Are you interested?

**Happy Friday! Bonus tomorrow on the wedding, check back! :) ** 

On Thursday afternoon, I was brainstorming ideas for a holiday-themed twitter chat when Alice plopped down unannounced next to my desk. As the weeks wore on, her shy facade was crumbling fast and I was learning that she was actually pretty arroga- er, outgoing. 

"Hey boss," she said, chewing her gum loudly. 

"Hi Alice," I replied flatly, keeping my eyes fixed on my computer screen. It was nearly 5 o'clock and I still had a few more things to wrap up before calling it a night.

"I finished that article, it's on the server. Can I go?" she asked impatiently. 

I wanted to scream. During the two internships I had held in college, I had worked myself to the bone in order to get the most out of it as possible. Not to mention that when trying to land a full-time job later in life, the people you work for at your internships make the best references. Alice seemed to disagree with this philosophy completely, preferring to scrape by on the bare minimum asked of her. 

"Um, do you mind if I read it first?" I asked. "If I need you to change anything, it'll have to be done by Monday morning."

"Can you just email me then?" she asked, and I stared at her incredulously. Can you fire interns?

"E-mail you?" I echoed. 

"Yeah, I have this thing tonight I need to go get ready for, so I can just make the edits over the weekend." She popped her gum. I grated my teeth.

"Sure," I said shortly, turning my chair back to face my computer screen. I swallowed all of the things that I wanted to say to her knowing full well that I always regretted it when I spoke out of frustration or anger. 

"You're the best!" she said cheerfully, standing up on her five-inch heels and sauntering back over to her desk. She cleared her things and walked out without so much as a farewell. 

I took a deep breath and opened up the article that I had assigned her over a week ago. Lord knows why it took the girl so long to write a 750 word piece on college fashion, especially when she was a fashion student in college, but whatever. I skimmed the piece - which was at least 150 words short - and was happily surprised to find that her writing was clear, concise and even a little bit funny. Relieved, I made a few minor notes and sent her an e-mail asking her to beef it up a little.

I was getting ready to leave when Jeff stopped by my desk. Ever since the Elena debacle, our friendship had been reduced to polite hellos and goodbyes in passing, and any cordial exchanges when necessary to collaborate on something. So when I found him standing anxiously at the corner of my desk, I assumed he just had a work-related question.

"Hey Dani, do you have a minute?" he asked, and I noticed he was nervously twisting a pen around and around in his right hand. 

"Sure, whatsup?" I asked, gesturing towards the empty chair next to my desk. 

"Um do you mind if we actually talk somewhere else?" he said, glancing nervously around the office. 

Intrigued, I finished collecting my things. "Sure, I was just heading out.. want to walk with me?"

He nodded, and we walked side-by-side in silence to the elevators. We filed in with two other coworkers, and Jeff remained silent as I chatted with two girls from the graphics department about the February cover. When we were in the nearly-empty lobby, Jeff lightly touched my elbow and steered me outside into the chilly October night.

"What's going on?" I asked, confused by his peculiar behavior. 

"I wanted to ask you something," he said, his gaze on his feet.

"Okay.." I replied, glancing at my phone to check the time.

"I'm leaving Platform," he said, and my head shot up. 

"You are?" Jeff had been at Platform since before my time, and he was a valued member of the staff. 

"Yeah," he nodded "I put in my two weeks today."

"Oh. Where are you going?" 

"Well that's the bigger news.. a few of my college buddies founded this company recently. It's kind of a visual marketing platform that pulls and tracks user generated content for companies," he said, losing me. 

"A what?" 

"It sounds confusing, but it's a really good idea," he said. "Anyway, I'm going to join them.. I think it's the start of something really big. They already have the product finished and a few investors. But they're looking for someone to head up the PR and Marketing end. Manage the social media channels, plan events, do media relations.. wear a lot of hats, ya know?" 

I nodded. "So that's your role?" I asked.

"No, I'm going to be on more of the technical side, actually. My major in college was engineering and I want to get back into that. What I'm saying is I think you'd be a great candidate for that job." 

I was stunned for a minute, both flattered that he thought I was capable of filling such a role and also confused as to what he was saying. "Me?" I asked.

"Yeah, are you interested?" he asked. 

"I have no idea... I know nothing about the company. And I just got this promotion at Platform." 

"Well, I'll send you an e-mail with all of the info, website, etc. I don't think the guys have a job description written up - it is a start up afterall - but if you want to meet with them and learn more, let me know," he said. 

"Okay," I replied, "thanks." 

He nodded his head in acknowledgement and started to walk past me before stopping. "Please really do think about it, Dani." 

"I will," I said, as I watched his back retreat into the busy street. 

I started towards the subway, curiosity flooding my mind. Would I really leave Platform so soon after getting a promotion? And joining a B2B company would be a completely different path than the one I was on now. The decisions I make these first few years of my career would most likely lay the groundwork for where I would go in life. I pushed these heavy thoughts from my mind. I didn't even know the name of the company yet, no need to make major life decisions on a two-minute conversation. For now, I would focus on the present. Which meant just one more day until I could jump back into Dylan's arms.