Fated

Anastasia - Modern Day

            “Your resume is outstanding!” He remarked. I beamed slightly knowing not to get too cocky.

            “Thank you, Mr. Jacobs,” I said politely. This was my third interview this week and things were finally looking up with this job. Dale Jacobs was a very nice-looking man so I wasn’t surprised to feel a wedding ring when I shook his hand. Gorgeous green eyes and dark, dark brown hair, broad shoulders, no wonder he was already married at such a young age.

            “Miss Brown. I have to ask, why are you still looking for a job with this resume?” He asked me in a joking yet very serious tone.

            “Well, for one the economy is slowly improving but not enough for many companies to want to hire a younger inexperienced person. There’s also the fact that many businesses are not hiring an international marketer.”

            He smirked, “Well, we’ll be getting back to you in less than two weeks about our decision.” He informed me. My heart sank. Another one will not be calling me back again. At this rate, I’m beginning to feel like I’ve wasted over eighteen years working my ass off to get a job that is damn near impossible to find. Even though, in all honestly, I’ve wasted about five of those years pining over Mr. Wrong.

            I extended my right hand to shake his and gave him a confident and bright smile, “Thank you, Mr. Jacobs. I look forward to hearing back from you.” He shook my hand and said something politely but I wasn’t paying attention. I just knew I had to keep looking for a job. This specific type of job. My boyfriend, Devin Corks, has already found a job working at a well-known law firm. He knew it was going to take a while to make a partner, but he also knew that he was well qualified and hard-working enough to work his way up.

            I pulled my old cell phone out and dialed my sister’s number. It didn’t take long for her to answer my call, “Hey, Miranda. Do you wanna go out to lunch?” I asked as I bit my lip still kind of shaken up by the fact that I will not be getting this or any other job like this any time soon.

            “Okay, Stasia.” Miranda laughed at me. We sat across from each other in a sushi bar. I was working on my second glass of sake after imploding on her my woes about my job. We use to come here very often, but since she’s moved down to another state, we barely see each other anymore unless I go down there with Devin to visit his family or she comes up here. And even though she’s further away she and mom, but mostly Miranda has always been my rock. With her I know I get nothing but the truth and words of wisdom, “You are a gorgeous, intelligent black woman. You’ll get a job in no time. I mean look at me. I live down in Atlanta and I have a nice enough job to support Jordan and me I. Shoot, what shocks me the most about you is that while on your quest to success, you’ve managed to find love twice. Something my fast self couldn’t even manage.”

            I shook my head, “You have a kid, so of course he’s gonna come before everything. Even love.” This much I knew. A child comes before everything. Boys, college, everything; which is why I knew I wasn’t ready to have one. In fact, I never really thought about kids until about my senior year in high school while dating Mr. Wrong, “Speaking of my nephew, how is he?”

            Miranda beamed, “He’s good. He just made honor roll and now he’s doing football. My baby’s gonna be a stud when he grows up.” She said with a huge grin on his face, “He even had three girls give him Valentine's gift separate from the class one. But he told them his heart belongs to his mommy. Isn’t he the cutest?” She gushed.

            “What grade is he in again? And I’m not exactly sure if you should be proud of Jordan for being a stud.” I pointed out she shrugged.

            “He’s in the sixth grade now. And at least I know he won’t be the one getting teased in school if he’s a stud. Besides, I’m gonna make sure he ain’t no jerk.”

            “Isn’t a jerk.” I corrected her out of habit. She chuckled, “But I do agree with you, I’m shocked you haven’t found the love of your life yet.” Miranda was of a nice mocha complexion with long chocolate brown hair. She was shapely but not too big. She has bright almond-shaped brown eyes. She wasn’t very tall but neither was I.

            “Yeah well, not everyone can meet someone and hit it off like you two.” She teased, “My next issue with him though is that you haven’t told him about your ex-”

            “And he hasn’t told me about his and that’s the way it’s gonna be.” I said in a more defensive tone, “What’s in the past is in the past, so why mess up the present by bringing up the things that cannot be undone.”

            “Yeah, but I still have to tell my dates I have a son.” Miranda pointed out.

            I smirked, “So you’ve been on dates recently?” I asked trying to avoid the topic. Miranda glared at me, “Oh come on. This is way different. I don’t have a child nor do I have anything that binds me to my ex permanently.” Miranda sighed in irritation. Truth is talking or even thinking about him brought back a lot of bitter-sweet memories. Devin knows I’ve been hurt in my last relationship, but he doesn’t know the extent of it and I would prefer to keep it that way. Besides a lot of what happened in the old relationship is best unsaid because it’ll explain who I compare Devin too. Right now he thinks I compare him to my dad. But that’s a huge lie.

            “So, has Devin hinted at a proposal?” Miranda smirked.  I knew she was trying with Devin. She and I both know he’s a good guy.

We also continued to compare him to my ex. Devin is better than him in soo many different ways. Devin is ten times more hard-working. He’s sweet. He’ll wear his heart on his sleeve so there’s no question about how he feels towards me, unlike with m ex. But they’re both impulsive in two different ways. For example, Devin will take me out to go window shopping watch where my eyes travel the very next day I get the necklace I couldn’t take my eyes off of. My ex, in a sense, was the same, except he automatically knew what I wanted so he’d just go and buy it. With Devin, I have to try harder than I did with my ex.

“No, he knows how I feel about marriage.” I said, “Not until I get established in my career. Then we can think about marriage and kids. But I know he can’t wait to have kids, especially a son.” I felt the corners of my mouth rotate upwards into a smile, “In all honestly, I wouldn’t mind having a child but I wanna be secure first.”

            Miranda smiled at me, “Well, this is odd. Not only are you dating before you’ve settled into your career but you’re also thinking about children. Do you think you-know-who…”

            My face became stone cold again. The waiter finally brought our sushi and my third glass of sake, “Miranda. Bring that up…” So many different emotions welled up inside thinking about it. It was the reason me and my ex broke up. Well, his cheating had a lot to do with it. But in all honestly, he would have never cheated if it weren’t for that.

            “I wasn’t even going to say anything about that.” Miranda hissed at me as she ran her lanky fingers through her hair. She then looked down at the food and smiled, “This place still serves good food at least. Hey did I tell you I got a tattoo?” She asked me. I chuckled; Miranda was always quick to bounce back from fights. I wasn’t. But for her, I’d act like I was.