the best unopened email

Ezra stared at the unopened email in her inbox. TPC Official Offer. Although she had yet to open it, she knew what it was - a job offer that had fallen through the cracks. 

“Keep eyes out,” an old college-mate had said, who had been kind enough to toss in a good word. “These guys move fast and they don’t follow up. You want it, you’re gonna have to grab it.” 

Her heart nestled to the bottom of her gut as she reread the sent date - October 4th, 2020. Any response would be months overdue. She had clearly missed her one window. 

Although it hadn’t been a job she necessarily wanted, it had promised a doubling of her current income and the added possibility of getting into the right rooms to start her climb towards where she wanted to be. 

And she’d missed it. 

Ezra knocked back her now cold coffee and wondered if she had any whiskey in the house. In the last three months she’d juggled every work job she could imagine, from organizing finances for her neighbor to asking her mother to pass out flyers after church to anyone who might need help before tax season. 

She’d even been so bold as to launch a semi-corny website and start telling her friends that she was building her own consulting business - who needed TPC? Their loss!

And now, she felt like a prized idiot staring at the screen. 

She exhaled her shoulders back and moved her eyes from her laptop for a moment. Leaning back in her chair, she gazed up at the ceiling. Although she still felt a bit like a fraud and daily went through the whole - who am I to start my own business? Look at this website - yellow? Really, yellow!? - she had to admit, it’d been fun. And she’d enjoyed finding her own voice and implementing her approach. 

And come to think of it, TPC did want her, which proved she had something to offer. And even if they hadn’t, she imagined she would have been a lot more miserable the last 90 days than she was clearing things up for her neighbors and seeing the smiles on her new clients faces when she got through. And the night of the website launch, as dorky as it was, filled with champagne and plastic crowns thanks to her girlfriend Clara, had been her favorite highlight of 2020. 

Ezra looked back at the email and smiled. Leaving it unopened, she closed her laptop and went to look for that celebration whiskey. 

- b

January 4, 2020

Photo Credit: Christina - wocintechchat