Page 61 of Echoes

“Yeah,” Violet offered and looked down at the floor.

“I’m just glad that he called,” Rachel continued. “I’ve wanted to work here for a while now. I guess that’s obvious; I interviewed here for your job over a year ago.”

“It’s a great place,” Violet shared.

“So, do you and Mark go way back?”

“Mark?” she looked up at Rachel in confusion. “No, we met in person that day. I suppose we met virtually for my interview before the final interview in person. Why do you ask?”

“No reason,” Rachel told her. “Just thought maybe you two had known one another a little longer than that.”

“No, we didn’t.” Violet tilted her head before adding, “But I’m guessing there’s a reason you’re really asking that you’re not telling me right now.”

“Nope.” Rachel shook her head, and as soon as the doors opened, she stepped out of the elevator. “Have a good weekend. Maybe I’ll see you around.”

“You will, actually,” Violet said as she got out of the elevator herself. “Monday. For your final interview.”

Rachel’s eyes widened then, and she looked a little concerned.

Monday

Violet had done some research over the weekend, and no, it wasn’t about the device this time. She’d already tried to learn anything she could about it the previous week and had found literally nothing. Then again, her search terms had consisted of‘time-traveling boomerang,’‘hospitals of the future,’and‘losing your damn mind,’so they weren’t likely to generate a lot of helpful results. Over this past weekend, she’d looked up Rachel Bailey. Finding her on LinkedIn under Violet’s recruiter profile that her assistant had set up for her, which was private and meant that Rachel wouldn’t know that it was her, she checked out her work history, trying to keep this professional.

Rachel had graduated from her undergrad nine years prior, her MBA only six years prior, and she looked so young. Violet had been pushing it when she’d assumed the woman was about thirty. Getting a closer look at her by the elevators had Violet thinking that Rachel was maybe twenty-six or twenty-seven, at most, so she moved over to try to find her on social media to see if she could get an age more out of curiosity than anything because the work history on Rachel’s LinkedIn page was longer than it would have been had she gone to college at eighteen.

That, of course, had led Violet to find the photos and other information the woman had publicly available on her pages. Lo and behold, Rachel Bailey was twenty-seven, making her about nine years younger than Violet. That seemed about right based on the vision Violet had had. Rachel was pretty. Violet had actually smiled at some of the photos she’d found. And while Rachel’s smile was beautiful, too, it was her bright blue eyes that really got Violet’s attention.

There had also been one other thing that stood out to her on LinkedIn. On her profile, Rachel had indicated that she’d worked for a well-known LGBTQ+ charity and had started a gay-straight alliance at her previous company. While that technically didn’t indicate that Rachel was into women, and some of her social media information was locked to only friends and followers, Violet thought that there was a pretty high likelihood that Rachel was at least interested in women in some capacity. All of these facts lining up together made Violet feel as if the vision had been just that, a vision of her future,and not at all something her mind had made up all on its own. She recalled that interview day when she’d waited outside Mark’s office, and she couldn’t remember anyone saying Rachel’s name, so she wouldn’t have heard it then, which only gave more credence to it being a real vision of the future.

She had also looked up something else, remembering the names of the twins in her vision, and she’d discovered that the name Dora was of Greek origin and meant ‘gift.’ Quickly, she’d taken a chance and looked up other names that meant ‘gift,’ and sure enough, Daryn, spelled with a Y, also meant ‘gift’ and had Greek roots. That had really had Violet smiling and wondering if maybe Rachel was Greek as she thought about Rachel’s present-day dark-brown, nearly black hair, slightly darker skin, and bright blue eyes.

“Come on in,” she said to her on Monday morning after Courtney told her that her nine o’clock was there. “Hi, again.”

“Good morning,” Rachel said and held out her hand when she approached Violet’s desk.

Violet stood up and shook it. Rachel’s hand was soft and warm, and while it was a firm handshake, it also caused something to shift inside her body that Violet couldn’t quite explain. It was as if something inside her was telling her to pay attention. She met Rachel’s eyes then, trying to see if the woman had had the same reaction. Rachel swallowed, but that could’ve also been due to a number of reasons, like she was nervous about the interview, having nothing to do with Violet being the possible love of her future life.

“We can just chat,” Violet suggested. “Over on the sofa, if you want. This desk is huge.” She laughed. “And kind of formal.”

“Oh, okay.”

“Is that okay with you? If not–”

“No, it’s fine,” Rachel replied. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have interrupted you.”

“No, it’s okay. I just thought we could talk. I’m not on the hiring committee, technically, so this is just an informal chat because we’d be working together a lot.”

“Right. Okay,” Rachel said again. “Sure.”

Violet motioned for her to sit and then walked around her desk.

“Do you want something to drink or–”

“I’m okay.” Rachel closed her eyes after sitting down. “And I just interrupted you again. I’m sorry.”

“Nervous?” Violet guessed.

“I just really want this job,” Rachel shared. “And, to be honest, I don’t know that I was very nice to you on Friday. Now, you’re the person I need to impress to get this job.”