The Goy Next Door (Girl Meets Goy #2)

Chapter 3 A Gray decision

After lunch Leah tried to sneak back to her desk. When she stepped onto the twelfth floor, everyone else was already sitting in their cubicles typing away. With her head down, she glided past Malcolm’s desk and was about to slip into her cubicle when she heard Tony’s loud voice.

“Rosenberg! Rosenberg! You back from lunch yet!? What were you doing? Eating a three course Michelin meal? Are we paying you too much here?”

Leah’s face flushed while the other reporters all looked up at her.

“Rosenberg, come to my office!” Tony yelled. She dropped her purse and grabbed her notebook and pen. On her way, she imagined herself explaining her lateness to him. I was with a source! I got a scoop! She wouldn’t tell him that her source was her ex, and that part of her lateness had nothing to do with the scoop and everything to do with her desire to prolong their lunch.

When the business talk ended, the conversation had turned to Gabe’s running, which he said was so much more enjoyable now that it was springtime. The way he talked made Leah think that even she might like going for a run through Central Park which was just a few blocks away from her Upper East Side apartment. She then told him about her ice-skating debacle, which led to a laughably slow ambulance ride to the hospital and six weeks in a cast.

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me,” Gabe said. “I would have helped you.”

“You were so angry with me,” Leah said, conveniently leaving out that she had plenty of help from her boyfriend Asher, who brought her take out daily and came with her to all her doctor appointments.

“Yeah, but you were hurt.”

They finished their sandwiches at lunch and agreed to continue the conversation at happy hour, which Leah justified because it was part of the agreement for him giving her the scoop about Zoomburger.

“Close the door,” Tony said when she reached his office. Even with the door closed, Tony’s voice carried through the glass windows and door. There was no privacy at Club.

She complied and sat down in a chair across from his desk.

“How’s it going?” Tony said in a voice quieter than Leah thought he was capable of.

“Uh, good,” Leah responded.

“You’ve been here six months,” Tony noted. “I’m supposed to do a semiannual review with you.”

“Oh,” Leah responded, relieved that she wasn’t in trouble for her long lunch. Or maybe she was, the review was just starting.

“So, how do you think you’ve been doing?”

“Uh,” Leah hesitated. “Good, I guess. I’m glad to be a reporter and no longer the researcher. I’m happy I get to write instead of doing data entry. I think I do a good job on my articles.”

“You do,” Tony responded. “I know you were disappointed when you started here. You were hoping to work at Teen Club, right? You didn’t want to work at Club Business, and frankly I was skeptical about you when you first started.”

Tony was right. She had been hired to be a researcher at Teen Club, another magazine owned by the media giant Diamond Media. But on her first day, HR begged her to go to Club Business where the researcher had just quit and they were desperate for someone to start. Leah had wanted to be a team player on her first day, so she agreed, even though business and finance was the last thing she’d ever wanted to write about. But in truth, she didn’t think she’d had a choice.

Tony continued. “But you’ve really proved yourself. I think you’ll find that your job here will be significantly better for your long-term career in journalism. I don’t know what your ambitions are, but with your skills, you can go on to be a journalist at some hard-hitting media outlets and believe me, Club Business will be much better for your resume.”

Leah nodded. “Thanks.”

“Anyway, a new spot at Teen Club opened up,” Tony said. “Marnie asked me to see if you wanted it.”

Marnie Gray was the editor-in-chief of Teen Club. Leah had spent hours researching her before she was supposed to start working there. Marnie had gotten a master’s in journalism at NYU and wrote young adult novels about girls whose insecurities turned into superpowers. She’d had three best sellers before becoming the Story Editor at Teen Club and was promoted to Editor-in-Chief after two years when the previous Chief was moved to corporate. In an interview, she’d said she was excited to bring a young voice to the magazine’s highest position. She was only 30, the youngest editor-in-chief at Diamond Media. For all of that, she was Leah’s idol.

“Ms. Gray asked about me?” Leah questioned.

“She did,” Tony responded. “She’d heard about your quick promotion to junior reporter and how well you’ve been doing. Honestly, I wanted to tell her no way was I giving you up, but I figured I had to present you with the opportunity. In case it’s what you want. But I’m telling you, you’re too smart to write about lipstick and boy problems, Rosenberg. You need to be using your talents to get scoops and analyze financial data. Believe me, twenty years from now, you’ll thank me for saying this. When you’re 45, you can either still be writing about teenage drama or you can be uncovering the most important journalism of the day. Think about which career path will let you help the most people –talking about the best shades of denim or writing about financial data that affects the retirement plans of every person in this country?”

Leah still couldn’t believe that Marnie Gray had asked about her. Before she had started at Club Business, she had fantasies about sitting with Marnie in her office and soaking up her genius. She’d daydreamed about writing stories to impress her and becoming a protégée. But after six months at Club Business, she wondered if Tony was right. Could she really become an impressive journalist writing teen advice columns?

“I’ll have to think about it,” she responded. On one hand, she’d been dreaming about Teen Club for years, since she had started reading the magazine herself at age 12. But was her dream of working there just prepubescent nostalgia? And what about Club Business? She was doing well and she liked her friends Alex and Mark, even if they didn’t want to call Gabe for her. But they were right not to.

“Is the position for a reporter or researcher at Teen Club?” Leah asked. She had originally been hired as the researcher, but soon after she started at Club Business, Teen Club had hired Brittany, their new researcher who had a short fling with Alex after the office Christmas party where Alex had first kissed Leah and then moved on to Brittany.

“It’s a junior reporter position,” Tony said. “I wouldn’t let Marnie offer you a demotion. Think about it. Now, how’s your story about the fast-food chain going?”

Leah nodded and told Tony that the story was going well. “A source gave me some good information,” she said and she could feel a triumphant smile growing on her face.

“That’s my girl,” Tony said. “Think about if you could say a sentence like that to Marnie at Teen Club. Now, stop wasting time and get me that story.”

Leah went back to her desk, unable to contain the smile on her face. Not only was she not in trouble, but she also learned that her boss was happy with her and that her name had made it to the ears of her idol. The only question was whether she should move to Teen Club and pursue her dream or if she wanted to stay where she was.

She knew exactly who could help talk her through the decision and she was seeing him in a few hours at Stone Street Tavern. For the rest of the afternoon, she kept her head toward her computer and typed her story about WinterRock Capital’s hostile takeover of Zoomburger.