Uncovering You: The Contract

Chapter Fourteen

(Present day)

I come to with a gasp.

Cold, I think. So cold.

I open my eyes. The tray of food’s still there, with that mocking spotlight shining bright upon it. And the contract. Always, the goddamn contract.

How did it come to this? I wonder. I’m starving. I’m dying. How did I fall so far?

It all began with that prize. That is what brought me to California. If I had known back then what it would lead to…

But of course I didn’t. No one could.

I hug my arms around myself and wonder how Fey and Sonja are holding up. I wonder when they last thought of me. They were both crushed when I called and told them I’d be staying in Cali for the year, working on my internship.

They still think that’s what I’m doing. When it fell through, and I was stuck with no income, no home, and nothing but loans and debts to my name, my blasted pride prevented me from calling them and admitting the hard truth.

I bet they think I’m working hard while enjoying the life I’ve always imagined for myself. They probably think I have it made with my $120,000 contract from the consulting firm. They probably think I’ve forgotten about them because I haven’t called for so long.

The last thought fills me with sadness.

But taking the contract was a no brainer. Money like that is only offered to a fresh-faced, Ivy League graduate once in a blue moon. It is never offered to an intern—especially to one who hasn’t even earned her diploma yet.

I knew it was too good to be true.

But, when I held the offer sheet in my hands, when I felt the weight of the paper, and imagined the freedom that that money would bring… I couldn’t say, “No.”

It seemed like such an easy decision back then. Sign the contract. Take a year’s leave of absence. Return to Yale next fall. Reappear in 2014 with a huge chunk of change written off my debt from the earnings.

It seemed easy until it all fell through.