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10
Aspen
The Following Monday
I thought my eyes were deceiving me. I’d gone to the office for a virtual meeting with Luna Ray since I didn’t handle any business while I was at home. The office suite next to mine wasn’t empty. The person inside looked like Malaysia. Taking backward steps, I looked through the glass window again. Sure enough, it was her.
“Hey,” I spoke, gaining her attention as I opened the glass door.
She stood from behind the clear desk and looked at me with a bright, beautiful smile.
“Hi.”
“Um… not that I’m not happy to see you, but what are you doing here?”
With a giggle, she grabbed some papers off the desk and walked around it in my direction.
“I’m your new operations manager. Luna Ray and I are going to be working together. I’ll be her point of contact for you and your freelancers.” As she handed me the papers, she told me, “Fill this out. I want to be of service to you as well as I can.”
I scanned the first page quickly. It had questions like how I communicated, my food preferences, how I reacted when I was stressed or angry, and more.
“I’ll fill this out if you fill it out for me too.”
Her head shook as she cupped her hands. “You don’t need to know those things about me. I need to know them about you because I’m working for you. For free, by the way.”
“What? Malays—”
“Let me do this for you.” She took my hand into hers. “What you did for me… that meant a lot to me. I’m accepting the gift, but I also want to do something for you. This is it. At least until I start school next year.”
Truth was, I didn’t have a reason not to let her work for me. I did trust her, and I knew she was good with business and communication.
“Aight, but I’m paying you.”
“Aspen…”
“That’s not up for discussion. If you’re going to do this for me, I’m going to pay you.”
She sighed and released my hand. “That defeats the purpose of me doing this to help you.”
“You’ll still be helping me… and LuLu. I’m not going to let you do it for free, though.”
Malaysia thought it over for a while before agreeing, though she didn’t really have that much of a choice. We went over her salary and what I’d need of her, then I gave her my work phone so she could send my contacts to herself. Luna Ray had taken care of everything else with her, which I appreciated.
“Thank you for this,” I told her as I headed out. “I appreciate you, and I appreciate your desire to return the gesture. It means a lot that you want to reciprocate instead of just receiving. That’s something I’m honestly not used to.”
“Look at us… giving things to each other that we’ve never gotten from anyone else,” she said before giggling.
I knew she was saying that to lighten the mood, but it was true. We were offering things and filling voids in each other’s lives, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. It made me like her more than I already did.
“December thirty-first,” was my reply.
“Huh?” she asked, sitting back down.
“That’s how long you have to end things with him. After that, boyfriend or not, you’re going to be mine.”
I expected her to look away or deny what I’d said like she’d done in the past. Instead, she nodded her agreement and said, “Okay.”
11
