Chapter Text
"Please Ms. Bishop! Stay! How am I supposed to do all of this without you? Don't go!" the young man leaning against the office door said, begging his boss to stay. Or rather, former boss.
Maya Bishop was almost done packing. Not that there was much to pack. Her office was always very tidy. No personal touches, no pictures, no plants, nothing. She took the last few things off her desk, turned, and said to her former assistant: "Kevin, you know I had no choice. If I hadn't resigned myself, I would have been fired. I wanted to keep that last bit of dignity I had."
"But..."
"No buts! It was my fault the contract didn't go through; it was my fault the company lost four million dollars. It was simply my fault. I should have done better research, checked numbers, all that." she said as she sat down in her chair one last time and looked around her office. "I think... I think I have to go now. Mr. Gibson will be a good boss to you. He's a good man. Just be careful not to sleep with any of his assistants" she said with a wink.
Kevin chose not to say anything about the rumors of his new boss' constant affairs, but just nodded and asked: "So, what are you doing now? I haven't been here long, but you were always the first one in the office in the morning and the last one in the evening. I thought this was your home?"
"You know what Kevin? That's exactly the problem." She sighed "For the last seven years I have worked my ass off and what has it done for me? Where am I today? I will be honest to you: I have no partner, I have neglected and lost almost all my friendships for work, my relationship with my parents is very difficult and I have not heard from my brother for years. This company and my job is, sorry, was my life. I gave up everything and everyone for it. One mistake in seven years and a minute later all my work is worth nothing. I've lost everything, everything. I am faced with nothing. If I may give you this last advice: work should not be the meaning of life. Do your job, do a good job, but don't give up your life for it. No company, no job in the world is worth it. And no one will thank you for it."
Maya stood up, picked up her coat and sunglasses and shook his hand on her way out "Take care Kevin. And to answer your question: I'm leaving Seattle. I bought a small house in an even smaller town somewhere in the middle of nowhere. I'm taking a break now, taking care of myself and figuring out what I'm going to do next."
____
A few days later, Maya was sitting with one of her last and closest friends at the restaurant around the corner where they had been meeting on and off for years.
"You really want to go through with this Maya? You really want to leave Seattle?"
Maya and Andy had met in business school over ten years ago. Andy had a similar job and knew Maya's workload. She was one of the few who could understand what it meant to work so high up in the hierarchy of a company. Nevertheless, for many years they managed to find one day a month to meet for dinner. As Maya would be leaving the next day, this would be the last time for the foreseeable future.
"Andy please. Don't make it harder than it already is."
"Why Maya? I just can't see it. You in a small town? No bars, no coffee shop, no... god... I don't know what there's even gonna be in this town. Can you really imagine living there? Come on, what are you going to do all day? I've known you for over ten years. And nine, I repeat, nine days out of those ten years you didn't work. For five of them I almost had to kidnap you so that we could go on holiday together and for the other four days you were in bed with the flu. Maya, that's not you!"
"Oh Andy" Maya said as she took her friend's hand "I can imagine why you feel that way and I can't answer your questions, but I know I need to go. Maybe I had to make this mistake to finally get time for myself. Andy, I'm in my thirties. You're one of the few people I have left. Please don't get me wrong, you know how happy I am for you and Robert and that you are going to have a baby in a few months. A baby Andy!" she smiled "You'll have other things on your mind than looking after your sad, lonely friend who only lives for her work. And that's perfectly fine. Believe me when I say I'm scared to death to leave. Seattle has been my home all my life. But on the other hand, I'm excited. Maybe Countryside-Maya is the real Maya" she shrugged and they both had to start laughing.
"Sure" Andy said wiping the tears from her eyes " but as soon as I hear the words “I'm attending a line-dance show today" I'll drive there on my own and get you out, deal?"
"Deal!"
They were both silent for a moment.
"I'll miss you Bishop" "I'll miss you too Herrera!"
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"What the hell was I thinking?" Maya thought as she approached the train station where she had to get off. Yes, train. The second step to the "New town - New Me". The first step had been to sell almost everything she owned. She wanted to start all over again. The moving truck was due to arrive in a few days with most of her clothes, some kitchen utensils, and a small wardrobe she had owned since childhood. All the rest was sold or given away. Including her car. She immediately regretted this decision while she had to ran after a two-hour flight to catch her train to travel another five hours until she would arrive at her new home. She had to pull her two suitcases the short but bumpy distance and almost gave up when one wheel got stuck. "How do people enjoy this way of traveling?" she asked herself. The train was noisy, there were so many people, it was crowded, one person talking louder than the other. She was angry with herself for forgetting her headphones and to make matters worse, the air conditioning failed.
After an hour's delay, she finally reached her destination. She was sweaty, completely annoyed and felt a migraine coming up. She left the station and looked down at her phone to find the direction to her house. She wasn't paying attention and walked straight into a group full of children, stumbled and just managed to avoid falling.
"Hey, watch it!" she shouted at a little girl standing closest to her. Of course, the girl started crying immediately. "Great!" she mumbled.
"Maybe you should pay attention" a tall beautiful brunette woman snapped at her while picking up the girl and stroking her back to calm her down. "There are children walking here, going to school and home, and if you hadn't been so busy looking at your phone and instead looking where you were going, you would have seen them too. It's not my job to lecture you on how to pay attention in public, but if you ever yell at one of my kids again, I promise you...I... just don't do it!"
With that, she turned and walked the children to school.
Maya was in shock as she watched the woman walk away. She definitely wasn't used to people talking to her like that.
She just shook her head and continued pulling her suitcases. She could hear the thunder and the next moment rain stared pouring down.
"Well, this is a great new start, Maya. Can't for the rest of this new-me thing" she muttered and continued walking.