At Your Disposal

"Wait, so he's moving here?" Elena asked as I stabbed my cobb salad and took a huge bite.

I shook my head while I chewed. "No, he is looking into possibly transferring," I said. 

"But if he got a transfer, he would move here?"

I shrugged. "I guess? I mean I think it would have to be a good position and a healthy salary bump to accommodate the difference in cost of living. Plus, he'd have to find a place to live, I wouldn't like.. move in with him."

"Do you want him to move here?" Elena continued her barrage of questioning.

"I mean..yes and no. Obviously him living here and not two hours away would be incredible. But on the other hand, I don't want him to uproot his entire life for me when we've only been dating a few months," I replied. I had given this a lot of thought ever since my conversation with Dylan on Sunday. It was now Wednesday and he had only mentioned it one more time, just to say that their NYC office had received the paperwork and would let him know if anything came up. Currently, there were no openings but I guess things could change in an instant.

Elena nodded. "Makes sense. That's just a lot of pressure." 

I took a deep breath, "Yeah it's fast, but long distance is hard," I said. 

"Well I'm sure if he came here you two would just be even more sickeningly in love," Elena said, rolling her eyes but giving me a genuine smile. 

"Anyway," I said, steering the subject away from the heaviness that was Dylan and me right now. "How is your love life? You haven't mentioned anyone in ages."

"Nonexistent," she said slumping her shoulders. "Unless you count the extremely serious relationship I'm currently in with the second season of Orange is the New Black."

"Oh god, didn't you hear one of the writers on that show just left her husband because she realized she was a lesbian?" I said with a laugh.

"What are you saying?! That my netflix binge is going to cause me to switch teams?" Elena asked with a laugh.

"I don't know, but maybe you'd have more luck with girls anyway," I deadpanned.

"I'm thinking about getting on Match or something. I mean come the fuck on, I live in NYC. According to every sitcom and rom-com, I literally live in the most viable city to find a guy. But they're all either gay, taken or massive d-bags," she huffed. 

"Don't get on Match, you're only 24. Just go out more! If you'd accept my invite to come out with Ash and I once in awhile.." I said accusingly.

"I know, but by Friday I dream about my couch in a practically lustful manner. It's disgusting," she said. 

I laughed, "Dude I'm the same way. But come out more, and we'll start going to more Happy Hours, and it'll be great."


After lunch with Elena I spent the remainder of my afternoon buried in work. I was loving my new role as Community Manager (especially all of the pretty new fall boots I could afford with my new salary), but it was a shitton of work. I was putting in 60+ hour weeks and felt naked without my iPhone in my hand open to Hootsuite to monitor our Twitter accounts. For the past few weeks, I'd been waking up in the middle of the night and scrolling through my apps just to see if I'd missed anything. It wasn't like I was the only person monitoring the accounts, but I felt like I had to prove how hard I was willing to work. This was my first real world promotion and I didn't want to screw it up.

When I was finally unlocking the door to my apartment that night, it was nearly 9 p.m. I unlocked the mailbox on the way in and pulled out the heaping pile of bills and magazines that was waiting for us. The one thing Ashley and I failed miserably at, was checking the mail.

"Hey!" Ash greeted me excitedly as I walked in the door. She was in the kitchen putting away what appeared to be Chinese. "I ordered extra, want some?" 

Sometimes, coming home to Ashley was better than coming home to a man. 

"Does a bear shit in the woods?" I replied. 

Dropping the mail on the counter, I pulled out a plate from the counter and piled it high with sesame chicken, lo mein and steamed broccoli. Not even bothering to heat it up, I popped up on the counter and crossed my legs to eat.

"How was your day?" I asked Ash in between bites. She was sifting through the pile of mail, tossing US Weeklys and the latest Cosmo aside to put on the coffee table. 

"Fine, pretty busy. We got in a huge new shipment of bags since my bosses are over in Milan right now and placing all these ridiculous orders. There's this one YSL bag that I'm definitely going to snag before we put it onl-" she stopped mid sentence and I looked up to see what had caused her to pause. She was holding a large gray envelope and staring at it, unblinking.

"What is that?" I asked. It didn't look like a bill, and I had no idea what would cause her to go that pale. 

"Ohmygod," she said, dropping it on the counter but continuing to stare. I set down my plate and strode over to her, reaching for the envelope. 

"DON'T TOUCH IT," she yelled and I jumped back. 

"What the hell?" I asked. "Is it anthrax or something? What is your deal woman." I peered down at it and saw in perfect calligraphy Ashley's name and our address. 

"Ashley?" I asked again.

"Why the FUCK would he invite me?!" Ashley screeched, gingerly picking the envelope back up. That's when I saw the return address. The same as the place she had lived.. with Steve. 

"Oh shit," I said, finally putting two and two together. When Ash didn't say anything I spoke again. "Do you want me to open it?"

She thrust the envelope in my direction and headed towards the fridge, pulling out a bottle of Grey Goose from the freezer. Pouring herself a massive glass she walked back over.

"Not until I'm at least half way through this glass," she said, taking a huge swallow. 

"Okay," I replied, setting the offending envelope back down. I peered at it, confused. He told me they were thinking next Spring. Why would they be send the invites already? I had never gotten an invitation more than two months in advance. Even if it was two months out, that would put the wedding in November. I was burning with curiosity and my fingers were itching to open the envelope. Ash continued to pace the kitchen, every now and then taking swigs from her nearly-empty glass.

"Alright," she said, walking over to the silverware drawer and producing a knife.

"Woah now!" I said, leaping back. 

"Oh calm down I'm giving this to you as like.. a letter opener, or whatever. I feel like we shouldn't damage it," she said, handing me the butter knife. 

"Okay weirdo," I replied, slowly inserting the knife under the envelope and dragging it across. I pulled out a shiny invitation with two names in calligraphy matching the font on the front. I slowly opened it to reveal the details of the wedding. 

Stephen & Adriana 

Together with their families

Invite you to share with them the joy of their wedding day

on Saturday, the sixth of December at 4:00 in the evening

I saw that the ceremony was being held out on Long Island, which surprised me since Steve's family is from North Jersey. Back when I had assumed Ashley would be marrying him, I had always pictured them having a wedding down there. 

I slid the invitation across the counter to her and her eyes flicked over it before dropping it back down. 

"I know this is probably a fruitless question, but are you going to go?" I asked timidly.

She looked up at me as if I had just proposed we go down to the dog park and kick some puppies around. 

"No way in hell," she said. "I'm not even going to dignify this invitation with a response." She balled the invite up between her ineffectual fists and tried to shove it down the sink.

"Whatcha doin?" I asked in a humorous tone. 

"Garbage disposaling it!" Ash replied, now using a spatcula to shove it down further. I walked over and turned on the sink to help her.

"Thank you," she said, as it grumbled down into the blades.