Summer Swing (53 page)

“I know.” It was quiet for a few seconds and then she added, “I can’t believe she was stealing your work.”

“I know, me neither. I mean I guess I can because she’s always seemed that way to me, but really… Using my research to compile a database? Well actually that’s what I do, too. It’s all on my laptop.”

“Yeah, but she’s been on your desktop, too.”

“What?”

“Yeah, Doug was on your computer—and I’m sure he’ll tell you all of this when he talks to you
; this only happened, like, thirty minutes ago—but she’s been all through your Entourage and stuff.”

“How in the world did she do that?
It’s
all
passcode
protected!”

“I don’t know. And I don’t even know how she accessed your computer without anyone seeing her. There are people at the station 24/7. But I heard that she might have done it from another computer, so I guess you’ll have to learn more about that.”

My other line was ringing, and when I glanced at the number I knew it was the station.

“I think someone’s calling me right now,” I told Miranda.

“Prepare
to be dragged
into the office.”

“Yeah, I know. Hey, thanks for the heads up. I really appreciate it.”

“Sure. I’ll see you next week; I’m off
to
Vegas for New Year’s.”

“Sheesh, that sounds scary. Okay, bye!”

I quickly switched the call, listened to Doug vaguely explain that there were some issues at work and it would be a good idea if I could come in for a bit. I had just arrived at home, so I grabbed my laptop (Doug’s request) and braced myself for whatever I had to face at the office. Beth was the first one to inform me that
Amy
quit and Belinda got fired. I only said, “Yeah, I just found out,” and then went straight to my desk.
It looked pretty m
uch the same as how I’d left it;
I really didn’t know what I was looking for.

Kathy was the first one to greet me, but I could tell it was with mixed emotions.
She was
one of the station manager
s
but I
didn’t deal with her as much as I did my other superiors, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. But
both Kathy and Doug gave me the situation one more time, expressing their apologies and concerns that I’d been treated unfairly. I didn’t quite understand until I realized that Belinda had been chosen over me because she “worked harder.”

“I should have known,” Doug said, shaking his head. “I mean you’re so consistent, and you always have been. Your work is fantastic, and you’re very popular on-air. Belinda just had…so much. I couldn’t believe some of the stuff she showed me, and the ideas she had. I was really impressed. But this is your stuff, right?”

He showed me an assortment of printouts, ranging from some charity ideas I’d
had to contests for listeners—a
lso my entire address book of important contacts.

“Yes,
those are straight from
my computer.”

He nodded. “These aren’t what she’s been presenting me with—she put together her own printouts so it looked like she’d done it herself.”

I only nodded
, still a little overwhelmed
.

“But Ellie… Is this honestly extra stuff that you work on?”

“Uh, yeah. I spend a lot of time putting various things together, just ideas and stuff, so I have… Well, so I have a database of my own stuff if I’m ever in the position to use it or carry out one of my ideas.”

“You mean for your own show someday?”

“Uh…” I guess I was a little embarrassed about that, but what was wrong with having a career goal and letting your boss know it? “Yes, that’s always been my focus.”

He looked at Kathy and they both smiled at each other.

“
Amy
quit
two days ago,” Kathy said. “We were already considering you to take her spot, but we’d like to officially offer it to you right now. You’d be working with Ken and Jack full time. They’re very excited to have you if you say yes.”

I was speechless. Full time?
As a regular?

“They have some really great ideas for what you can add to the show,” she continued. “But…I’m sure you could probably teach them a thing or two yourself,” she
winked
.

“The only problem is…” Doug began.

“Yes, I can start right away.”

“Perfect,” he
smiled
. “They’re both here today, so let’s go meet with them.”

So
that was how I got my new job, and even though I wished I could have just earned it the normal way without all the drama involved, I was glad to finally be where I wanted to be. The pay raise was nice, and I immediately began adjusting my budget, happy that I could put a lot more into my savings.

Harlan took me out the next night. It was New Year’s Eve and we planned on going out anyways, but before the party we were going to attend, he took me to a celebratory dinner. It was really nice, and because I’d been in the office all day working with Ken and Jack, it felt good to just sit down and enjoy an evening with Harlan.

After dinner we headed to Big Al’s to go bowling. Harlan had a group of colleagues that were there to celebrate the New Year. He had mentioned
the party
, and it seemed like it would be a lot of fun, so I was excited to go. We stayed until about eleven, and then headed over to my sister’s house to bring in the New Year. She was a bit annoyed that we hadn’t come earlier, but I didn’t waste the time arguing with her. We did stay later than we’d planned, even helping to clean up. That made her happy, so I wa
s glad to have balanced out her opinion
s
of me
—
for that night
, at least
.

I guess I could say that Harlan had become a pretty steady part of my life. Besides his usual kisses on the cheek, the only other time he kissed me on the lips was on New Year’s at midnight. He claimed
it was reasonable (joking that some other guy might try to do it) so I let him get away with it
.

Since Tyse refused to ever call me back, I had to assume that there was something there that I wasn’t meant to have. I still missed him and thought about him constantly, but I guess I couldn’t be upset with him if he needed to earn some money. The only thing I knew—from talking to Nate one other time—was that Tyse was out on a fishing boat for
a few
weeks. I
didn’t think it would be easy to get a hold of me, so I wasn’t upset about that. But I was
still upset that he had cancel
ed the trip to Oregon without even talking to me about it first. I guess I didn’t understand any of that. All Nate sa
id was that it happened so fast;
Tyse left with another buddy to land the job, and that was that.

I really longed to have any kind of contact with Tyse, even if all we had was just going back to phone calls and texting. It’s amazing how you take things for granted and don’t even realize it. I guess that’s why phone calls from Harlan were important to me
while he was in England
. He called me every day he was there
, and I felt lucky that we had that.

My first week on the morning show was amazing. It was like a tornado hit me, but I loved it. I got along very well with Jack and Ken, even though they were both ten years older than me, a
nd we had a lot of rowdy, laugh-out-
loud moments in the studio before and after we were on the air. Okay, and som
etimes when we were on-air
too, and I quickly found out that I could make them laugh
pretty easily
. We kind of had a new program format we were
following—one that we had come up with as a group—a
nd we got a lot of po
sitive feedback from listeners. So far things were going great, and career-wise I was very pleased with myself.

My personal life?
Not so much. I hard
ly knew what I was doing anymore,
from missing Tyse and waiting for th
e day I could talk to him again
to feeling happy that my family loved Harlan to pieces.
I felt conflicted because I had two great things: I had Tyse, whom I knew very well, had become best friends with, and had now developed feelings
for
that I wasn’t sure he returned; and I had Harlan, who was an incredible guy
also
, was there for me no matter what, and seemed to fit into my life perfectly.

I guess it all kind of hit me one day when I was out with my sister. It was January 13
th
, my birthd
ay, and
we were downtown doing some shopping. We were in the Pearl District, having lunch at Cloud Seven, and my sister had asked what Harlan was doing for me for my birthday.

“
He wanted to take me to dinner tonight, but I’m not sure where,”
I replied. “But I got
three
dozen roses delivered to my house this morning.”

“Awww, how sweet. What color?”

“Oh, it’s beautiful. It’s a mix of purples. Different shades. Lights, darks, lavenders, violet…”

“Wow. I’m jealous.”

“I’ll give you a few. I don’t think Harlan would notice. The bouquet is massive.”

“Actually he probably would
notice
. He’d count them just to make sure the flower shop was honest a
nd lived up to his expectations.
”

I laughed. “Yeah, I think you’re right.”

“I mean he’s not fussy about
much
, he doesn’t like to make a big deal out of things, but he does like things to be just right for
you
.”

I smiled, nodding my head in agreement. Harlan was like that, pretty laid back, but he did do his best to make
me happy. He claimed I was easy to please
, so he liked to do things that I wouldn’t expect.

“He’s in love with you Ellie,” Dawn said out of the blue.

I was a little shocked that she’d say that, and I only stared at her with wide eyes.

“Don’t look so surprised,” she said. “Are you really surprised to hear that?”

“Well, uh… I’m surprised to hear you make assumptions about how Harlan feels about me.”

“It’s not an assumption; it’s really obvious.” She shrugged, like I was the idiot
for not understanding it.

“Dawn, we have a good thing going right now, so don’t ruin it for me.”

“Ruin it for you?” she chuckled. “Harlan being in love with you is a
bad
thing?”

I
really did believe that
it was. I didn’t want him to be in love with me. What if things didn’t work out between us? Why would I want there to be more at stake?

“Ellie, what is wrong with you? Harlan is an amazing guy. Man, he treats you so good! I don’t think there’s anything he wouldn’t do for you, little sister.
Come on
,
look at what you have
! He’s a
doctor
.
He’s got financial
security.
He’s so smart and he’
s so funny. Everybody loves him…
” She looked at me for a few seconds and then added, “Except for you, maybe.” I could tell she was really annoyed with me.

I sighed. “Dawn,
it’s
not so simple—”

“Bull. It is simple
and you just like to make it so it’s
not
simple.”

“What
does that even mean?”

“It means that I have no idea who you are anymore. For the past three months you’ve been this…different person.
But
I like you when you’re with Harlan. That’s the Ellie I like to see. You’re happy, and you’re fun, and you seem to have everything together. On your own you really suck. You’re always in your own little world, you always se
em to be worried about things…y
ou’re just not the sister I’ve always known.”

“Well, you can thank guys for that. I go crazy because of boyfriends and dating and all that
crap
.”

“It’s not even that. Yeah, maybe a little bit with Gage. But Ellie… Harlan has put you back together. Can’t you see that? He’s your other half; he
completes
you. You have your common interests, but the little differences totally compliment each other. You’re happy with him. I can tell.”

“I’m happy to have someone care about me.”

She gaped at me. “That sounds so
cold
,” she hissed. “Are you saying that Harlan just fills the emptiness for you?”

“No, that’s not what I’m saying,” I sighed. “I love having him in my life, but you can’t force me to be in love with him, Dawn.”