by Cherry Kay
The door buzzer sounded and Tiffany cringed. She didn’t know who could be there in the middle of the day, but she hoped that it wasn’t some new threat from whoever was trying to get at Thomas. She didn’t think she could handle another attack, but the buzzer rang again and she reluctantly pressed the button to speak into the intercom.
“Hello?” she asked.
“It’s Thomas,” said a voice she wasn’t expecting to hear so soon.
“Go away, Thomas,” she said, a lump forming in her throat. “I told you I don’t want to see you again.”
“Please, Tiffany,” he begged, “let me up for just one minute?”
Tiffany leaned her forehead against the wall and closed her eyes. She could just tell him to fuck off, but she wasn’t sure he knew how to take no for an answer. Against her better judgment, she pressed the button that allowed him to open the front door.
She heard the sound of his footsteps on the stairs, and she opened her apartment door for him. He stood there in gray suit pants and a collared shirt, but he wore no tie and the sleeves had been hastily rolled up. The top two buttons were undone, and his hair had a ruffled messy look as though he’d dressed in a hurry that morning, and not given it any attention throughout the day.
“I know I told you I’d leave you alone,” he said, following her into the apartment “but I wanted you to know that I’ve done what I can to put an end to everything with Eleanor McDormand and her attempts to sabotage me. It turns out that my assistant was the one responsible for what happened to your company, and she’s agreed to testify against Eleanor in exchange for a lighter sentence.”
“So no one will bother me about you anymore?” asked Tiffany.
She hugged her arms to her chest as though warding off a chill despite the warmth of the day.
“No,” he replied. “None of Eleanor’s people will trouble you ever again.”
“I’m happy to hear that, but you didn’t have to come tell me that in person.” Tiffany was being catty, and she knew it, but at this point she didn’t think Thomas deserved anything better from her.
Thomas looked around the apartment, his eyes taking in the surprising number of boxes she’d packed in such a short amount of time.
“What’s going on?” he asked. “Are you moving?”
“I’m leaving the city,” she told him. “I need a break from everything, and I’m not exactly hireable around here after what your assistant did to my company. I can’t seem to erase the stigma of being associated with a company that stole money from several of its major clients.”
“I’m working to clean up that mess,” said Thomas. “I know it will take time to repair some of what was broken during these last weeks, but I’m trying, Tiffany, I really am.”
“Some things can’t be fixed,” she said, setting her jaw firmly to keep from tearing up. “You can’t take back the lies you told me, and you can’t put my company back together, so please stop apologizing. I’ve had plenty of apologies from you, and they’re starting to lose their value.”
“Is there anything I can do?” he asked. “Let me find a position for you with one of my companies. It will not be exactly the same work, but we have plenty of creative departments that would benefit from someone with your skills. This is not a pity or an apology offer, Tiffany. I really think you’d be a good fit.”
“Do you really think I’d want to work for a company you own?” she said, flinging her hands up into the air before slapping them down by her side. “Are you really that full of self-importance that you can’t see how much it would bother me to have to know you’re the one signing my checks every month?”
“It wouldn’t be like that,” he protested. “I just want to try to make up for what I did to hurt you. I know I can never erase everything, but please let me try to repay you in the ways that I can.”
From what she could tell, Thomas seemed to be genuinely sorry for what he’d done and for the harm he’d caused her. She saw sadness and distress in his eyes, but she wasn’t ready to accept his offering just yet. She knew she might go on to regret turning him down, but the risk of falling back in with him only to be let down again by some new secret, was too high.
She couldn’t put herself through any more of the drama that seemed to follow Thomas Belmont around, and she knew what she had to tell him.
“I’m sorry, Thomas,” she said, the words sticking in her throat, “but I’d like you to please leave now.”
Thomas nodded in understanding. “Okay. I had to try. Please know that I’ll forever regret the trouble I’ve caused you, and that you can reach out to me if you ever change your mind. I’ll always be there for you as a friend or… or more if you decide you can forgive me.”
Tiffany clenched her jaw and watched him leave. Fresh tears blossomed in her eyes, and she fought to keep from letting them flow until she heard the click of the door as it closed behind him for the last time.
Tiffany snatched a tissue from the box on her coffee table and wiped away the tears. There’d be time enough for that later, she told herself. She had to get everything in boxes in a hurry if she was going to get packed in time. She’d used the last of the allowed amount on her credit card to book a moving company to get her things, and she had to be ready to go when they arrived early in the morning, the day after next.
She’d have preferred to have delayed a few more days, but with the movers all booked for the end of the month, she’d only been able to find one reasonably affordable company willing to move her stuff, and that meant getting it packed in just two days.
The amount of things left to pack seemed overwhelming, and she collapsed onto the couch in a heap, unable to stop the tears from flowing for the tenth time that day. All she seemed to do was cry lately, she thought.
It would be hell getting everything into boxes in time, but if it meant getting the hell out of this city, then that’s what she’d do. The sooner she could get settled in Emily’s garage top apartment, the sooner she could get to work putting this part of her life behind her.
Tiffany got up and went to the kitchen to start packing her dishes. One by one, she took them down, wrapped them in newspaper, and stacked them into a box.
Bit by bit, she dismantled the life she’d only begun to build for herself, tears rolling down her cheek all the while.
The Final Chapter
Considerably more of Tiffany’s belongings had been packed away into boxes, but the apartment still had a long way to go before she was ready to move it all back to her friend’s place. She couldn’t believe how much stuff she’d accumulated over only a couple of years living in the city, and it was such emotional work packing it away, that she found herself taking frequent breaks to sit and cry over what her live had been reduced to.
She told herself that the move would be the best thing for her, but no matter how many times she repeated the words, they still felt hollow and empty in her mind.
Perhaps that was why she responded to her old manager’s phone call the way she did. It was too late to consider changing her mind about moving. She’d already given notice, and the truck would be there in less than twenty-four hours, but when Carrie called and asked Tiffany to meet her at their old office, she’d taken one look around at the pile of boxes and agreed, if only for the chance to get out of the apartment for a little while.
Hanging up the phone, she hopped in the shower and rinsed away the sweat and grime from packing. Judging by the temperature in her apartment, it was going to be a fairly hot day, so she pulled on a pair of white shorts and a purple skinny-strap tank top in anticipation of the afternoon heat she’d encounter by the time she got to her old office.
It was more of a lazy Sunday outfit than something she’d ever wear to work, but since she didn’t work there any longer, she didn’t think twice about it and slipped into a pair of light brown leather sandals.
Her eyes were marred by dark circles from crying and not sleeping, and so she took extra care with her makeup so that she looked
fresh and energized to anyone who didn’t look too closely in her eyes. Those were bloodshot and raw, but there was little she could do about that, and so she slipped on a pair of dark sunglasses, grabbed her bag, and went out to catch a train that would take her uptown.
It felt odd to be taking this route again. It hadn’t been that long since the company had folded, but she’d already fallen out of the routine of going to work. She found that she missed the vibrant thrum of the crowds making their way down the sidewalk or towards the subway train platforms. The city was so alive and diverse, nothing like what she’d be going back to when she moved to her home town again.
It really wasn’t until she climbed the steps up out from the subway station, that she began to wonder why Carrie had called her. Tiffany’s former manager had been very insistent that she come see her as soon as possible, and although Tiffany had tried to tell her that she was leaving the city, she hadn’t had a chance to get it out before feeling like she had no choice but to accept.
As arranged, she texted Carrie when she was about a block away, and the woman was waiting for her on the sidewalk out front when Tiffany arrived at the building where she used to work.
“I’m glad you could come,” said Carrie, pulling Tiffany into a quick hug. “How are you? Do you have a new job yet? I hope you don’t have a new job.”
“What’s going on, Carrie?” asked Tiffany. “I was trying to tell you on the phone, but I’m in the middle of packing my apartment. I’m leaving the city tomorrow.”
“Oh no!” replied Carrie. “Why would you do that?”
“What happened with the firm caught me so off guard that I had to deal with some money problems,” admitted Tiffany. “I haven’t been able to find work anywhere, and it’s just too crazy to live in this city without a solid job. Not getting that last paycheck really screwed me over.”
Carrie’s smile softened into a frown. “Yeah, you’re not the only one. A few people took it really hard and pretty much did the same thing. Rob went back to live with his aunt in Ohio, and Kyle took a job in Los Angeles of all places. Can you imagine him in L.A. with all those surfers and wannabe actors?”
The image of their super hip classic New York personality co-worker in that environment was enough to give Tiffany a laugh. “I can’t believe he’d sell out so easily.”
“Feel like coming inside?” asked Carrie, a sly smile creeping back onto her lips.
Tiffany sighed. “Carrie, it’s nice to see you and all, but why did you ask me down here? I really have a lot to do at home before the movers arrive.”
Carrie grabbed Tiffany by the wrist and practically dragged her towards the building. “Look, you’re already here, just give me twenty minutes of your time and then if you don’t like what I have to show you, I will go back to your apartment with you and help you pack until it’s done.”
They entered the lobby where the security guard nodded and smiled at Tiffany. Although the marketing firm had been the primary occupant of the large brick office building, two of the other floors were rented to smaller businesses that still used the space.
Still, that didn’t account for how busy the office was, nor did it explain why Tiffany saw so many familiar faces. She began to put the pieces together as they walked up the stairs to their old floor, and by the time she got there, she knew that the firm had found a way to resurface.
“So we had to change the name,” said Carrie, “but the head of the firm was able to put most of the pieces back together. I don’t know the full story, and to be honest, I don’t think anyone ever will, but the short version is that we’re back!”
“Carrie, this is incredible,” said Tiffany.
She looked around at all the cubicles and desks. Since they’d been evicted without being allowed a last entrance into the building, the desks still looked like they had on the last day they’d had people sitting at them. Tiffany’s own desk still had the photos she’d pinned to her wall, although it looked as though the flower she’d had in a small pot at the edge of her desk had seen much better days.
“You look like I feel,” she said to herself, lifting the wilted stem and wondering if it could be brought back to life.
“What does this mean for me?” asked Tiffany, afraid to hear that she’d only been invited back to collect her personal belongings.
“It means you have your job back,” her manager told her. “It means this is for you.”
Tiffany accepted the small envelope and peered inside. She saw a company paycheck with the exact amount she was owed before the old company had gone under. It was a lot to take in, and her head began to swim with its inability to process what this meant.
Tiffany sat in her chair. She felt lost and bewildered. For the last two days she’d been psyching herself up to leave New York City to go back to the town she’d grown up in, and now she’d just learned that a big part of her reason for leaving was gone.
She would still have to deal with some debt from the overdrafts and canceling the movers late enough that she’d lose her deposit, but it was nothing compared to what she’d had before being handed the check that would eat into a significant part of it.
She didn’t know if she could keep her apartment, or where she’d go if she still had to get out by the end of the month, but those were problems she could solve. If she had her job, then she had options again, and she suddenly felt an overwhelming desire to stay in the city, no matter what challenges were thrown in her way.
Tiffany looked at the paycheck again and realized that there was a second one nestled in behind it. She pulled it apart from the first, and saw that it was for five thousand dollars and had a note saying that it was an employee-hardship bonus. Her heart rate practically tripled upon seeing this, and then her stomach flipped over when she realized what had happened.
Thomas had to be responsible for this. He’d told her he was going to do his best to make it right, and now, here she was sitting in her old office chair with a paycheck and an absurd hardship bonus in her hand. It was ridiculous that he thought he could buy her out without her knowing about it.
Still, she thought, it was pretty amazing that he’d been able to pull all of this together overnight. She couldn’t imagine the number of strings he would have had to pull in order to get all of these people back into the office overnight. True, most of them weren’t working and were being invited back to share in the good news just as she had, but the amount of money and time it would have taken to get even this much done would have been staggering.
Tiffany had an image of Thomas working through the night to do this for her, and her heart softened a little. He’d told her again and again how much he cared for her, and how sorry he was, but for him to have done all this at what must have been a significant cost to his own company, she couldn’t help but feel she might have forgiven him at least a little bit. This action didn’t make up for the lies he’d told her, but it did show that he actually cared for her.
That had been the hardest thing of all. She’d never stopped feeling attracted to Thomas, but what had ultimately driven her away from him was that she could never tell whether he was being honest with her, or whether he was just feeding her a line of bullshit so she’d overlook his flaws. Seeing what he’d done for her and for all the people who’d been affected by this war between him and Eleanor McDormand showed her the truth of it once and for all. She didn’t have to forgive him entirely, but she knew she owed him a start. What kind of cold-hearted bitch would she have to be, to not be impressed that he’d revived a company from the dead practically overnight just to make amends?
There was one thing she needed to know before she spared another kind thought for him. Tiffany got up and went to one of her co-workers who’d come in and who now sat at her desk with a similar look of amazement on her face.
“Can you believe this?” asked Rebecca, when Tiffany approached. “I actually started working at a clothing store yesterday. You have no idea how good it’s going to feel to quit that job. I
know I only worked one shift, but holy crap, retail is not for me.”
“I know,” said Tiffany. “At least you found that job. I didn’t know what I was going to do. And these paychecks are a nice touch too, right?”
“Yeah, I’m putting that money straight down on my credit card,” answered Rebecca.
“Well, I mean after buying myself an outfit or two.”
“With your hardship bonus?” asked Tiffany.
“Can you believe we just got paid an extra five grand for having like a week off?” she replied. “It was a shitty week, sure, but I’ll take five thousand dollars for that.”
So, it wasn’t just a little something that had been slipped into Tiffany’s belated pay envelope. If Thomas was behind all of this, as she knew he had to be, then she’d worried that he’d gone out of his way to put that extra bonus check in her envelope. The act of him trying to buy her forgiveness like that had made her a little sick to her stomach at being treated like a cheap commodity, but if he’d gone through the effort of making sure everyone was paid for their troubles, that said something else about him, indeed.
