Lola responded immediately. BRB meeting will text asap!!! I knew this meant I might not hear from her for hours. When your job is breaking celebrity news on the internet, reporting about the latest divorce or scandal usually comes before texting your friends back. But Lola was loyal; even if she couldn’t always respond right away, she never failed to show up when it counted.
A minute later, my phone rang. I hit the green button, and Cleo’s face popped up, slightly obscured by a giant coffee raised to her lips. “You okay?” she asked before taking a swig.
“You are never going to believe what happened to me this morning,” I said, skipping a greeting to get right to the point. “Spayce laid me off.”
“Oh shit, Fran. That’s terrible!” Her eyes widened behind her vintage tortoiseshell cat’s-eye glasses that I’d helped her pick out at Fabulous Fanny’s in the East Village just a few weeks ago.
“I thought you were about to get promoted.”
“Yeah, so did I. But, listen, that’s not the worst of it. On my way home, my dress ripped wide-open on the subway. Half of Manhattan saw my butt.”
“What?!” Cleo grimaced, nose wrinkled in horror. “Wait. Hold on—I’m almost in my office.” I watched the angles on my screen change as she balanced the phone on her coffee cup to shut the door behind her. “There,” she said, her face coming back into view. “Now everyone won’t hear about your butt.”
Cleo tucked a strand of her stick-straight black hair behind her ear, which only made her angled bob look more chic. She was a lawyer at the Legal Aid Society and also worked as an adjunct professor at Fordham. Lola and I liked to tease her that her students were obviously all infatuated with her, but she always brushed us off with a pointed glare. That didn’t stop Lola from serenading Cleo with “Hot for Teacher” at our last late-night karaoke session at Winnie’s a couple of months ago.
“Don’t kill me,” she said, pushing her glasses up her nose. “But I have, like, five minutes before I need to get back to teaching this seminar. So give me the quick version, and I’ll be over as soon as I can.”
I raced through the tale of my train ride, the box of stupid work mementos, the pregnant lady with no seat, my sweaty armpits, and, of course, him.
“Wow,” said Cleo. “You know how I feel about the whole stupid idea of chivalry.”
I did indeed know how she felt about it.
“And I’m sure you would have been just fine without his help,” she continued.
I nodded in agreement.
“But,” she added, “something about this is very hot. I mean, who even looks up from their phone on the subway? Much less comes to someone’s rescue?”
“And get this,” I added. “It’s freakin’ Gucci.”
Cleo whistled through her teeth. “Good lord,” she said, drawing out the words for effect.
“I know. Maybe the jacket is a bad talisman and he’s using me to get rid of it,” I joked, dragging my comforter up and over my body.
“Well, whatever it is, you can sell it on Poshmark for a small fortune.”
“I’m going to have to when my severance runs out. I only got eight weeks.”
“We’ll figure out a plan.” I could hear Cleo’s brain working through the phone line. “And hey, Fran, maybe it’s for the best. I mean, you’ve been so sick of working there for a long time.”
“Yeah,” I said. “But what does it say about me that I got laid off? Maybe this whole time I’ve been terrible at my job and I had no idea.”
“Franny, layoffs happen. You decorated my whole apartment, so I have actual proof that you’re fantastic at your job.”
“You have to say that,” I said. “All I did was find you better throw pillows. Anyone can do that.” I was joking, sure. But there was a familiar, insecure voice in my head that wondered if maybe that was the truth.
“And besides,” I continued, “I liked the paycheck. The stability. The free snacks. The paycheck.”
“I know,” she said. “And I’m not saying everything happens for a reason—”
“You totally are!” I cut her off. Cleo had the brain of a lawyer but the heart of someone who believed in the magic of the world around us, the stuff we couldn’t see. The vision boards had been her idea.
“Look, all I’m saying is that maybe getting laid off is a gift. I feel like I’ve heard you say a million times how bored you felt not really getting to do anything hands-on at Spayce. Never getting to be in the rooms you designed, putting chairs in the right spot, moving things exactly how you want them.”