...with a splash of Kay, page 20
“Kay,” she continued, and my ears perked up. “… she has been promoted to client lead. She’ll be running campaigns and branding for our major accounts while overseeing some smaller accounts.” I surveyed the room for my team’s response. A lot of nodding, like they expected this. “You’ve brought in a great deal of work this year with the vision to carry it through, which deserves big recognition,” Samantha said. Just not a big raise.
Samantha then acknowledged our assistant vice president, who’d been promoted to vice president. And then shared news neither myself nor my coworkers expected.
“And last but not least, Natasha has also been promoted.” When I looked around this time, my coworkers seemed shocked, their eyes open or jaws dropped. “Natasha has executed high caliber events recently. She’s client focused and detailed oriented, and given we have a growing client list, there’s a need for us to host our own events instead of outsourcing to vendors. So, Natasha, you have a newly created title of event manager.”
I looked at Natasha, who looked back at me, neither of us as cheery as you’d expect after hearing your promotion announced. Then, Natasha rolled her eyes, which made me giggle. All the time we’d spent worrying about one another’s success seemed to be for nothing.
“Let’s give a hand to your newly promoted coworkers! Cheers!” My colleagues clapped for us again.
“Look at you, working your way up,” Andre said after we ate. “You know, you got that promotion pretty quick. I’ve been here forever, but I’ll always just be Samantha’s right-hand man.” Was he signaling something?
“Do you like your role?” I asked.
“Oh, love it! You know Samantha loves me, gives me all her samples and bonuses during the year. I’m lucky to work for her, even if she emails me all hours of the night and has me managing her personal calendar. But, you know, the grass isn’t always greener.”
No, it isn’t. But who wants to stay around for free samples, small bonuses, and a needy manager when you can have a higher salary, a chunky bonus, and a boss who respects you? Andre’s reality was my biggest work fear realized.
After Samantha paid the bill and said her goodbyes, most people trickled out behind her with the exception of a few of us who lingered behind.
“Didn’t I tell you you’d get the promotion?” Natasha lightly elbowed my arm.
“Yeah, yeah.” I waved my hand to dismiss her. “But look at you! Event manager, huh?”
“Honestly, I’m not good at the creative stuff, so it’s a huge relief not to have to do it anymore. I didn’t want to admit it before, but Kay, it’s clear to everyone—you’re amazing at what you do.”
“You think so?” I asked bashfully. Natasha looked at me like, C’mon.
“You don’t know that by now? You literally just got a promotion.” She had a point. “Hopefully, it means we work alongside each other instead of against one another,” she continued.
“Well, I have some news about that. I’m actually leaving LaToulle.” I wanted to tell Natasha first.
“What? Does anyone know?”
“Shh,” I motioned my index finger over my lips. “No! I’m telling Samantha tomorrow, and I’m sure it will be around the office as fast as the news about my second job was.” Natasha laughed.
“So, I’m the first to know? Wow, we’ve really come full circle,” she said.
“Seriously,” I let out a light laugh and took a sip of my champagne.
“Wait, also, no one cares about your second job. Well, maybe no one besides Samantha.”
“Huh?” I asked, puzzled.
“Yeah, she brought it up at a meeting today. Asked that we let her know if we have other things going on outside of work. Kind of weird, honestly.”
I rolled my eyes, thankful I’d be leaving LaToulle’s and not have to worry about this any longer.
“Actually,” Natasha continued, “since you’re leaving and all, I guess I can tell you. Andre showed me a separate email Myra sent Samantha. She went hard on her but praised you. I didn’t want to say anything because Andre told me not to, but I promise you I didn’t tell Samantha about Lola’s—Myra did.”
“In the email?”
“Yeah, it was in her rave about how hard you work. It was all positive! But it probably caught Samantha by surprise. Who knows why, she pays us nothing and… Well, whatever, working at a restaurant is pretty cool if you ask me.”
I nodded, hoping there’d be no more sneaking through emails or hiding my truth at Moxy. “Thanks for letting me know.” I tapped my glass against hers.
“Anytime. Just don’t forget about me when you leave here.” She smiled before grabbing her coat to leave.
From enemies to frenemies to, dare I say, friends, Natasha and I had come a long way from our first days at LaToulle, and it was another reason to be thankful tonight.
Cheers
* * *
The next morning, I accepted Tiffany’s offer and was ready to deny Samantha’s. I knocked on her office door—no help from Andre, no meeting scheduled.
“Have a minute? There’s something I need to talk to you about.” Without a chance to sit down, Samantha started.
“Oh, is it about the restaurant? I’ll need you dedicated here more. No more waitressing or whatever you do. That should be fine considering your raise, right?” I closed the door and calmly took a seat.
“Thank you, Samantha, but that’s not what I want to talk about.”
“Oh, okay. What?”
“I got a job offer with Moxy Media as their senior marketing manager, and I’m going to take it. Their compensation offer is more than double my new offer here, and it’s a job I’m really excited about.” I was pragmatic, with no short breaths or sweaty palms to deter me. “I start in mid-August, so I’ll take the next two weeks to finish out my role here.”
Samantha pulled her head back in disbelief. “Wow, well, okay. You said double the pay?”
“Yes,” I responded.
“Well, we can’t do that. Geez, that’s a lot.” Samantha let out a dramatic breath and placed her hands on her desk. “Well, okay, wrap up your work and offload it to Natasha for me. Andre will help you with offboarding.” Without a congratulations or compliment from Samantha, I said okay, and left her office.
After work, I stopped at Lola’s to officially quit. Only when I went to the office, there was no Sisi. Instead of her blonde highlights, I saw messy blonde hair. It was Noah.
“Oh, hey there,” he said. My heart raced for a moment before I reminded myself I didn’t need to be nervous. He was seeing someone, and I was in a new, happy relationship. We weren’t anything more or less.
“Hey, Noah. What are you doing here?”
“I needed to stop by to get something from Si, but I’m just on my way out. Are you working today?”
“No, I’m not working here anymore.” Part of me wanted to brag about my new job to show off. But I didn’t. There was no need to prove anything to him. “I need to find Sisi, so I’ll catch you later,” I said.
“Yeah, all right. I’m just about to leave too. Nice to see you.” He smiled, and I went upstairs. I spent a split moment fantasizing about what could have been with him. Then, I cut the thought off. What was the point?
Upstairs, Sisi had just walked in from a coffee run. “Do you see the way they wrote my name? It’s S-I-S-I, not C-E-C-E. Ugh!” I laughed before telling her about my new job offer.
“Well, that’s just great, Kay! This way, I don’t have to fire you!”
“What? Fired?”
“Kidding! I’ll miss you working here, but your career trumps any of my feelings. I couldn’t be more proud of you!”
“Thank you, Si! Does this mean I get a hug?
“Um, no. But it does mean I don’t have to worry about your schedule anymore.”
“Well, lucky you!”
I left to get ready for my date night with Milo. He wanted to take me out to celebrate and sent me the coordinates for where to meet. I wasn’t sure why he didn’t just send me the restaurant name. That was until I arrived. The coordinates led me to our first date spot.
Inside, Milo sat at the same loveseat by the window. His freshly cut hair brought out his hazelnut eyes and tan, further illuminated by the dim light above us.
“How are you, babe?” I never thought I’d enjoy someone calling me babe, but with him, it felt so good.
“I’m great! Because guess what?”
“What?”
“I just quit Lola’s!”
“Oh yeah, until when? Sisi will probably call you next week for help.”
I laughed. “True, but she has a bigger staff now, so I think I’m actually done for good.”
“I say you’ll miss that place and be back in a few months,” Milo rebutted. I smirked, knowing he may be right.
“Okay, but guess what else?”
“What?” he asked, his mouth open.
“I put in my two weeks with LaToulle!”
“That’s my girl!”
Over dinner, we talked about my new role and final conversation with Samantha. Milo couldn’t be happier for me and ordered a flourless chocolate cake and a bottle of red wine to celebrate.
“Do you remember our first date here?” Milo asked.
“Of course! I remembered how cute I thought you were, even though you talked a lot.” I laughed and took a bite of warm cake.
Always taking well to my humor, Milo laughed too. “Well, I’ve been thinking a lot. I know we’ve only been official for, like, forty-eight hours, but it’s been months since we met, and I love being with you so much.”
“You too!” I interjected, out of excitement and because it was true.
“Okay, this is kind of cheesy to say, but you’re like the girl of my dreams. And if I was distant on my trip, I’m sorry. I just noticed we were falling into a routine, and I don’t want you to get bored, and I don’t want to mess this up.” Poor Milo didn’t think of what I could have been up to that same weekend. But there was no point in rehashing—it was officially water under the bridge. “I want to be with you. Really be with you. I can see myself spending my life with you.”
Was he about to propose? Part of me was humbled and smitten by his words, and another part felt nervous and terrified that I would have to say “no.” I liked him but wasn’t ready for this!
“Anyway,” he continued, “we have to make a promise to each other. To always keep our relationship fresh. I don’t ever want you to get bored. Because, well, I love you, Kay. And I really want each day to feel like our first together.”
Overcome with a wave of relief, I said what was in my heart. “I love you, too, Milo.” Because I did. I loved how he cared for me. I loved our budding partnership. And I loved that he thought to bring us to the place our spark first ignited. We kissed over the loveseat.
“And, okay… there’s one more thing. Not to steal from our shine, but I have something to show you,” I said
“Your shine is our shine, babe. Show me.”
I pulled from my purse a printed copy of an article Lilly had drafted. It was about my new role at Moxy Media. I folded the headline, only to reveal the cover photo—a Polaroid of me holding a bucket of Brunchies at the Lola’s party.
“Woah! You look awesome. Was that the event I missed?” I nodded and lifted the folded part of the paper. The headline read, “…with a splash of Kay.”
“Hey! That was my line!” Milo said.
“I know! I loved when you said it, so I nudged the idea to Lilly, who also loved it. The entire article is about how I helped morph Brunchies to become the ‘fall trend to look out for.’ Look, she writes here, ‘Moxy’s newest member, Kay Mitchell, knows what you’ll be sipping before you do.’”
“Ha, that’s great. I want to read the whole thing.” Which he did right away. “We need to frame this in your apartment. Has Myra seen it?”
“Yes! She loves it and loves that I’m working with Moxy. She’s dropping LaToulle and will be my first client. Tiffany wants to feature Brunchies in a new teen drama on Netflix!”
“I seriously couldn’t be more proud of you,” Milo said and kissed me again. I couldn’t be more proud of me either.
That night, tipsy and on a date night high, we had slow, passionate sex in my apartment. We lay together, talking for an hour until Milo nodded off. I was just about to fall asleep, too, when my phone pinged. Who could this be?
Noah: Great to see you earlier. Maybe we should talk.
I almost replied but decided not to. It would mean defying our guilt for selfish pleasure that likely wouldn’t amount to anything anyway. We would fade, but our actions wouldn’t. So, in the end, there was no point. I didn’t explore that potential next chapter, even if short-lived. I figured it best to be left with thoughts of Noah and me than consequences.
—
I laid awake at six-thirty the next morning, my thoughts picking up where I left them before bed. I fantasized about Noah. I replayed his smile and our kiss again in my mind. Until Milo’s snore laid right into me. A clear reminder I wasn’t living that fantasy and I wasn’t alone. I shook off the thoughts and turned toward him.
He was awake now, smiling his most adorable, warm smile. “Te amo,” he said, moving my hair out of my face and behind my ear. I moved closer so we could embrace. My other thoughts vanished when I remembered, this is home.
Acknowledgments
* * *
Thank you to all those who provided me with encouragement that helped carry me through this effort. A special thank you to Michael Barnhart, Kathleen Benoit, Kaitlyn Benoit, Sabrina Blackburn, Aly Denegri, Sharon Gardiner, Rachel Fohrman, Janet Meyer, Rachel Pacheco, Megan Pickarski, Curtis Stewart, Hillary Taubman, Jessy Tolkan, Catherine Zagorski, and Katie Zigelman for providing your time or financial support to make this happen.
Author’s Note
* * *
Many of you have followed me on this journey, but to those who haven’t, I finally made one of my dreams to be a fiction author come true!
Growing up, I clung to fun, uplifting stories about women like they were my own. I fell in love with comedy-dramas like Sex and the City and engaging books like City of Girls. I valued their combination of relatability with entertainment and escapism.
For years, I’ve had a deep desire to write a story that provided the same experience for others. And, as any artist knows, when your creative match is sparked, it’s pretty difficult to put out. It is my hope that in reading this book, you will find a little bit of yourself in the main character, Kay Mitchell. Throughout the pages, I want you to relate to her circumstances and learn alongside her path of self-discovery the same way you may have with other characters from your favorite TV shows or books. And equally important, I want you to have a good time reading! … with a splash of Kay is intended to be fun and lighthearted. It may even make you laugh.
Kelly Benoit, ...with a splash of Kay
