Boss by Jodi Cooper

We are strong women. We can look after ourselves.
    The day we moved out of the neighborhood stays strong in my memory.
    I remember Mom putting one box of belongings in the boot of the car, slamming it shut and nodding her goodbye to our neighbors. Our neighbors all loved Mom, but were afraid to help in case they were seen being associated with my father. All the people in that neighborhood had skeletons in their closets, and none of them wanted the police snooping around in there.
    Nine-year-old Rhett stood on his front lawn, staring at our car.
    I waved goodbye but he just kept staring. As Mom started the car to leave, I couldn’t bear it any longer. I jumped out of the back seat and ran across our lawn to him.
    He hugged me, tightly.
    “Don’t go,” he said.
    “I have to go.”
    His eyes were full of tears as he looked to the ground.
    “But we’ll see each other again,” I reassured him.
    The look on Rhett’s parents face said that my statement wasn’t going to be true. They weren’t going to be associated with criminals like my family.
    “Best friends forever?” Rhett asked with big, vulnerable eyes.
    I nodded, “Best friends forever.”
    Then he gave me a gentle kiss on the cheek.
    And it was the most special kiss of my life…
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter 2
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

15 years later…
     
     
     

Dragging my feet, I sulk back into my Mom’s house after another unsuccessful day of job searching.
    I recently finished my degree in business management from USC and I was so proud of myself. My Mom had to work two jobs just to make sure that I actually could go to college, and I worked two jobs as well.
    But now, even with this degree, I still can’t find decent work and it is starting to make me upset. I mean, what’s the point of having the thing if I can’t do anything with it? That single piece of paper cost me well over fifty-grand, a lot of stress and a lot of heartache, and I still can’t do anything with it!
    Everything just seems so hopeless.
    I know that most of the kids I went to college with are either starting work with their parents or their parents had gotten them in at some good business with their connections. I unfortunately don’t have that luxury, although I wish I did.
    “Another long day?” asks my Mom, looking me over.
    “One like you wouldn’t believe. I had two more interviews and filled in even more applications online and still nothing,” I say. “I’m starting to think that I will never find a job. Why’s it so hard out there, Mom?”
    “Well, I think that I may have a way to help you with the job search,” she says.
    “At this point, I’m willing to do anything. Even stripping,” I say with a straight face.
    Of course I am not serious, but with the way things were going, it doesn’t seem so bad right now. Maybe a girl with a degree will impress the men at the stripper clubs?
    Mom laughs and shakes her head. “Well, you can calm down dear; you can keep your clothes on for this one. Do you remember Rhett and his family?”
    “Of course I do, Mom,” I roll my eyes.
    “So you know that Rhett’s Dad passed away a couple of years ago, right?”
    I nod my head. “Yes Mom. We went to the funeral, remember?”
    “Oh yes. We sat in the back row, didn’t we?”
    I nod, “It was the last time I saw his family.”
    She smiles, “Well, Rhett now is the head of his father’s company and I’ve reached out to his mother.”
    “Ok…”
    “And she has helped me land you an interview to be his personal assistant.”
    “What?”
    “It’s a job, Jessica.”
    “What does a personal assistant even do, Mom?” I ask her. “And what made you decide to reach out to his Mom after all of these years? Doesn’t that seem a little weird? Or have you two been in contact with each other for a while?”
    “Right now you just need a job,” Mom avoids my question. “And a job is a job right? And you will get to work with your old friend Rhett.”
    “You