Read Here at Last Online

Authors: Kat Lansby

Tags: #Romance, #Contemporary, #Holidays, #Literature & Fiction, #Contemporary Fiction

Here at Last

BOOK: Here at Last
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Chapter 1

David
and I had been together for
four
years when I left him.  We had discussed marriage and kids and whether or not we wanted to spend the rest of our lives in Morristown, New Jersey.
With our families there and our love for New York City, we couldn’t imagine wanting to be anywhere else.

We
’d
met in high scho
ol during our freshman year.
I ha
d been into sports and science, and he was
more interested in
history
and English. Moving in different circles,
we knew one another
but
never
hung
out together
until our
fifteen-year
high school
reunion
at the
Hyatt
Morristown
.
We first saw each other at the bar and tried to talk, but the music was so loud that we couldn’t hear one another.
W
hen w
e walked out into the hotel lobby
,
we
found some overstuffed chairs and spent the next two hours talking about the directions that our lives had taken.

David ha
d gone on to Yale to study English literature
and had worked as a high school English teacher for a few years prior to getting his masters and taking a job at a local community college where he’d been ever since.

I’d stayed closer to home, double majoring in math and physics at Princeton.
Fascinated by astrophysics, I’d spent three summers conducting research at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona.
Alt
hough I’d had the idea that I would eventually pursue a doctorate and end up teaching, I
’d
got
ten
as far as a master’s degree in physics before acknowledging my mounti
ng student loan debt and deciding
to take a break from school to earn an income.

I had taken a job as a physicist at Hastings
-Magritte
International, a scientific consulting firm that did its own in-house research
for
a number of government agencies and private companies around the world. Although Hastings was based in New York, my job involved a lot of travel, and I was on the road about twenty out of every thirty days – home just long enough to do laundry, run a few errands, and have lunch with my sister, friends, or parents.

It went on like that for about six years until I saw a job opening at ECM International, another reputable scientific consulting firm located in New York.
At ECM,
I worked on a research team supervised by Grant Carroll, a big-name physi
cist who took me under his wing and encouraged
me to get my doctorate in physics
at the company’s expense.
When Grant died suddenly of a heart attack, the company replaced him with one of his scientific rivals, who
already
had his own
research team and let all of us go
.

O
ut of a job after nearly eight years
at ECM
,
Hastings asked me to consider coming back.
Although
it would mean a return to a lot of traveling, it wouldn’t be the same grueling schedule that I’d had before. Instead, I
was told that
, unless I was on a special work assignment,
I
would
work from the New York office and could telecommute a day or two each week
.
By the time I’d
seen
David
at the reunion
, I was home enough to actually date someone.

Despite our different interests and backgrounds, my relationship with David
was
surprisingly
easy. 
I loved his
calm and steady
nature and his p
ractical
approach to
our relationship
. When he finally moved in with me
during
our second year together
, i
t worked
out
perfectly.
I was away enough that
he had plenty of time to read and
spend
with friends.
When I was home, we were
more than
content.
Our
rela
tionship was solid and peaceful, and
many of our friends admired and commented on
it
. “
David
will make such a great father!” or “You and
David
are such a great couple
– when are you getting married?

After a few years, we beg
a
n to discuss marriage more seriously and whether or not we wanted to have kids. He
wanted
them
, and I was on the fence.
Already in my late 30s, I realized that i
f I was going to
have children,
I’d better do it soon. Though
David
didn’t push the issue, I began to feel pressure to make up my mind one way or the other. But that’s not what tore us apart.

 

Chapter 2

In July 2009, shortly before
David’s and my
four-year anniversary,
I had my first “Him” sighting.
Hastings asked me to spend
eight
months
at its new San Diego office
setting up a physics lab and
training staff in
the skills that they would need to use the lab and equipment
.
Because the office hadn’t
opened, yet,
there was much work to do
.

David
and I discussed the project before I accepted it. It would
be
the
longest
time
that we’d ever been
apart, and I
woul
d
work
overtime
with only
a few
brief visits home
.
We both knew that I needed to work as I was still paying
my
mortgage, and his salary as an English professor wouldn’t support us both.
Initially,
David was
encouraging
, and
I was excited by the opportunity and ready for a change.

When I arrived in San Diego,
I
spent a few days settling into my condo
off Washington Place near Pioneer Park
.
I unpacked
the
few boxes that I’d mailed ahead of me
and stocked
the refrigerator and cupboards with groceries.
When I finished,
I
took my first of many drives
up
to
Mission
Beach where I spread out a blanket and la
id
down
, soaking in the sun and ocean breeze.
It reminded me of Atlantic City with its
crowded
boardwalk, beach volleyball, and surf shops.

P
ulling
out my laptop computer
,
I
plugged in my
mobile
broadband modem
and
check
ed
email.
I
’d
received a welcome note from JT Knight asking me to find him when I arrived
at the office
the next
morning so that he could introduce me to the team.
He told me that there was a nine o’clock staff meeting.
We’d already been in touch via email and by phone, and he’d been both courteous and professional. I
sent a reply stating
that I
woul
d be there at
eight o’clock
and looked forward to meeting
them all
.

James
T
homas
Knight
’s reputation preceded him.
He
was an odd combination of
physicist
and entrepreneur
, who, I’d been forewarned, had a tendency toward being a
bit of a playboy
.
Together, we
would set up the lab
and related protocols
.
In addition to JT, I would be working tangentially with
a sales and marketing staff
that was responsible for business on the
West
coast
and that was
headed up by
Melissa Wong and
Cliff Cummings.
There were only a few of us on staff thus far, and JT wouldn’t do much more hiring until the office was closer to opening.




The following morning, I
dressed
up
in a
navy
blue
pant
suit
with a
pale
pink
blouse
,
pearls
,
and
navy heels.  I
’d gotten
used to
dressing
up for
my other
Hastings
’ projects
and would dress the same way here
when I wasn’t working in the lab
.

I parked beneath Hastings’ new building and took an elevator up from the parking garage into a
large
sunny
atrium
.
T
he
wall
plaques
indicated that the building had been certified as LEED Platinum and had a number of greener features, including
greywater recycling
for the native landscape plants
and composting toilets.
It was nice to see that my company remained committed to contributing to environmental health beyond its core scientific and economic pursuits.

The
woman
sitting behind the large desk in the center of the atrium smiled. “How may I help
you?”
she asked.

“Hi,” I
smiled
. “I’m
Sophia
Blackwell. I’m supposed to meet with
JT
Knight.”

“H
ello
, Ms. Blackwell. 
My name is
Ellen
.
Welcome
to Hastings
-Magritte
International,” she smiled.

“Thank you
, Ellen.”


You’re quite welcome.
Y
ou’re going to want to take the elevator up to the
twelfth
floor and turn right.
D
r. Knight’s office will be at the end of the hall.

I thanked her, again, and proceeded to walk
across the atrium floor before st
epping into a waiting elevator.
Reading another small plaque,
I surveyed the reclaimed wood
and recycled stainless
paneling
inside the elevator and
pushed “12
.

Several
seconds later, I
stepped
into a hallway
, turned right, and walked through the double frosted glass doors.

The receptionist smiled. “Hi.
C
an I help you?”

“Good morning. I’m
Sophia
Blackwell.”

BOOK: Here at Last
10.25Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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