Ms. Community Manager

**Happy weekend! Enjoy this long-overdue bonus. See you all Wednesday, xoxo** 


When I got to work on Friday morning, there was a file I didn't recognize smack in the middle of my desk. I peered at it suspiciously before gingerly opening it up. I saw a whole lot of official-looking documents before realizing it was my new offer from HR. With all of the Dylan drama on Tuesday, I had almost forgotten about my promotion. Almost.

I sat down to review the documents, which seemed pretty in line with what Colleen and I had discussed on Tuesday. My title was changing to Community Manager and my job description now included full management of the blog and a heavier hand in social media management. A few of my old more mundane responsibilities had been removed, which would be a huge help for me. I just hoped too much of it hadn't been dumped on Elena. Finally I noticed the salary - about $10,000 more than I had been making before. YAHOO! I could already taste the SoHo shopping spree in my future.

I read through all of the papers carefully once more before signing in all of the places that HR had marked. I was officially a Community Manager! I wanted to do a happy dance around the office, but people were starting to arrive and I didn't want them to think that their new Community Manager was a nut case. Instead, I typed a quick gchat to Elena to let her know it was official. Technically, we weren't in competition since I was always more focused on Platform's digital presence than she was, but I wanted to be careful not to rub the promotion in her face.

Me: Just signed my papers from HR! I'm officially a Community Manager :) 
Elena: OMG CONGRATS!! Lunch to celebrate? My treat!
Me: Absolutely. Mexican?
Elena: Sold. I'll swing by your desk after the content meeting.

With my increased workload the past few weeks, Elena and I hadn't had lunch together in forever. That combined with all the time I had been spending with Dylan meant I had really been neglecting our friendship. It would be nice to catch up and hear what was going on in her life.

The morning was filled with a lot of congratulations from coworkers, thanks to a department-wide email that Colleen had sent out announcing the "staffing change". I smugly forwarded the email to my parents, basking in the fact that for once I had accomplished something professionally. In the Fitzgerald family, my brother was always the one collecting promotion after promotion. It was nice to have some news of my own for once.

Around 1:30, Elena swung by my desk for lunch. "Ready?" she asked, as I finished typing the tweet I was working on.

"Yep!" I replied, hitting schedule on the tweet set to go out that afternoon. It was exhausting sometimes having to schedule dozens of tweets an hour, but important to make sure our feed was in real time, constantly present.

We headed out of the building and into the blinding sun of the early afternoon. I found it hard to believe that it was already August, meaning that the summer was more than half way behind us. I was already dreading the impending, unbearable cold of Manhattan's winters. 

We headed wordlessly to our favorite Mexican place and I ordered three chicken tacos, extra guac. Once we had settled into a booth along the windows, I told Elena all about my new responsibilities. She nodded along excitedly, genuinely happy for me.

"That's so great D," she said in between bites of her burrito. "It's good to know that Platform does recognize when their employees are doing well and reward it. I just hope I can get the attention of the editorial team one of these days."

"Do you want to go more into staff writing?" I asked. We had both been hired at the coordinator/assistant level, which required helping out in a lot of different departments. I had found my niche in digital, but Elena still seemed to be all over the place. 

"I think so," she said nodding. "It's a slower pace, which I like." 

"Well you should talk to Tom about it," I suggested. "If he knows the path you want to take, he might start giving you more assignments related to that." 

"Yeah, but he's just so intimidating," she replied with a smile. She had a point.

"Well the unsaid will go unsolved," I answered with a cheesy grin. 

"Geez when did you get so philosophical?" Elena asked, tossing a chip at me. 

"Since I fell in love," I answered in a sing-song voice. Elena made a gagging motion with her mouth causing me to laugh out loud and almost spit out some of my taco.

"What about you?" I asked, hesitantly. We hadn't discussed her love life since the great Jeff Debacle of 2014. 

Elena shrugged as she finished chewing. "Nothing really, not since Jeff."

"Do you still talk to him?" I asked. I had been blatantly avoiding him for weeks, and I hadn't seen the two of them interact outside of unavoidable work-related conversations.

"No way," she answered. "He drunk dialed me once or twice, but I didn't pick up."

"Well you know, Dylan has lots of cute friends," I wiggled my eyebrows suggestively. 

"No offense to you Dani, but I'm not really up for a boyfriend who lives in another state," she said.

"It's not so bad," I replied. "Two hours is nothing when you think about it." 

"I guess it could be worse. But when I have all of Manhattan to choose from, I think I'll start here," she smiled at me. "But thanks."

"Well in that case, we should go out tomorrow night," I said. Dylan was on a business trip that weekend to Dallas, so I was free as a bird all weekend. And yes, I realize I've become one of those girls who plans their weekends around their man. But I can't help it, the sex is that good.

"That would be fun," she said, sounding upbeat for once. 

"There's this great bar down in Chelsea I've been dying to check out, we should grab dinner then go there!" I was starting to get excited at the prospect of a night out. "We'll invite Ash and Haley, it'll be great." 

"Deal," Elena said with a grin. 

We finished up our lunch and headed back to the office, my mood higher than it had been in weeks. I had a new boyfriend, a new promotion and a new apartment. Life was pretty freakin' great. 

When I got back to my desk, I was greeted by 30 new emails in the mere hour I was gone. Groaning, I reached for my cell phone first. I was surprised to see I had a text from Steve, Ashley's ex. 

Hey Dani, hope everything is going well with you. I was just wondering if you'd be free to grab coffee next week? 

My fingers hovered over the keyboard, confused. Maybe he just wanted to catch up and see how Ashley was doing. Or, he wanted her back and needed to test the waters with me first. Either way I decided not to tell Ash first, knowing that it would freak her out and spin her into an anxiety attack until I found out what was going on. Deciding not to run it by her, I typed a response back.

Sure, I'm free on Monday after work. 8? 

His response came immediately.

Yeah that works, thanks Dani. 


**Just a reminder, feel free to send me any questions you have either via email (tragedytwentysomething@gmail.com) Twitter (@Trag20something) or leave a comment! I'll be answering a bunch in a FAQ post coming in the next week or two. No question is off limits :)**