Page 75 of September

“I would suggest we go on a third date, at least, before we make any kind of long-term commitment, though,” Gwen added with a smile.

“Probably a good idea.”

They skipped dessert, deciding to walk around the city at night a bit before returning to Juliet’s place, and when the check arrived, Gwen took it and paid for their meal. On their walk, Gwen nodded toward Café Du Monde, which wasn’t a place Juliet usually frequented due to tourists bringing about perpetually long lines, but they were there, and Gwen seemed interested, so she nodded that they could go, wanting to give Gwen whatever she could that night to make her happy. The line was long, as it usually was, but it moved quickly, and they had nowhere to be anyway, so they stood and waited. When Gwen took Juliet’s hand, Juliet leaned into her side, loving the feeling of having someone to stand in line for beignets with.

“So, another work trip?” Gwen asked.

“Coming up, yes. And another after that, and…”

“And?” Gwen asked.

“And I don’t want to go.” Juliet shook her head.

“Sorry, Jules. Does it help if I say that I don’t want you to go, either?”

“Yes, and not really.” Juliet laughed. “I feel like I met you at the exact worst time because I’m going to be gone so often.”

“Well, we only met because you’re going to be gone so often. You wouldn’t have had a reason for me to walk Carly otherwise.”

“True,” she said.

“But if you don’t like it, what are you going to do? Just keep doing it forever?”

“No. I took the job because I thought I’d get promoted quickly, but after talking to Molly earlier, I’m no longer sure that’s going to happen, which sucks.”

“Why not?” Gwen asked as they took a step forward in line.

“Well, my new boss told me he’d be getting promoted soon, but Molly said that was unlikely. The company does all the promotions once a year unless there’s a new role or someone leaves, so I might be doing this for over a year. It’ll get better once they hire Andrew’s replacement, but that person needs to get trained first, so that relief is probably four to six months away. They didn’t backfill me when I took this weird hybrid role, so I’m doing my old job, part of Jordana’s job, and now, all of Andrew’s job.”

“Yes, but you don’t have to,” Gwen said. “Can’t you tell your boss that it’s too much?”

“You’ve been working on your own, babe. I’m not sure it really works like that,” she replied and took a step forward with Gwen. “It’s a job. I kind of have to do what they say.”

“No, you don’t. You can find another job.”

“I don’t want one; that’s the problem. I like what I do. I thought about going back and recertifying in the HR areas I’d need in order to get the next HR gig like Molly’s, but my heart isn’t all the way in it anymore. That was my plan. I went to schoolfor it, planned for it to be my whole career, and now, I just don’t know anymore.”

“Okay,” Gwen said and turned to face her, still holding Juliet’s hand. “Pretend it’s next year. Picture it. What are you doing?”

“Maybe still standing in line for beignets with you,” she joked.

“I’m serious,” Gwen said through light laughter.

“I don’t know. Probably still doing this because I won’t be promoted yet.”

“But do you want to still be doing this? Traveling all the time?”

“Not really.”

“Then, whatdoyou want?”

“My old job, but with some local classes to teach. The sales one we piloted was great and was supposed to be held at corporate, and I’d like to centralize our leadership classes instead of traveling to them.”

“Can you do that?”

“It’ll be my boss’s call, but I can recommend it. They’re weeklong, those classes, and we make the managers travel to a hotel conference room within their district. We could offer them here instead, and I wouldn’t have to travel all the time. They are paying for a hotel room for each of them anyway.”

“That sounds like it would save the company money.”