Page 35 of Unexpected You

“Would you like a cup?” I asked her as she fidgeted behind me. Cadence was rarely ever still, even when she was in deep focus.

She hadn’t told me outright, but I’d read enough between the lines to know that she might have some form of neurodivergence. I was guessing that it had made finding jobs difficult for her in the past, but she was doing well with me, and I didn’t see any reason to bring it up or call attention to it at all. If she wanted to tell me, she could tell me.

I poured cups for us both as we lingered together, each lost in our thoughts.

“Are you going to celebrate your new job?” I asked her as she leaned her elbows on the island and stared out the window.

“You read my mind. I was just thinking about what I might do. My friends will probably take me out this weekend. One of my friends, Reid, works at Sapph, so we go there a lot.” I had heard of the place, but it wasn’t anywhere I’d venture, due to it being for queer women only. I knew that they wouldn’t turn me away, but I wasn’t going to invade a space that wasn’t created for me.

“Sounds fun,” I said. “You should be proud of yourself, Cadence.”

She nodded and then set her tea down, clasping her hands in front of her on the counter.

“Why don’t you ever call me Cade?” she asked.

I’d wondered if she was ever going to ask me that.

“I will. If you want me to,” I said. “But Cadence is such a pretty name to chop into a nickname.”

She looked down at her hands. “Yeah, my mom is responsible for that one. My dad was the one who decided to call me Cade and I just went with it.”

“I can call you Cade,” I said. “I have no problem with that.”

She stood up. “No, it’s fine. No one else in my life calls me Cadence now, except my mom when she’s scolding me.”

I leaned back against the counter and sipped my tea. She seemed lost in thought about something.

“Cadence, then,” I said, and she looked at me as if she forgot I was there.

She saluted me and went back to the office.

Chapter Eleven

Cade

Holy shit. HOLY SHIT. I got the job. Even though she’d promised that things would go well, I hadn’t trusted it until she’d given me the contract. And then I’d signed it before she could take it back. I mean, she probably still could, but I had done my best to keep this job.

It wasn’t until she sent me the document later that I realized she had raised my hourly rate. By a lot. This was the most I had ever made at a job by a lot. This job was going to make a lot of my financial issues go away, and I burst into tears when I realized that.

Immediately I sent Eloise a message to thank her.

I was just looking over the contract and realized you raised my pay. What can I say except thank you? Unless it was a typo. In which case, I never sent this message.

She and I talked all day, but this was one of the first times I’d sent her a message outside of work hours. It felt strange.

Eloise responded quicker than I thought she would. You’re welcome Cadence. It’s been a pleasure to work with you and I look forward to it in the future.

The message felt formal, as if she should have written it in ink on vellum and sent it to me in the mail or something. Guess I shouldn’t have sent her a message outside of work hours. She was probably sick of me by the end of the day.

Originally when I’d started the trial period, she had said that if I got hired, I wouldn’t need to work from her house the whole time, but when we’d had our chat today, she hadn’t mentioned anything about me working remotely. I guess I could have brought it up, but I was still too jazzed about getting the job that I hadn’t thought about it until later. I’d ask tomorrow.

After I freaked out about the pay increase, I sent messages to my group chat and announced that I had officially signed on and had a full-time job. A decent, full-time job. I guess I was going to have to start telling people what I did now. My parents were going to be thrilled. I’d scheduled a call with them for this weekend so I could tell them the good news.

Immediately Hunter and Reid said they were taking me out on Friday to Sapph. Reid would be working, but she could sneak away for a little bit to celebrate, which was all I wanted.

Tonight, I’d decided instead of buying a cake for myself, I was going to make one. Sure, it was from a box, and the frosting was from a can, but I hadn’t baked anything in a really long time. I had gone online and found a recipe that used pudding mix to make the cake taste better. I followed the recipe exactly and the smell in my apartment was intoxicating.

Another message came in as I was waiting for the cake pans to cool so I could stack them on top of each other and frost everything before covering the whole thing in sprinkles.