Chapter 14

I’d just finished my morning meetings on the sixth floor, and was headed back down to the call center when Addie appeared out of almost nowhere, grabbing me by the arm.

“Addie, what the hell?” I said, looking around to see that no one had noticed that she’d snuck up to a floor of the building that she definitely had no authorization to be on.

“Brian’s here,” she said, dragging me toward the elevator. “You need to get security to let him in.”

“Who?”

“Brian, Celine! Rita’s boyfriend? Of almost nine years?”

“Oh, that Brian,” I said, trying to picture his face. He was a chemical engineer, a little on the flabby side, but was good-natured and funny enough to make me snort sometimes from his jokes. Rita had spent the last six or so years mad at him for failing to propose. Hell, she’d tried proposing to him, but he insisted that he’d like to go the traditional route and propose to her, which, of course, never happened.

“Well, security won’t let him in.”

“He doesn’t work here. Why would they?” I said as we entered the elevator. Addie punched the button for the lobby.

“Because he’s going to propose, Celine.”

I was chewing on the inside of my cheek and suddenly bit down in surprise. Ouch.

“He’s going to propose here?”

“Yes. On the Floor.”

“My Floor?”

“Celine, all of Rita’s friends are here. We all work with her and have been for years. He wants to share this moment with us. He thinks it’ll make her happy.”

“Will it?”

“She’s been waiting for like six years,” Addie snapped. “He could propose with a piece of lint at the city dump and she’d probably be happy.”

I laughed. That definitely wasn’t true. Rita was what I would call high-maintenance. She got her nails done every week and a half, got her curly hair dyed professionally every few weeks, and wore nothing but designer wares. I knew a piece of lint wasn’t going to do it for her.

“How do you even know he’s here?”

“He had security call me. They won’t let him up on my authorization, though. I guess being a supervisor has zero perks.”

“It has tons of perks,” I said, rolling my eyes. “We certainly pay you enough.” Addie clicked her heels together, her favorite Jimmy Choos that she’d spent a couple hundred on. Yes, we did pay her enough.

“Well, let him in, will you? Before he changes his mind about proposing.”

“He better not,” I grumbled as the elevator doors opened. Addie and I walked over to the main entrance, where we found a nervous-looking Brian arguing with Head of Security. Jesus Christ.

“My girlfriend works here!” Brian said. “We own a house together. Shouldn’t I have a right to see her?”

“Let him through, Gary,” I said, approaching Head of Security. He was six-five, a huge guy, and could easily have broken Brian like a little toy. Gary turned around, caught sight of me, and broke into a smile.

“If you say so, Miss Celine.”

“I do say so,” I said, giving him a smile right back. I liked Gary. He’d been working here for longer than I’d been alive. He was a nice guy, despite what Brian probably thought. Back when I’d been eighteen-years-old, poor as shit, and taking the bus to get to and from work, Gary would give me rides on rainy days. He would have taken me every single day, but I’d been too proud to accept the help. Once I’d made it to management level, I put in a few good words for him and got him promoted to Head of Security when the position opened up. Gary was like family to me, and family always looked out for their own.

“Come on through, wise guy,” Gary said, punching in the code for the turnstiles. Brian crossed into the main area of the lobby, looking more nervous than ever.

“Thanks,” Brian said. “Is this a terrible idea? Should I leave?”

“No,” Addie and I said together.

“Got the ring?” Addie asked. Brian pulled a little black velvet box out of his pocket. He flipped it open and inside sat a beautiful ring, easily two carats. Rita was going to love it, I could already tell. It was in the halo setting she’d been blabbing about for the last six years. Brian had done good on the ring.

“So, how are we doing this?” I asked.

“I was kind of hoping I could do it on the Floor,” he said, looking at me with fear in his eyes. Oh yeah, he feared the Dragon Lady, too.

“You want to go onto my Floor in the middle of a working day and distract everyone from their phone calls so you can propose?”

“Er ... yeah,” Brian said, looking deeply uncomfortable.

I reached for the walkie talkie on my hip.

“Darlene?” I said. There was a staticky noise.

“Yes, Celine?” replied the department secretary.

“Put a hold on all calls in...” I checked my watch. “Ten minutes. No calls in, no calls out. Route them all to Texas and New Mexico agents that are trained in California insurance and sales. Got that?”

“I—What?” Her reaction was annoying, but to be fair, I’d never asked her to do something like this before.

“Just do it, Darlene.”

“Yes, okay. If that’s what you want.”

Brian and Addie were both staring at me, surprise etched on their faces.

“What?” I said, annoyed.

“You’ve just never—” Addie began.

“Wow, thanks,” Brian finished. “Where’s the Floor?”

“Christ,” I muttered, already heading for the escalators. “Let’s go. You’ve got ten minutes to prepare, and I’m keeping everyone off the phones for a total of ten more, got that? Don’t draw this thing out.”

“I won’t,” he promised.

Addie went off to find Rita, and I snuck Brian into my office. He paced like a madman, pulling at his hair and muttering under his breath.

“Sit down,” I said. “Watching you is making me exhausted.”

Brian took a seat across from me, his legs restlessly shaking.

“Water?” I offered. I had a couple of bottles in the mini-fridge.

“No, thank you.”

We sat in awkward silence for a few more minutes, and then Addie radioed in.

“Rita’s on the Floor now, guys. She’s looking west, so just come from the east side. I’ll keep her attention.”

“Great,” I said, checking my watch. I picked up my radio. “Darlene, are we all good?”

“Yes,” Darlene responded. “The lines are all routed to Texas and New Mexico. Call Center is all clear.”

“Thank you,” I said, and stood up. “Let’s go get your girl, Brian.”

Rita was helping out an agent across the Floor. I could see her curly black hair swaying as she talked animatedly, her hands moving to express her point. She was wearing a tight black pencil skirt and a cream blouse and looked as perfect as she always did. Rita had a beautiful body, thick and voluptuous, and even though she’d been saying for years that she was going to drop sixty pounds and be “skinny” like me and Addie, I was glad she didn’t. I hoped she thought she was good enough for herself because she was certainly good enough for the rest of us, especially Brian. Her makeup was done up, her hair was styled just right, and she hadn’t had lunch yet so there was no danger of anything being in her teeth. This was the perfect time.

I looked to my left and right, finding three other supervisors following Brian, one holding a video camera, and two others recording on their phones. Brian looked like he was gonna shit himself.

“You’ll do great,” I said. He nodded in response, but his eyes were still panicked. I hung back the last thirty feet, and Brian walked on ahead, the supervisors that were recording him following closely behind. I crossed my arms and chewed the inside of my cheek again, hoping that I’d done the right thing, letting Brian propose here in front of everyone she worked with. What if she’d changed her mind about wanting to marry him?

“R-Rita, baby?” Brian said shakily.

Rita turned around, clearly confused. “Brian,” she said. “What are you doing here?”

That was when Brian got down on one knee. The entire room gasped, along with Rita, who immediately burst into tears.

“Rit-Rita,” Brian was trying to say. “I have loved you for...”

“A thousand years,” she finished for him, tears streaming down her face. She looked around the Floor and explained, “It’s our song.”

I felt my throat close up, not because I found this whole thing particularly cute, but because I loved Rita, and I knew that this was one of the biggest moments of her life. She’d cried about this day for years, and there had been so many holidays that I’d driven over to her place just to hold her while she sobbed. I’d cursed Brian with her, had given her shot after shot of liquor, and had watched endless Rom-Coms with her even though I loathed them. I’d brought her more pints of Ben and Jerry’s than I could count, and in all of those years, she had returned that love tenfold. Rita had been there for me through everything. She and Addie had ... saved me. I’d been this lonely, bitter woman with a cold and broken heart, but Rita had shown me that love wasn’t always about receiving it back. Sometimes, it was okay to love a person more than they loved you.

“Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife, Rita Maria Gomez?”

“I should say no,” Rita said, covering her face with her hands.

Brian looked horrified.

“Took you long enough,” she said. “Of course I’ll fucking marry you!”

Brian fumbled with the ring, and finally, after nine years of love and heartache, slid it onto her finger. Rita jumped up and down, sobbing, and held out her hand, turning it side to side to have the light catch on the diamond. Brian got to his feet, took her into his arms, and she kissed him with the biggest smile on her face. The entire call center cheered, people yelling and screaming and whistling and clapping their hands. I joined, clapping my hands and giving Rita a double thumbs up when she searched the Floor for me.

“Thank you,” she mouthed, knowing that I had been the person to make this possible.

Without thinking, I mouthed back, “I love you.”

Rita’s eyes widened, and they filled with tears all over again. She left Brian there and came running for me, sprinting across the Floor and threw her arms around me.

“I love you, too, Celine,” Rita said, squeezing me tight. “I am so, so proud of you!”

“Rita, relax,” I said, laughing. “It’s your engagement day.”

“It’s also probably the first time you’ve ever told anyone out loud that you love them. I’m honored, Celine.” She sniffled, her brown eyes brimming with tears.

“I mean, I technically didn’t say anything out loud.”

“Oh, for God’s sake, Celine.”

We burst into laughter.

The annual corporate retreat is about the stupidest shit I deal with each year. Every time it’s somewhere new, maybe a tropical resort in the Bahamas or a wellness center in Northern California—didn’t matter where we ended up, it was, plain and simple, stupid as fuck. I had to trade my business suits for casual or formal wear to mingle with the other executives and managers across the country. Every fucking year we have a little awards show, and every fucking year I’m expected to give a speech on how I’ve single-handedly been carrying the Western states’ numbers. Then the awards are handed out, and I always ended up shaking the CEO’s hand more times than comfortable for me, and trust me, once is too many. I’d grown accustomed to bringing a large tote with me to carry all of my awards. This year was no different.