It was the first name that came to me—they’re too young to know,” Adam shrugged. “One of them asked if I was an actor and I just went with it. I took your advice, Kate, and decided to be someone different tonight. It’s kind of fun.”

  At that moment, a photographer interrupted. “Mr. West, a photo please?”

  Kate and the girls didn’t know what else to do but to comply, and posed for a group photo with Adam, who acted like he posed for the press all the time. When the photographer was done, Kate couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

  “What’s so funny?” Adam deadpanned. “I could be someone someday.” He shook his head and held his hand over his chest in mock injury, then left the group to talk to someone else he’d just met.

  “He’s working the room,” Kate said in disbelief, to no one in particular. When did he become so funny? What else didn’t she know about him?

  Chapter 15

  Work had been awful. Again. The boss had been in prime form, yelling so much that Kate had seen spit come out of the corner of his mouth in one of their meetings. One of the lapdogs had even ducked behind a cubicle wall when he’d seen him come around a corner. Kate held her own as usual, cool as a cucumber, head held high. But she’d be lying to herself if she didn’t admit that it exhausted her. She was glad for the down time that this walk home afforded her and was really looking forward to going home to Adam this evening. They hadn’t talked about going out to dinner, so she tried to guess what he might be cooking. The fresh pappardelle Puttanesca recipe he’d mentioned wanting to try sounded so good, the kind of comfort food perfect for the fall evenings that were getting chillier. She could definitely use some comfort food tonight, along with a little red wine, the chance to put her feet up.