Girl Talk

"I'm so unbelievably jealous of you! My job has turned into such a shit show." Darlene immediately finished off her second whiskey sour after she said this.

"What am I supposed to do if you move?" Anna dramatically asked as she spun spaghetti around her fork. It was the Friday night after my interview and I was out with Darlene, Anna, and Jessica. I had originally mentioned the potential job to them, but I had forgotten to mention that it was located in California once I found out. Oops.

"You guys will visit me!" I exclaimed. I was honestly trying to put on my bravest face, but for the last few days I had been a ball of nerves.

When I walked into the coffee shop for my interview, I looked around for a few seconds before spotting a middle aged man with a very subtle receding hairline sitting with his legs crossed in a leather arm chair toward the back of the room. I walked over to him, while trying to mimic the power moves I had watched in a YouTube video the night before.

"Mr. Ellis?" I asked, hopeful, with my hand out, ready to shake his own.

"Yes," he bellowed before standing up to shake my outstretched hand. I was relieved that my assumption was correct. "Please, take a seat," he continued. "What can I get for you?"

The question caught me somewhat off guard, but I stood up straight and told him I'd take a black coffee.

"Oh, boy," he replied with a smile. "You mean business! I'll be right back."

I was a little stunned by his response, but his demeanor was so easy going that I knew this interview wouldn't be too bad. I eased up a bit and once he returned, he began asking me typical interview questions. We fell into a rhythm where I felt like we were almost just having a casual conversation.

After about twenty minutes, Mr. Ellis told me that he didn't have any more questions for me and asked if I had any for him. Of course, just like the trained Type A personality I have, I asked him two that I found off a Forbes list. One was about the potential growth of my position and the other was about opportunities for continuing education classes related to the job. He seemed impressed that I asked these questions and gave me very thorough answers.

By the time I walked out of there, I felt fairly confident in how well I did. I tend to think worst case scenario, so even though I kept thinking about the disappointing email I'd probably receive in a few days, I told myself that even if I didn't get this job, I did my best on the interview. I was also happy that he told me they'd email me by Monday, even though this meant I'd have the luxury of stressing all weekend. Fun!

So I filled my weekend with friends, family, and mostly Scott. He was still being super supportive, but I feel like we were both thinking the same thing: this was the last weekend we could have before our fate was potentially decided by a job offer.

I was indulging with a chocolate martini that didn't taste as great as it looked in the picture while eating my mussels like somebody was going to take them away from me. I was almost as nervous to tell Scott about my job offer as I was to tell my core friends. We had definitely grown a bit distant, but don't a lot of young women go through phases like that with their friends? It would still be hard to say goodbye to them.

"I know, I'm just being selfish," Anna laughed. "We're so proud of you!"

"Yeah, I seriously might follow you there," Darlene added in. This was now her fourth or fifth comment about how much she hated her job. I had read online that the company was laying people off, but Darlene is pretty private and sensitive about her job, so I never asked her about it. Now, I felt like it was staring us all in the face.

"Have you sent your resume anywhere else?" I politely asked.

"No," she quickly replied with a sigh. "I mean, I wouldn't really leave unless I had to, but my supervisor's been such a bitch lately. I'm hoping she calms down next quarter."

We all nodded and Anna said something encouraging to Darlene. I'm not even entirely sure what she said because it was that moment that I caught a glimpse of Jessica, who was being weirdly quiet.

"Everything okay, Jess?" I cautiously asked.

"Sure," she replied. Well, okay then.

There were a few seconds of silence. I wasn't about to poke the tiger, but we couldn't exactly ignore the awkwardness at this point.

"Jess..." Darlene said.

"I don't know!" Jessica blurted out as her fork hit the plate in a dramatic fashion. "We barely see each other anymore and now you're fucking leaving? I can count on one hand the amount of times we've actually had fun together this year. All of us!"

Darlene, Anna, and I remained silent. I felt like a deer in freaking head lights.

"Listen, I know I'm supposed to be happy for you," Jessica continued as she lowered her gaze to the table. "And I am happy for you. But, this is coming out of nowhere! You never mentioned the desire to move before in your life and now you're moving three thousand miles away? For a job that you don't even know is going to exist in six months?"

Jessica had a point. The position I was going for was completely new. "I don't know what I'm going to do," I finally replied. "I'm sorry to upset you." Jessica sighed and quickly apologized before heading to the bathroom.

I felt awful. She was right. How could I even think about just picking up and leaving?