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“I know. Me too.” Sophie sighed as she sat down in her desk chair. “I was desperate when I started to apply for jobs outside of Louisiana. I applied for a few in Texas, one in Florida, two in Alabama, and one in Mississippi, I think. It would keep me close enough to my grandma, and all the jobs seemed like decent options with possibly good money, but I didn’t get any interviews until this one.”

“I’m going to leave and give you some space, okay? Technically, I’m still paying for a hotel room I haven’t used in days, so I’m going to check out, and that should give you enough time for the interview. I don’t want to distract you.”

“You won’t.” Sophie reached for Bryce’s hips and pulled her in close. “But I get it. Go. Check out. I’ll be here.”

“Are you sure you still want to talk to the producer today? We can move it. I know you didn’t expect to have a job interview right before it.”

“No, it’s fine. I’m not convinced this whole movie thing is going to happen, anyway.”

Bryce leaned down, kissed her, and said, “Well, I guess we’re about to find out.”

A few minutes later, with Bryce gone, Sophie felt two things hit her all at once. She felt like she could breathe and really focus on the interview because she wasn’t picturing her girlfriend lying in her bed naked just behind the wall or with her laptop, typing a blog, but she also felt this intense longing as if Bryce was already gone, and that was harder to push out of her mind before the interviewer showed up on screen.

“Sophie?” the woman said.

“Yes, hello,” she replied.

“I’m Laura. It’s nice to meet you.”

“You as well.”

“I am sorry about the whole interview mix-up. It looks like the recruiter found a slot on my calendar that was already booked, but my admin hadn’t blocked it off yet.”

“That’s okay,” Sophie said with a smile, hoping to hide the fact that it reallywasn’tokay.

“Thank you for making yourself available today.”

“Of course,” she replied.

Laura was nice. She asked good questions about Sophie’s experience but also about her as a person, and they even laughed a couple of times about TV shows they both liked. As far as the interviews went, it was a good one, and had the company been local or hiring remotely, she would have definitely been interested in the job. As it stood, though, they wanted someone in Atlanta because the team Sophie would manage was all located there.

“We’re hiring remotely now, but in this case, your entire team would be in the office. They’ve all been here for over ten years, so we didn’t think it would be appropriate for their manager to work from home or otherwise be remote when they all come in every day.”

It was a good explanation, and Sophie liked that people had been there for over ten years. It probably meant they at least liked the company or their jobs. One person staying for over a decade was one thing, but six of them sticking around for that long had to mean something.

“May I ask why you’re looking externally for the manager role?”

“Yes, of course.” Laura nodded. “Wedidinterview internally, but we didn’t find anyone with the right amount of experience that we were looking for.”

Sophie nodded, and they continued to talk about the role until the end of the interview, where she asked a couple of questions. Then, Laura took a few minutes to discuss Atlantaitself. She explained the location of the office and even suggested a few places Sophie could look for an apartment or a house. Sophie took that as a good sign because she’d sat through enough interviews to know that they wouldn’t take the time to dothatunless they at least wanted her to move on to the next round of the interview process.

Feeling bad then, Sophie closed her laptop and turned to stare out the living room window. She didn’t want to move to Atlanta. She wanted the job at Arnette. She wanted to stay in New Orleans. She had friends here now, and she wanted time with her family. Yes, she could do that from Atlanta; it wasn’t that far away. But it wouldn’t be the same. She knew that for some natives, New Orleans was a place to live, but it wasn’tjustthat for her. Sophie loved that she could go get a beignet anytime she wanted or that she could find streets of art galleries to peruse and not buy, not feeling guilty about it because the tourists rarely bought things after looking, too. As crowded as the city got, and as much as she complained about it, she loved that there was something about her home that drew people to it. If Sophie wanted to hear some great jazz music, she only needed to walk to the nearest bar. If she wanted the best food in the South, she had it all outside her window.

All of that was true, but now there was something else that had her feeling like she never wanted to leave. She’d met Bryce here. They had a bar. They called ittheirbar now. Yes, she could come back and visit, but she liked the idea of them thinking about plans for the night and deciding to go totheirbar for a bit of nostalgia. They could get there early so that they could sit ontheirsofa, which would be replaced soon, most likely. She liked the idea of dancing with Bryce there whenever they wanted to remember the night they’d met and the night they’d found one another again.

Sophie heard the key in the lock of her front door, and she smiled. Besides Bryce’s sounds in her ear when she was about to come, Sophie wasn’t sure there was a better sound in the world. Her girlfriend was letting herself into her apartment like they’d been together forever. When the door opened and Bryce stood there, Sophie smiled instantly.

“It went well?” Bryce asked.

“Oh. Yeah. But I’m just smiling at you letting yourself in.”

“Yeah?”

“I like it,” Sophie replied.

“I do, too,” Bryce said with a smile as she closed the door behind her. “I’m gladyoudo because I just checked out of my hotel, so you’re stuck with me here.”

Sophie stood and walked to her, wrapping her arms around Bryce’s neck.