The Bloom Girls by Amy Pine

Author:Amy Pine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2021-08-03T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Are you sure this is okay?” Gabi asked, setting her bag down inside the wall of Miriam’s small cubicle at the Chicago-based design firm where she’d been working since a week after graduation. “You just started this job, and I don’t want to get you in trouble. I just need a place to work that isn’t my mom’s kitchen table or Ethan’s bedroom. He’s putting in some extra hours on this big project the firm just got, which means it would only be me and his roommate T.J. at the condo, but it’s not a conducive work space, you know? I just—It’s my first Saturday off in two weeks, and I need a change of scenery to get the creative juices flowing, but now that I’m here I feel like I’m imposing. I can just go to a Starbucks or something.”

Miriam patted her friend on the head like she was a kindergartner who’d just fallen off her bike and was afraid to get back on.

“Sweetie, I told you. You’re my client. We’re working on your brand so that you can be a big, mature grown-up like the rest of us and get yourself some clients outside of the mall.” She shrugged. “Also, when the boss lady is on deadline with top-tier clients who basically fund our salaries—which is always—she doesn’t actually recognize weekends. And it’s not like I actually need my desk when I’m in a meeting, so have at it!”

Gabi groaned. “But I’m not paying you,” she reminded her friend.

Miriam raised her brows. “And that’s why you’re going to sit here and work on your portfolio and what you think your brand should be while I head off to my meeting.”

Miriam nodded past the row of cubicles to where Gabi saw an indoor roundabout of sorts where employees were filling mugs at a coffee/espresso station or grabbing granola out of a cylindrical cereal dispenser. It didn’t matter that it was midafternoon. It looked like coffee and cereal were round-the-clock staples around here. Beyond the little food court sat a raised, glassed-in room that had a whiteboard wall and both a foosball and Ping-Pong table.

“And a staff meeting consists of being your own barista and engaging in workplace table tennis?”

Miriam rolled her eyes. “Not that I have to defend the way we do things around here, but there is also a conference table on the other side of the game tables.”

Gabi laughed. “Noted.”

She stared at her friend for a long moment, from the smart pen tucked behind her ear to the tablet held against her chest to the confident smile spread across her face, and for a second she was overcome.

“What?” Miriam asked. “Do I have something on my face?”

Gabi shook her head and sighed. “I’m just so proud of you. I know how hard you worked for this, and it warms my big ol’ heart to see you in your element.”

Gabi might have been the only person who truly knew about her best friend’s gooey center, and right now it showed.

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