Page 19

S ophie was seething. She had been all day, if she was being honest, but she definitely was right now. Her cell phone was sitting in a box at the front of the room, along with all the others, while the company’s vice president continued to drone on and on. This day was supposed to end at five. Instead, they’d started the first meeting late, after not providing breakfast like they said they would, and now, she was sitting here at six o’clock, trying not to scream when they told the group they were going to bring in the leftover sandwiches from lunch for anyone who might be hungry.

Might be hungry… Lunch was the same shitty sandwiches, and they’d eaten them at noon. Sophie had brought her own lunch, but not her own dinner , and she wouldn’t be eating leftover gross sandwiches that looked as if they’d been made two days ago anyway. Most importantly, though, her phone was on silent in a stupid box by the door because she’d gotten in trouble for checking it during the meeting before lunch. They’d allowed them all to check any important messages on a break earlier, but phones had to go back into the box after. Her coworkers were still glaring because many of them scrolled through their phones under the table during meetings like this, and she’d lost them the opportunity to occupy themselves throughout the day.

It was six-thirty now, and she was beyond angry. She was certain that it was written all over her face, and she no longer cared. She was late for Bryce, for her Bryce. She tried to stand up slowly from her seat in the back of the room, planning to go to the bathroom because they hadn’t offered another break in a long time. Having managed to make it close to the door, she reached for her phone inside the box.

“Sophie,” the president of the company said.

“I have to use the bathroom. I’ll be right back,” she replied.

“Fine. But the phone stays. You know the rules.”

She closed her eyes, silently praying for patience and for her anger to subside.

“Five minutes,” he added as if she could control how long it took her to pee.

Sophie turned then, no longer able to contain herself, and glared at him.

“Are you kidding me?” she spoke. “ You were late for this meeting. We were supposed to start at eight and didn’t start until 9:30. You rolled in late and without breakfast for people who’d planned to eat here this morning. Not only that, but you got here with the good coffee in your hand. You couldn’t have gotten everyone else coffee, too? One thing of coffee was just too much for you to spend on us? Now, it’s after six-thirty, and we were supposed to be done at five. Pam is allergic to mayo, and every sandwich you ordered had mayonnaise on it. She brought her lunch, but not her dinner; the same as me. You took people’s phones away because I was checking an important message, when I’ve seen three VPs in this room with their phones out and checking their messages all day. Hell, our illustrious VP of Sales has been playing Candy Crush for the past hour because he’s just as bored as the rest of us. People have lives outside of working hours. I had plans tonight. Not that you cared, but someone flew into New Orleans today for me, and I’ve been here picturing them sitting somewhere, thinking I didn’t show up because I can’t get to my damn phone. I’m not a high school student who isn’t paying attention in geometry class. I needed to know that she’d landed safely. I needed to message her that I got caught up, but you didn’t care. Now, you’re telling me I have five minutes to use the bathroom? What if it takes longer than that? Will you just burst through the door to see if I’m texting instead of peeing? What’s wrong with you that you think you can take people’s time like this as if we’re hostages and not employees?”

“Sophie, outside,” he said as he rose, looking angrier than she probably did.

“No, not necessary. I’m done,” she stated and grabbed her phone out of the box. “I’ll pack up my stuff now.”

“You’re quitting?” he asked, looking shocked, which said a lot.

“Yes. I won’t take this anymore. We’re all adults here, yet you treat us like children. This place is terrible, and I’m done putting up with it.”

Sophie turned and briskly walked out of the conference room toward her cubicle. Then, as she stared at it for a moment, thinking about the fact that she had just quit her job without another one lined up, she thought about going back in there, claiming she’d made a mistake and giving them some excuse for her outburst, but she had too much pride for that.

She didn’t have much of her own stuff at her cubicle, but she had some items she wanted to make sure to take before they got to it. Not finding a box by her cube, she looked around and found one by the printer. Tossing the two reams of paper onto the floor, she carried the empty box back to her desk, where she started loading her things in.

“You need to be supervised so that you don’t steal anything.”

Sophie turned and saw the president of the company watching her with his arms crossed.

“What would I possibly steal? There’s nothing here. We barely have a coffee machine that works. You got rid of the water delivery and the vending machine in the breakroom. I can’t exactly carry the printer out of here without being noticed, and I don’t need any paperclips, so just give me a minute, and I’m gone,” she said.

“You won’t be getting a letter of recommendation from anyone here.”

“Obviously,” she said. “And I wouldn’t want one.”

Sophie grabbed her jacket and purse and lifted the box off her desk.

“Here; check for yourself: this is all my stuff.” She held it out for him to see. “Nothing that belongs to this place is in there. I’m leaving now. Have my final check direct-deposited into my account.”

“We don’t do that. You have to come in for it,” the president replied.

“You’ll do it because I’m not coming back here ever again, and if it’s not deposited with payroll on time, I’ll file complaints.”

“What complaints?” he looked at her incredulously.

“I’ve been here for five years now. I know things you don’t want me to know. So, just deposit my check, and you’ll never have to see me again,” she said.

He stared at her as she walked past him and toward the front door of the office, which she pushed open. Greeting her was the muggy night air, but it felt fresh on her skin and in her lungs. She’d never quit a job without giving notice before. She had never yelled at her employer before, either. Sophie took a deep breath, letting the air fill her lungs completely before she let it back out and smiled. She’d done it. She was finally finished with this terrible place. She wished she had more than a couple of interviews lined up, but taking her phone away when Bryce was waiting for her was the last straw.

“Shit,” she said. “Bryce.”

Sophie turned the corner and practically ran to her car before she placed the box with her stuff on the trunk and pulled out her phone.

Bryce Wilburn : I’m running late. I can’t find it. What’s the name of the bar? Is there a cross street I can reference? Can you maybe just come outside if you’re already there?

Sophie read the next message.

Bryce Wilburn : Soph? I can’t find you. Are you here? If you’re still at work, can you let me know? I’ll kill time somewhere, but I can’t find the bar. There are too many people here. I can hardly get inside some of them, and it’s getting worse. Just message me back when you can, please.

“Fuck,” she said and opened up her voicemail.

“Soph, it’s me. I’m at some restaurant in the Quarter. Where are you? Did you get scared? It’s okay if you did. Please just text me or call me or something. I’m getting worried.”

Sophie couldn’t believe this had happened. She should have demanded her phone sooner. She should’ve quit sooner; like, years ago. She quickly dialed and stood there waiting in the parking lot of her now-former employer.

“Sophie?” Bryce said into the phone.

“Bryce, I’m so sorry. God, I–”

“What happened? Are you okay? I’ve been worried,” Bryce interrupted.

“It’s a long story, but I got stuck at work. I didn’t have my phone. My stupid boss took it like I’m in high school and texting in class. Where are you?”

“About to get kicked out of a place called Big Shrimps because I’m taking up a table, and I’ve finished eating.”

“Big Shrimps… Big Shrimps… Oh! I know where that is. Stay there. Don’t move.”

“They want the table, Sophie,” Bryce replied, sounding irritated and no longer worried. “I think I’m going to go back to my hotel. I’m not exactly up for a night out anymore.”

“Bryce, please…” Sophie said softly. “I promise you that I will explain what happened. I just need to get to you. I’m at work, and I look awful, but I’ll be there soon. Can you get to the bar, please?”

“I don’t even know the name of the place, Sophie. I tried to find it, but the streets are even more crowded than last year. I can barely get inside some of them.”

“I’m going to send you the name and the address. Will you please meet me there?”

“Maybe we should just take this as a sign, Soph,” Bryce suggested. “We’ve waited a year for this. And I get that work is important, but you couldn’t even text me back to let me know you were stuck there? Maybe that says this isn’t–”

“Bryce, it says nothing. I just quit my job.”

“What?”

“The damn meeting kept going long, and they took our phones. It was a whole big thing. He told us that we had to be focused on the meeting and that phones had to be off or on silent. We had to put them in a box. I couldn’t message you. I didn’t even know that you’d messaged. I mean, I assumed that you had, but I couldn’t get to my phone to do anything about it. When I tried to go to the bathroom just so I could grab it, I got treated like a teenager who was being grounded, and I quit. I should’ve just done it before. I know I should’ve demanded my damn phone. But I didn’t want to get fired. I ended up just quitting because I couldn’t take it anymore. I’m currently staring at a box of my stuff on top of my car, which isn’t much of anything, really. I’m still in the parking lot because I called you as soon as I could. Bryce, I should’ve left earlier. I’m so sorry.”

“You quit your job?”

“I had to. I can’t keep working there. And they were keeping me from you. I let them do that tonight for longer than I should.”

“Soph, you quit your job. You don’t have another one lined–”

“I know. I’ll worry about that tomorrow. Right now, I just need you to know that, yes, I’m scared – I am terrified, even – but I’m not too scared. I’d never leave you somewhere waiting for me if I could control it. Bryce, please, meet me. Don’t just go back to your hotel.”

Bryce didn’t say anything for the longest moment of Sophie’s life.

“They want the table anyway. Just know that I probably smell like seafood and sweat now, but I smelled good earlier. My shirt is all wrinkled now, too. It looked better before.”

Relieved, Sophie laughed and replied, “I’m wearing my work clothes that I’ve been in since six-thirty this morning. My hair is a mess.”

“It will be once I’m done running my hands through it,” Bryce told her.

“God,” Sophie said. “Yes, please.”

“Just tell me where to go, Soph. I’ve never been surrounded by so many bars in my life, and I’ve been to Broadway Street in Nashville. They all look so different but somehow the same here.”

“It’s the people. It’s better during the off-season.”

“Just get here already,” Bryce said.

“I’m texting you where to go. I’m on my way.”

“Okay,” Bryce replied.

Sophie hung up and sent Bryce a location pin. Their bar was stuck between two much larger and more popular bars, which often made it get overlooked unless you knew what you were looking for. Then, she messaged Bryce again with the names of those two bars to make sure she couldn’t miss it. Bryce sent her back a thumbs-up, and Sophie hoped she hadn’t ruined things.

First, she had to drop her car off at home because there would be no parking around the Quarter tonight. She also wanted to change, but knowing that Bryce had been waiting on her long enough, she parked her car and ordered an Uber to take her as close as it could to the Quarter. When she got out, she pushed through crowds to get to Bryce as quickly as she could. There was some wrestling competition in town for the week, which meant that not only did they have the usual influx of tourists due to it being Carnival season and spring break, but they also had another hundred thousand wrestling fans who wore T-shirt with cut-off sleeves and fake championship gold belts, so she had to maneuver her way through them walking down the street in large groups, yelling their favorite wrestler’s catchphrase.

Finally, on Bourbon, she made it past St. Louis Street and saw the sign for one of the two larger bars. She should have told Bryce to wait for her outside. Why hadn’t she done that? God, she was an idiot. She hadn’t even given the woman the name of the place before she got to town, knowing Bryce would need it. Sophie supposed they’d both been incredibly nervous and scared about meeting each other again, so their brains weren’t working properly.

When she arrived at the bar, she quickly pulled out her ID and handed it to the bouncer, who ran a flashlight over it and nodded. It took everything in Sophie to wait to get the damn piece of plastic back before she rushed inside. A quick glance at the bottom floor told her that the place was packed with people dancing and ordering drinks. Knowing Bryce wouldn’t be waiting for her there anyway, Sophie found the hidden staircase and walked up, feeling the stickiness under her feet, like all the other times she’d been here. As soon as she got upstairs, she scanned the crowd. No Bryce.

Sophie went to move through the group of people who were practically blocking the stairs. When she walked around the corner, there was their sofa. It was currently occupied by three women, none of whom were Bryce, though. Sophie swallowed hard then. She’d messed it up. She didn’t know what to do now. She’d thought she would find Bryce here, but she had a twenty-minute drive home, followed by a ten-minute drive in the Uber and then another ten-minute walk to the bar. She’d kept Bryce waiting too long.

“Took you long enough.”

Sophie closed her eyes at the sound because she knew that voice. She turned around, and there she was, her Bryce.