By morning I'd slept what I'd missed Saturday night.
I went to work, agreed to meet Elliott for lunch. Just some sandwich like something.
Trisha had sent the advertisement to Greene who just sent it back with the words 'good, but I want the best'.
So Trisha and I were working on the advertisement again. In her office.
"Better?" I asked when I noticed the words.
He looked at me. "He's dominating, and he requires perfection," she said. "Let's show him we've got those qualities so he'll use us again."
I smiled. "Okay," I said. "Maybe we need a hand?"
"Juan or Courtney?" She asked.
"Both?"
She stood and opened the door. "Court? Juan? My office, now!"
A few minutes passed by and they entered.
"This advertisement has to be better. Ideas?" she asked.
Elliott was waiting at the sandwich bar I'd showed him the first time we'd eaten lunch together.
He held up the bag when I stepped inside.
"I'm so sorry I'm late!" I apologized. "We went overtime and I forgot time."
"It's ten minutes," he said. "It's okay."
I accepted the bag with sandwich and water which he handed me. "How much?" I asked.
"It's on me," he said. "It looks like you're busy at the moment."
I shrugged and we headed to Washington Square Park and sat down on a vacant bench.
"It's Greene," I said.
"You call him Alexander," Elliott remarked.
"Yeah, but the company, that Greene," I said. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to differentiate at the moment. "He wants this advertisement for some app-something he's developed. And he doesn't want a good job, he wants the best." I said and unwrapped the sandwich.
"Isn't that fair?" Elliott asked.
"Totally," I said. "But the few times we've gotten something back it's usually a 'we don't like this color', or 'that presentation doesn't match the profile we want to show in the long term'. And it's easier to correct because we know what they don't think is perfect," I said and unscrewed the lid on my water.
"I can see that," Elliott said.
"What were you doing during the weekend?" I asked.
"I was visiting Candace's grandparents, with Candace, obviously," he said. "Nice people, and Sunday we spent on nothing. Yeah, I read for our class, but that was about it."
I smiled. "It sounds nice."
"What did you do?" he asked.
"I was with Alexander, and his two nephews and a niece," I said. "It was pretty chill."
"Are you in a relationship?" Elliott asked.
I shook my head no. "He's got some issues regarding control which does that I can't see him as anything more than a friend," I answered truthfully. If he didn't want that degree of control, something in me really wanted to let him in.
Elliott took a gulp of his water. "Maybe he just doesn't think someone would ever like him."
I looked at Elliott.
"I can't say I didn't think the same," he said. "And Candace is just..." He sighed dreamily and shook his head to clear his mind. "She didn't care I have big dreams. She wants to live those dreams alongside me. She made me move from the city where my parents live because she knew I don't have a future there. I knew so too, but I was too scared to actually move."
I smiled.
"Maybe he just needs someone who lets him know how it is?"
I looked at Elliott. "I'm not bossing him around," I warned.
"I'm not saying you should," he said. "But maybe he needs to feel that someone needs him, before he's able to turn down his demanding attitude?"
I looked at my food. Could that be it? "I don't know," I said. "I don't have butterflies in my belly by seeing him or anything, but we're pretty close friends as it is right now."
Elliott snorted. "I've still got that picture of the two of you in my head."
"Stop it!" I said.
He smiled. "You just don't want to admit you can imagine you could be more than just friends."
"I can't look past his need to dictate what I should and shouldn't do," I muttered.
Elliott smiled. "You have plenty of time."
Yeah, I probably had.
During the afternoon, and having spent Tuesday as well, we had a new draft for the advertisement. Now, I was still a bit green on the entire 'construct the advertisement' part, but I thought it looked pretty good. Better, I had to give it that. But pretty cool.
Wednesday I made the graphics on my computer. I sent it to Trisha who sent it to Greene who wrote back he was pleased.
It felt like we'd scored an A for a tricky assignment, one no one believed we would get more than a C- on.
After work I met Carolyn, Candace and Elliot for dinner. It was something different, but I liked it nonetheless. And that even though it was in Candace and Elliott's tiny apartment.
Thursday and Friday slipped by without making their presence noted.
I walked home from work Friday with my phone in my hand. Dad had text that grandma had a blood clot in the heart, but that she was okay.
How okay were you after that kind of ordeal?
I knew I let go of some things, now I lived in Manhattan. I would if I lived anywhere but Denmark to be honest. But this was the place I felt most at home. This was where I hadn't once been someone else. And this was where I'd settled down and it had felt right.
In Denmark I hadn't wanted to live anywhere but where Dad lived. Here? In the US? To live with Dad, if he moved here, would never happen.
I loved to live on my own. I loved the freedom. I loved that I was me, a me that wasn't marked by how I'd been before Mom died. Because, of course it meant something that my mother had passed. Especially for me. But here I wasn't seen in comparison to who I was before.
I walked up the stairs to my flat, unlocked the door and changed into pajamas. It was colder outside, so I was also wearing pants. No socks were too cold, so I wrapped myself in a blanket, put on thick, cozy socks. I also added a sweatshirt, just to be sure.
Dinner?
I wasn't in the mood to cook anything given I was the only one eating it.
But I needed dinner.
I looked at what I had in the kitchen. Pizza?
I had leftover dough from the night before. My plan was to make buns, but I guess I rather wanted pizza now. Then I also got to use the last ham and cheese. And pineapple
I rolled out the dough, turned on the oven, and put the dough on a baking tray. A little ketchup on the base. When I had pizza the night before, I had made a tomato sauce, but I didn't want to spend time making that now.
So ketchup was working just fine.
I added the remaining ham, pineapple and cheese to the dough.
The oven just needed to be warm.
I washed my hands, washed the rolling pin and wiped the rolling pin and my hands.
I hadn't heard a word from Alexander all week. But then, we both had work.
The oven was warm.
I opened it and put in the pizza.
A plate, a glass and cutlery. It was too hot to eat without. For the fingers, that is.
I leaned back against the counter and stared into space without seeing.
So much had happened at work.
I checked the pizza a few times until it was baked.
I pulled the tray out of the oven and put the tray on a trivet. Finding my pizza cutter, I sliced the pizza and put a slice onto my plate. My portion of pizza the day before hadn't been that large, and I'd brought something along for my lunch. Nothing left after that.
I sat by my dining table and ate pizza.
The plate came into the dishwasher, the same happened to the cutlery, the glass, and the remaining pizza ended in the fridge.
With my kitchen cleaned, I went to the couch and wrapped the blanket around me. I checked up on my money and then I emailed Dad from my computer. It was faster that way than on a phone.
With the email written and sent, I turned off the computer and turned the TV on. I didn't have the required focus to be able to read right now.