“Don’t you see, Clo?” Mare said as she leaned forward. “That’s exactly what you weren’t doing with Aiden. You took a lot of risks and came out okay on the other side. Not just okay, but better for it—stronger. Don’t you see that leaving your job is just another one of those risks?”
“And you think I’ll be stronger for it in the end?”
“I do.”
“And poorer,” I pointed out.
“I bet you have some reserves stashed away somewhere,” Mare said, eyeing me.
She was right. I did. I’d read an article years ago about having six months of living expenses tucked away in case something unexpected were to happen. I really did have plenty of time to look for another job before I was in danger of losing my condo or anything like that.
“Fine,” I said. “You’re right—I’ll be okay for a while.”
“So what are you going to do now?” Mare asked.
“Work on finding another job, I suppose.”
“I meant about Aiden.”
“Well, he was asking me to come down for the weekend. I thought I’d have too much work to do, but I guess that’s not an issue now.”
“So you’ll go see him again.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I guess I will.”
Telling my mother about Aiden didn’t go as smoothly as my conversation with Mare. She was furious about all the dangerous things I had done, the risks I had taken, and kept repeating the same phrase over and over again.
“You jumped out of a plane, Chloe? A plane?”
I sighed again.
“I’m fine, Mom,” I reminded her.
I told her about Aiden’s son but decided it was not in anyone’s best interests to tell her about all the tattoos and the assumptions I had made about him while I was down there. She was mad enough as it was, and I didn’t need her flipping out on me more than she already had.
“You have to promise me,” she practically yelled into the phone, “promise me you will never do anything crazy like that again!”
I opened my mouth with my agreement on my tongue but then paused. I didn’t have any desire to go skydiving again, but what if Aiden came up with another activity? If he suggested bungee jumping or parasailing, I would undoubtedly agree, and I wasn’t going to lie to my mother about it.
“I don’t have any current plans to do anything crazy,” I told her. “That doesn’t mean I’ll never do anything exciting again.”
“This is beyond exciting, Chloe Ellison! You quit your job, for goodness’ sake! What in the world were you thinking?”
I bit my tongue, holding in the words I wanted to use. I didn’t want
a prolonged argument with Mom, and I didn’t want her to worry about me. I needed to just tell her I was wrong. Maybe I could see about getting my job back.
Alarm!
My body jerked in response to the internal alert. Had I learned nothing in the past few weeks? I didn’t need that job—I could always find another one. I wasn’t wrong to quit. Had I taken a risk? Yes. Was I afraid? Yes. But wasn’t that all just a part of life?
This time, I listened to the alarm in my head.
“Here’s what I was thinking,” I said. I kept my voice calm and controlled. “I was thinking that the stress my boss was putting on me wasn’t worth the job and that I’m a highly skilled professional that lots of companies would want to hire. I was thinking I might even take a couple of weeks off to go to Florida and get to know Aiden a little better because I think he’s been really good for me. He’s sweet and he’s kind and he’s a fantastic cook. He’s taught me how to live life without being afraid of everything, and I really needed that. He’s also just now starting to deal with the loss of his son, and I’m going to be there for him while he works through it.”
I took a deep breath.
“Now if you don’t like that, I’m sorry, but it’s what I’m going to do. I hope you are still planning to come for Thanksgiving because I’d like to invite him to join us.”