Mr. Elitist [ A Novel ]

40

| one month later |

| Isabella |

Christmas in New York had always been my favorite time of the year. Rachael and I always spent the first day of December decorating the entire apartment, getting a tree, replacing all our usual decor for holiday themed decor and baking Christmas cookies. Then of course there was the music, which would be played non-stop until Christmas morning which we spent at Rachael's parents house in the Hampton's.

But this time I had no holiday cheer. I was usually the most excited for Christmas, which was ironic because my childhood Christmas's had been miserable. My mom would cry about my dad who wouldn't be home because he was out with the same woman he's marrying today. The woman he spent years having an affair with before he finally decided he should do the decent thing and break it off with my mom. But no, not even that had ruined the holiday for me. No, what had ruined it, or rather, the person who had ruined it, was Nathan Price.

I was bitter and miserable and achingly sad. Even Rachael had mentioned to me that I had been generally lacking in enthusiasm recently. Granted, she wasn't surprised, she knew that while I put on a brave face, I was really breaking inside.

Some days weren't so bad. Others, like today, were the worst.

It was the Friday before I got on Christmas vacation from work. The Friday before a week of much needed freedom in my life and yet I had no feelings inside me . . . not a bone in my body was excited.

Besides work, I never left the apartment. I had fallen into a habit of staying locked up in my room, wallowing in my own sadness and finding that I often felt worse the next morning, even after a night of rest.

It was as if our breakup had triggered some kind-of domino effect inside of me that caused all my problems, all my past relationships and all the baggage from my shitty childhood to come crashing down around me. Everything I'd been pushing away came back with a vengeance that I couldn't handle.

So here I was, sitting at my desk, on a Friday and feeling so dull, I might just vanish into the floor and never come back.

"Isabella?" I hear and I turn slowly in my desk chair to see my boss, Richard, standing there. He was a kind man in his sixties, with a balding head and thickly rimmed glasses on his nose. He had a love for sweater vests and bow ties that would normally make me laugh but only served to be added on to the long list of things I didn't care about anymore. 

"Hi Richard." I say and he smiles.

"Come join me in my office for a moment." he says and I stand, following him across the room. He shuts the door and offers me a seat in front of his desk which I take instantly.

"So, I just want to say that I am very impressed with the work you've been doing here lately." he says and I smile, even though it feels forced.

"Thank you." I say softly and he smiles.

"You've only been with the company a short time and you've made such great strides that I feel ready to offer you an interesting opportunity." he says and I sit up straighter, suddenly more intrigued.

"Okay." I say and he continues, sliding a sleek folder across the desk towards me.

"As you know, our company is looking more into online publishing because print is a dying industry. Recently, we have had a lot of success with our online work and have decided to open up an smaller, experimental, second company in Pasadena, California." he says. "I just need one of our best here to go out there and over see the process. It's nothing permanent, 6 months at most, but I would like to offer this opportunity to you."