"What would you do if you had a second chance to make things right?" Julie Carson has been running from her past for as long as she can remember. From leaving her little town (more importantly her controlling mother) and repressing the heartbreak of...
"Did you hear about the mystery author coming in?" Yoona asked me when I came into my office. Yoona Kim had been my closest friend since my days at NYU (New York University). We were both Creative Writing majors, she doubled in Leadership and Management Studies, both which is excelled at.
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When we both decided to work as literary agents, it was only fate that brought us both to end up working at Collection Literary Agency: an up-and-coming company which was building up steam and successful clientele authors already. In the past month alone, two books had been placed on the New York Times bestseller and one was up for nomination to be made into a movie.
I handed her the coffee I picked up for her: chai latte made with almond milk. "It's only the thing everyone's been buzzing about for the past week. You'd think J.K. Rowling or Stephen King would be coming in today."
"Don't even joke about that, Jules! If either one of them wanted to work in the romantic literature field, I'd sell my soul to be the literary agent managing them," Yoona remarked ecstatically.
She gathered her silky black hair into a high ponytail. "Do you think I should put my hair up or down? Which one screams "choose me and I'll make your next book another international million dollar success"?"
I playfully threw the plush elephant on my desk at Yoona. It was the first gift Ethan had gifted me, after a carnival date gone wrong, he decided that instead of winning a prize he would buy me one at the nearest Walmart instead.
It was that age-old question: do you throw away gifts from your ex? Are there sentiment to objects or can they be detached from the emotions?
Yoona feigned a scowl. "You're right, hair down to show that I'm not too stuffy. I'll do a half-updo though to show that I mean business too. Thanks, Jules."
I smiled. "No problem! I'm always here to help."
She grasped at the plushie. I saw her giving it a scrutinizing look of disapproval. "Hey, isn't this...?"
Yoona paused. "Extremely tacky? I mean it does not go with the theme of your office decor. We have potted plants. That weird abstract painting you have hanging that looks like those black-and-white splatter tests psychologists use. This should go."
I knew what she was getting at. Out with the old and in with the new.
Yoona was not about living in the past.
"I like it," I said.
Yoona sighed. "Fine. Keep it if you will, but I say..." she opened the empty bottom cabinet drawer "...let little Ellie stay here for a while."
She dangled the elephant over the drawer, swinging it back and forth while raising a perfectly plucked eyebrow at me.
I shook my head. "Give it to me. I like it here on my desk, Yoona."
