Rachel
“Was he looking at my ass?” Rachel asked Bella. Bella looked up from her yogurt and peered out the break room doorway towards Brad’s office. She caught a glimpse of him looking completely submerged in his computer screen and shook her head no.
“No, I don’t think so,” she replied, spooning another spoonful of granola and yogurt into her mouth. “Have you talked to him yet?”
“About him saving my ass even though all we do is argue and fight with one another? No. I haven’t gotten around to it yet.”
Bella ignored her friend’s sarcasm and took another bite of her breakfast. Sometimes Rachel was chilly, yes, but only when she was nervous. At home, she was a completely different person. She was relaxed, laid back, and actually a really good cook. The three of them had set up a cooking schedule, with all of them cooking twice a week and then on Fridays they usually all ordered take out. Most times she made traditional Jewish dishes, like keugel and matzo ball soup.
Why she was so different at the office, Bella wasn’t quite sure. She had a hunch though, and it involved Bradley. In the two years that the Bella’s and Rachel had been living together, Rachel had never brought a guy home, not even just for fun. It was, in Bella’s opinion, that Rachel liked Brad just as much as she ‘disliked’ him.
“Ugh, is he not going to bring the coffee in today?” Rachel asked impatiently. She waited around for a few more minutes then slammed her empty cup onto the counter. How was she supposed to sneak a cup of his coffee if he was going to start keeping it in his office?
Frustrated, she decided to walk back to her office and pour herself into work. She still had an open project to finish and tons of research to do. If it was going to be her last one, she decided, then it was going to be the best one she ever had.
Hours passed by as Rachel configured her designs into her computer. On one screen, she drew out the design of a cute young couple, sitting on their couch together with a RushIt box sitting across their laps. In their hands they were holding new couch pillows and a new throw for the couch they were sitting on, and they looked absolutely happy. On her other screen, she researched what throws and pillows they had available for purchase, and added the links of the possible purchases to clickable spots on the drawing.
When that was done, she began to expand further into the little details. She drew the lamp, a tall, slim modern one that sat behind the couch and illuminated the couple. She added the links to the lamps that their company offered in the style, just like she did with the throw. Then she worked on the side tables, the coffee table, even down to the little coffee cups and centerpiece bowl on the coffee table until everything in her drawing was both clickable and available for purchase.
The idea was something new that she was working on. In fact, she had hoped that it would have been what had saved her department, but she had been too late. At the end of the week, she was going to present it to both Ryan and Brad, hoping that the work would save her from being unemployed.
By the time she was finished with the coffee cups, she realized that she needed one of her own, whether it was filled with Brad’s special coffee or not. Rolling back from her computer, she stretched in her chair and looked up at the clock.
“Jeez, one o’ clock already?” She asked.
The Bella’s were already standing up, fiddling with their purses and their jackets. “Yeah, we’ve been trying to ask you to come to lunch with us but you were really zoned in on your work,” Isabella said. “So, you want to go? We were just going to hit up the little French bakery down the street for some croissants and coffee.”
“Absolutely,” Rachel replied, elated. “I’d love an espresso. She grabbed her jacket and wallet and followed the girls to the elevator.
“When did it start raining?” She asked as they stepped outside.
Bella raised her eyebrow in surprise. “Are you serious? It started like as soon as you sat down to work. Didn’t you hear all of the thunder?”
Rachel pulled her hood over her hair and shook her head. “Must have been really into work,” she pondered.
The bakery was less than a three-minute walk away, and to their delight it was warm, dry, and smelled of fresh baked bread and coffee beans whenever they stepped inside. Rachel bought herself caramel latte with two shots of espresso and a warmed chocolate filled croissant. The coffee perked her up immediately, and she and the Bella’s fell into an easy and light hearted conversation about everything and nothing.
As Rachel laughed with her friends, she suddenly felt very grateful for having them. They were doing their best to make her demotion easier on her, and she couldn’t have made it through last night without them. After they’d all gotten home, they had changed into their pajamas, heated up some leftover cinnamon rice pudding, and listened to her complain and cry over the loss of her job title. Not once did they tell her to calm down or tell her it wasn’t a big deal. They had been there for her all the way, and she was so thankful for that.
“You guys are awesome,” she said suddenly. The Bella’s looked up at her in confusion, each with their mouth’s full. “I mean. I know I haven’t been easy to deal with lately. But you stuck by me. I really appreciate that.”
Isabella swallowed her last bite of chocolate croissant and smiled at Rachel, taking her hand. “Of course,” she replied. “You’d do the same for us.”
And she would too. Rachel decided then and there that she had to work on her attitude around the office. Not just for her friend’s sake, but for her own. They finished their lunch in a comfortable silence, and Rachel got another latte to go before they headed back to the office. There was lots to do after all, and a new attitude to do it in.