Chapter One
“Lindsey,” Mr. Grant said. “Can I see you in my office?”
“Sure.” Lindsey removed her headset and got up from her desk.
She followed her boss through the call center. It was a honeycomb of identical cubicles, all with the exact same desk, computer, and phone. The walls were painted green, no doubt in an attempt to make everyone forget they were cooped up in a tiny, windowless office for eight hours a day. But the paint had faded to a pale, sickly color, which made it even more depressing.
Lindsey sighed. How had she ended up here? All her life, she’d had such big plans. She was going to be a renowned artist, whose works were displayed in galleries all over the world. She was going to travel to exotic places, and have a string of passionate love affairs before meeting the man of her dreams in some tiny European town. And they’d fall in love and live the rest of their lives in a villa in the countryside.
Then Lindsey had grown up. Well, the world had forced her to grow up.
They reached Mr. Grant’s office. Lindsey sat down on the stiff plastic chair in front of his desk.
“I think you know what this is about, Lindsey.” Mr. Grant tented his fingers in front of his chest. “Your numbers have been slipping lately.”
His voice rang with concern, but just like everything else in this place, it was false. Everyone pretended to give a crap, when really, all they cared about was a paycheck. Lindsey saw through it because she feigned the same enthusiasm around her coworkers and the potential customers she called. She was surprisingly good at this job, at selling lies and convincing unsuspecting retirees to sign up for overpriced insurance. Lindsey didn’t like what that said about her.
“Do you want to tell me what’s going on?” Mr. Grant asked.
“It’s nothing,” Lindsey said. “I’m just having an off week.”
“It’s not just this week, Lindsey. Your performance has been steadily dropping for a while now.” He leaned back in his chair. “Do you still want this job?”
“Yes, of course.”
Lindsey didn’t want it. She needed it. She should have been grateful to have a job at all, let alone one that paid this well. Half her art school classmates were working at Starbucks. Plus, she’d been in a car accident almost a year ago that had left her with a steep medical bill. A few years working at Prime Life Insurance, and she could make a serious dent in her debt.
But the idea of doing this for a few years was soul-crushing.
“You know how it works,” her boss said. “We have quotas to meet both individually and as a team. You need to pick things up.”
“I know,” Lindsey said. “I’ll work harder, Mr. Grant.”
“Good.” He gave her a wide smile that looked more like a grimace. “Why don’t you get back to work? I want to see that fresh-faced, energetic employee you were when you started here.”
Lindsey left her boss’s office and returned to her cubicle. She slid her headset back on and brought up a list of names and phone numbers on her monitor.
As she stared at the screen, all the numbers seemed to blur together. Her dreams seemed more out of reach than ever. She was never going to pay off all this debt, let alone make it to Europe. At age 23, she still hadn’t fallen in love. And her sketchbook was at the bottom of a box somewhere, untouched since she finished art school.
Lindsey opened her desk drawer and glanced at the phone inside it. She had a message. The office had a strict ‘no cell phones’ policy, but she didn’t care. Looking behind her to make sure no one was around, Lindsey picked up her phone and read the message. It was from her friend Faith.
Do you have plans tonight?
Just grabbing the last of my stuff from my old apartment, then I’ll be right over, Lindsey sent back.