The Seven Year Promise

The next day, Lizzy was summoned to her supervisor's office. She sat at his desk, pulling on a loose strand of thread from the hem of her black blazer jacket. Lizzy had been unable to sit still all morning. As soon as she'd walked over to her desk, her supervisor had emailed her to go and see him. Her first automatic thought was that she was in trouble. She had been gone for most of the day yesterday when she had to run a simple errand and the simple errand turned into multiple errands which eventually ended up becoming a productive yet exhausting day. She had been a bit disappointed returning to her boring department but it paid the bills. She had to remind herself of it.

Soon, the door opened, startling her. Vic walked over behind his desk and took a seat. He had a stern and disappointed look on her face and Lizzy began to wonder if she really did something wrong this time. But then, come to think of it, Vic always had that look on his face.

Before he opened his mouth to speak, Lizzy spoke first, "Am I in trouble?"

"What? No!" he shook his head. "You're not in trouble. I called you in here to talk about yesterday."

"Oh," Lizzy slumped her shoulders in defeat.

Vic exhaled, leaning forward, elbows propped onto the desk. "So it looks like you made an impression helping out the editorial department and they want you to work for them starting today."

Lizzy perked up, eyes widened. "I'm sorry?"

"You're transferring to the editorial department starting today," Vic repeated. "Turns out, they liked the work that you did for them and wanted you to start right away. You did great, kid."

"Wow..." Lizzy uttered softly, a smile slowly curling onto her lips.

"You know," Vic spoke again. "I'm sure you're wondering why it took this long for you to move up." Lizzy sat up to look at him. "I knew you had potential. You were more valuable to this department which was why they kept you here for that long. It was nothing personal. But I hate to lose you like this and I just wanted to say congratulations. You've earned it."

Lizzy stood up and held out her hand for her supervisor to shake. "Thank you so much for believing in me and giving me this opportunity. I promise I won't disappoint you."

As soon as she got out of his office, Lizzy looked around to see if the coast was clear and did a quick victory dance. She took out her phone and texted Kimberly about the news. Shortly after, Kimberly called and shrieked in excitement. Lizzy had to move her phone away from her ear momentarily to muffle the deafening sound.

"We're celebrating tonight!" she could hear Kimberly exclaiming on the other end.

Lizzy giggled. "Gotta go!" she hung up when she heard footsteps approaching.

Once the coast was clear, Lizzy smiled widely as she made her way back to her desk. She ignored the dirty looks and stares from the other interns when she went to clear her desk. She was pretty sure they assumed that she got in trouble but that was evidently not the case when she returned with a big grin plastered on her face.

This was it, she thought, carrying her box and heading down the hall. It was a long time coming. She was finally being promoted.

The day flew by pretty fast considering it was a full day. Lizzy was exhausted by the time the day was over. But then, she had remembered that Kimberly wanted to celebrate her promotion that night and made her way over to Bull Wings Sports Bar and Grill, where everyone was waiting for her. And by everyone, it usually meant, Kimberly and her boyfriend, Mark, along with his friends and their girlfriends. Lizzy hesitated. She was reminded of the time when she'd bring Ben to some of these gatherings. Even though Ben and Mark had nothing in common, they tried to get along for the sake of their girlfriends. But Lizzy shook that thought away. She was not going to think about him. Not tonight. She was going to be the spare wheel tonight. And that was okay, she told herself. Tonight was going to be a great night. Tonight, she was going to celebrate a major milestone.

When she arrived at the bar, she found her friends seated at a large table. Kimberly stood up then walked over to greet her with a hug. "There she is!" she announced to everyone at the table.

Lizzy chuckled greeting everyone, then took a seat at the end of the table.

About an hour later, once everyone had their dinner and had a couple of drinks (with the exception of Lizzy much to Kimberly's dismay), they decided to go to a karaoke bar. At Kimberly's constant begging, Lizzy decided to stay for a bit longer.

Once they finally got to their rented room at the karaoke bar, Kimberly made her way over to the microphones and handed one to Lizzy. "Before you go home, we're singing a song," Kimberly announced.

"Fine!" Lizzy took the mic from her. "I get to pick!"

"Deal!"

Lizzy navigated through the set list with the remote and chose the one song she never got tired of. Both Lizzy and Kimberly screamed in excitement while Mark, on the other hand, groaned in annoyance. "Oy vey," he muttered, burying his face in his hands.

"Shut up, Mark!" both girls said in unison.

Then, the song started and Lizzy started belting out the first verse of her favorite Queen song, "Don't Stop Me Now." Despite not having the same vocal chops as Freddie Mercury, the two friends were laughing and trying their best to hit the right notes nonetheless. They danced along and tried their best to mimic the way Freddie performed the song. Once they finished the song, the girls plopped down on the couch, laughing together while the room cheered for them. "You did great," Kimberly said, out of breath.

"Thanks. You did too," Lizzy replied airily.

Next, each member of their group took turns in selecting a song. Lizzy stayed out a bit longer than she had intended but enjoyed herself nonetheless. When the staff came into the room to announce that their time was almost up, the other girls decided to pick one last song to sing. Just then, a slow melody began to play which gradually changed gears and turned into a more upbeat R & B song which got everyone in the room excited. However, all Lizzy noticed was Shawn's handsome face plastered onto the TV screen in the room while everyone sang along to the "Lost In Japan". Mesmerized, Lizzy snapped out of her reverie when Kimberly pulled her onto the floor so that she can dance with everyone.

"You totally love him!" Kimberly said into Lizzy's ear.

"I do NOT!" Lizzy shot back defiantly.

"It's okay, Liz. There's nothing to be ashamed of," Kimberly assured her, turning to the group, as they sang and danced. "Everybody loves him! Look!"

Let's get lost tonight

Let's get lost tonight

The group laughed, singing and dancing along to the upbeat tune. Lizzy had to admit that it was a pretty catchy song, finding herself dancing along with them.

It was one of the rare occasions where she allowed herself to let loose and be free. From the corner of her eye, she found Jacob (one of Mark's handsome friends) giving her a tender smile. She smiled back at him, then laughed along with Kimberly while they sang and danced until the song was over.

Overall, tonight was a good night, she thought. Here's to new beginnings...