Page 59 of September

After all that, she was more than ready to be at home, in a hot bath, and hanging out with her dog, so she’d hit the road early that morning and had only stopped for gas. She was also really excited to see Gwen again and no longer felt like trying to hide that fact. After talking to the woman every night, flirting with her during their conversations, and having to spend time away from her, she was ready to at least figure out her next step where Gwen was concerned.

“Hey, want to grab a drink later?” Molly asked.

“Maybe. Can I get back to you on that, though?”

“Sure. Have other plans with a certain dog walker, perhaps?” Molly asked.

Juliet laughed and replied, “I don’t know yet. Maybe. I think I might go for it, Molls,” she said while in the car, which was connected to her phone via Bluetooth. “I like her a lot. We’ve talked every day.”

“Every day? It’s been two days.”

“I know. But we talked for, like, five hours one night.”

“Five hours?! After you worked a whole day?Wedon’t even talk that much. Then again, you don’t want to sleep with me.”

“No offense, but no, I don’t.”

“None taken. I don’t want to sleep with you, either,” Molly said. “So, five hours?”

“Yeah. Crazy, huh? Her favorite color is green. She told me that while looking into my eyes, which also happen to be green.I’m trying not to make anything out of that, but she was smiling when she said it.”

“She was staring–” Molly stopped. “You were on FaceTime? You didn’t justtalkon the phone?”

“No. We get on FaceTime so that I can see Carly, too.”

“Sure, blame the dog,” Molly joked.

“I’m serious. I get to see CarlyandGwen. It’s win-win.”

“I guess so. Are you going to ask her out?”

“I think so. She said something the other day, before I left, about how we talk about Carly a lot, and she wanted to get to know me better. That’s not something a friend usually says.”

“They also don’t usually say that their favorite color just happens to be the color of your eyes.”

“No, they don’t, I guess,” Juliet said with a smile. “But what if she says no?”

“Why would she say no?”

“Because I don’t even know when we would go out.”

“Well, you’re on your way back now,” Molly said. “I’m guessing that’s why you’re a maybe on drinks tonight: you’re hoping you can go out with her. Am I right?”

“Yeah. And I meant after that. I will be gone so much, Molls.”

“Do you evenlikethese increased responsibilities they gave you with this so-called promotion, Jules?”

“Not really, no. I’m just trying to think about my future. If I can do this for a few months, maybe I’ll get his job.”

“Sweetie, he’s not getting promoted. If he does, it’ll be a big surprise.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m in meetings with all of HR. They’ve been talking about the executive team promotions and searches this week while you were out, and they did not indicate that there was a new role opening up for him. The VP role doesn’t exist, so they’d have tocreate it just for him. I’m not sure they see the reason to do that right now.”

“Really?” she asked. “I was kind of counting on that.”

“I guess it could still happen, but if it does, it would be during next year’s reviews, not this one, and that would mean over a year of this travel for you. Besides, you know how they don’t like promoting someone twice within a year. They want people to be in their roles for at least twelve months before they move you up again.”