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“Great. So finish my degree and I have to stay in my first job for two years,” I clarified. “If not, I have to pay it all back, including the first year of law school.
“With interest,” Dad said, standing.
“What?”
Mom patted my leg. “We are not charging our daughter interest. Darling, you need to think carefully before you make this decision.”
“You know, this is part of me figuring out who I am as a person. It’s normal.”
“Christ, next she’ll tell us she wants to be a shrink.” Dad walked out of the room shaking his head while Mom and I began to giggle.
“Laugh away, but I’m not funding any more of this finding yourself rubbish. That’s on your dime now,” he called from the hall.
Then his head popped back around.
“Finish your marketing degree, Payton. Do at least two years in a job, then I’ll wipe your debt. Until then, you’re liable. Can I assume you learned what that means while you were studying law at damn Yale?”
More giggles.
“I hear you, Daddy,” I replied. “I promise.”
“I just want you to stick to something.” He shook his head. “You’ll be surprised what you learn about yourself when you are forced to commit.”
I hated that he saw me as some flake, when I really was just trying to figure out what I loved. Mom and I had talked for an hour after and she said she believed in me.
So I’ve been on a mission to prove to my father I could do this.
I graduated and then found a great job in Philadelphia. A year into the job, when I was nearly free of the financial burden hanging over my head, the PR agency sold and most of us were made redundant.
I freaked out.
The first thing I did was head home to speak to him in person.
“Dad, I didn’t resign, so this doesn’t qualify as me quitting,” I’d argued. After all, I’d been raised by two lawyers so I knew how to defend myself.
In my family's kitchen at least.
“I accept that,” Jerry Mills had said. “Find another job in thirty days and I will overlook this small blip.”
“I will,” I said. “So, one more year.”
“No. The clock starts again at day one,” Dad said, and even my mom looked shocked.
“What? No, that’s unfair,” I cried.
“Life is unfair. Stay in this new job for two years. That’s the deal.” Dad shrugged.
I had started to think repaying him was the easier option. Then I remembered how many hundreds of thousands of dollars it was and zipped my lips.
In any case, I had needed a new job so it was a moot point. Finding one that I loved and wanted to stay at for two years was the challenge.
Last week I had finally found something.
It was almost fateful. My bank balance was getting extremely low, and the idea of having to move home was getting worrisome. One of the account managers at StoryCraft had suddenly left because she’d won seventeen million dollars in the lottery.
Lucky for some.
When they asked if I could start straight away, I said yes and was offered the job.
