She agreed and we sat on the porch while I refocused my thoughts to potential holiday plans and future landscaping endeavors for the yard. My mind drifted back to the board of directors and Evans telling me how my life would look in the very near future. The meeting was an introduction–I got some names I wouldn’t remember along with the faces of a bunch of stuffy looking men in suits. They wanted to catch me up to speed as soon as possible with the goings on in the business.

I didn’t want to change my major. I didn’t want to be told what to do. Despite my mother leaving me everything, I knew nothing of businesses–or how to run them. She left me a broken-down car. And I was no mechanic.

To say I was nervous was an understatement. What would running an international company like The Montgomery Group even be like? What was expected of me? Would I make it, or would I run the company into the ground, destroying everything my mother had built for us?

Those were questions for me to address later. I shook them off and tried to lighten my thoughts back to the present. To sitting with Kelly on the porch. “Do you think we should put in a hot tub?” I pulled out my very own pack of cigarettes and a pink lighter I purchased when no one was looking.

Maybe I did want to impress a man. Attention felt nice.

“Since, um, when do you smoke?” Kelly gave me an incredulous look. She never saw me smoke a day in my life–or do anything edgy, actually.

Since Brent, I thought. I wouldn’t tell her that, though.

Ignoring her question, I offered the cigarette out to her. It felt like I was mimicking Brent in a way. “Want one?”

“You should try weed sometime, since you’re quite the bad girl now.” She took it from my fingers and brought it to her lips, drawing in a long puff.

“Very funny. I’m changing topics now. I wanted to get some work done out here and a hot tub installed so we can have some of our own parties.”

“Only if you hire the hottest contractors so we can watch them work.”

“Deal,” I said, scrolling through my phone to find some contractors on a services app. It looked like there was some availability within the next week. Hot contractors here we come!

I swapped apps to look at some travel websites. We talked about heading to Europe for a vacation, but I was feeling like we wouldn’t be able to head out until after Christmas with the business shit I was being thrown into. Despite that, I looked into some places that offered full itineraries.

“What do you think about this?” I showed her my phone. “It’s a six-day trip spanning France, Germany, and Italy.”