“I refuse to conduct business shouted across the street. Get in.”

Amir walked to the opposite rear door and opened it, looking at her.

Maddie hesitated, then sauntered around the car and slid inside.

Amir closed the door and walked away.

Maddie took in the smell of Elena’s familiar perfume, mingled with leather from the fancy seats. She looked down at herself, in torn jeans, an old T-shirt, and denim jacket. She folded her arms. “Yes?”

“I understand you wished to discuss the terms of your new employment?”

“No, I wanted to hear it from your lips—a personal invitation to be your assistant.”

Elena regarded her. “You wish to go home. I’m paying. Isn’t that good enough?”

“No. Come on, you fired me. And then I called you a bunch of insulting names, and now you’re offering me a job.”

“Apparently. So?”

“But why?”

“Do you not want to go home?”

Maddie blinked. Wasn’t that the million-dollar question? She did. More than anything. “Yes,” she admitted.

“Then what is there left to discuss?”

“I’ll be your PA, for God’s sake. Not a journalist.”

“I am aware.”

“Is this a screw you? Offering me a debasing job that has me satisfying your every whim?”

Elena’s expression became withering. “Really? Is that what you think of me?”

“Who knows how your mind works?” Maddie flicked invisible lint off her jeans. “You’re mystifying.”

Eyes narrowing, Elena said, “Well, you appear to suffer from the same malady.”

Maddie side eyed her. “So how long have you been circling the block, debating whether to get out and knock?”

Elena gave a long-suffering sigh. “The job is yours. Take it or not. It’s up to you.”

“Did you regret it? The things you said?”

“They were all true.” Elena’s face hardened. “Every word.”

Maddie regarded her, anger rising. “You booted me out the door like trash.”

“I did no such thing.” Elena removed her sunglasses and leaned closer, examining her intently. “Honesty is essential to personal growth. I prefer the truth in all dealings, even if it’s the brutal truth, and you should too. Besides, I really did do you a favour.”

“You actually believe that, don’t you?”

“Of course I do.”

Maddie licked her lips, anxious about asking her next question, but she couldn’t not. She had to know. “And what about us?”

“Us?” Elena looked at her oddly. “You would be my assistant, Madeleine. I would be your boss. What ‘us’ could you possibly mean?”

“So it’d be like New York never happened?” Maddie clarified. She fidgeted. “All the things between us…like, your firing me? Not to mention…um…everything else?”

Our talks, she wanted to say. Our almost friendship. You always looking at me like you wanted to know more. All the times I watched you and couldn’t stop. The intriguing conversations, the intense moments, late at night with no one around. Missing you when you weren’t there. It couldn’t be so one sided. Could it? Could she just erase it like it never happened?

Elena opened her mouth, lips pulling down as though about to say something cruel and dismissive. She closed it again. Her nostrils flared. “That would be for the best.”

“Why choose me? I mean, you’ve made it clear you don’t even like me.”

Elena glowered at her. She gripped Maddie’s hand, hard. “That was business. I could not have been clearer. You really must learn to separate the two.”

Maddie studied her face, watching the small clenching of her jaw at odds with her impassive eyes, and wondered about all the things she wasn’t saying. Then she dropped her gaze to their connected fingers.

Elena snapped her hand back as though startled to find she’d even touched her.

Maddie considered her for a moment longer, then turned to stare out the window. “Simon’s leaving in three days,” she said quietly. “His visa’s expiring.”

“Ah. The roommate.”

“You know, he only got his internship here to hang out with me. Funny thing is, he loves it here more than me. Isn’t that ironic? I’m on a green card and could stay here indefinitely, but the guy who would kill to stay has to go. Anyway, it’ll be weird being in New York without him.”

“He sounds like a good friend—one who might miss you a great deal if you didn’t return home with him.”

“We’ve been inseparable since we met as kids.” Maddie murmured. She stared at the trees lining the street and the red brick of her apartment building. Elena was eerily accurate as always, although she doubted the woman cared much about the argument she’d just made. To Elena, invoking loyalty would probably be just a clever argument, a face-saving way for Maddie to say yes. So why did Elena even want Maddie to be her PA? It made no sense.

This was all too hard, especially since Maddie wasn’t even remotely clear headed. She tried to sift through all the competing arguments in her fuzzy brain. She had come to appreciate Elena and enjoy her company, come to love the glimpses behind her mask, and the woman had suddenly squashed her like a bug. Hell, she’d even just admitted she had no regrets about doing it. On the other hand, Maddie wanted to go home. Desperately. It would be depressing being alone and jobless in New York. She remembered how isolated she had felt before Simon joined her. Maddie suppressed a shudder and turned to face Elena.

“I’ll take your offer. For Simon,” she said. To hell she would confirm to Elena how pathetic she was, that she couldn’t cope with being alone in New York. Maddie shot her a steely look. “And you can call me your PA all you like, and I’ll do that job as best I can, but I’ll always be a journalist. And I will prove that to you. Just so you know that. Okay?”

Elena regarded her evenly. She sniffed. “I’ll have Felicity process your paperwork.”

BlogSpot: Aliens of New York

By Maddie as Hell

Goodbye, New York. Sorry I never understood you, as hard as I tried. We had our moments, didn’t we?

Remember that laughing old woman outside Saks Fifth Avenue, who tried to hug everyone she passed and called them Sally? I’ve often wondered who Sally was. A lost daughter? An absent lover? It doesn’t matter; we all got to be Sally and have a hug that smelled of wet wool cardigan and nutmeg. I think that old woman’s life must be a delight, because everywhere she turns she finds exactly what she’s looking for.

I wish that had been the case for me. I came to New York hoping for the Dream. I leave now, having lost a little of myself, found a little of myself, and learned some harsh truths about the mistake in assuming that everyone sees the world…and friendship…as I do.