For the Record (Record #3)(22)
Author: K.A. Linde

Liz’s breath caught in her throat.

“I’m sorry, ma’am,” she managed to get out. “I don’t . . . understand.”

“After your relationship with Congressman Maxwell surfaced, we were willing to look the other way. In fact, I fought for you to stay on over the summer, because I believed things would blow over,” Nancy said, and then sighed. “But everything didn’t blow over. With your appearance in the Post today, I couldn’t seem to justify keeping you on to my superiors. We can’t have one of our own reporters continuing to surface in the news.”

“So . . . so you’re firing me?” she gasped.

“Officially, since no paperwork has been signed and we only had a verbal agreement, we’re withdrawing our job offer,” Nancy explained.

Same fucking thing.

“I see,” she muttered.

“I do apologize for this, Liz. I was very excited to work with you all year and then again this summer, but my hands are tied.” Her apology seemed sincere. She didn’t sound cold, just resolute. At least Nancy was the one delivering the news and not some person Liz had never met.

“I understand,” Liz said. “Is there anything I can do to change your mind . . . or your superior’s mind?”

“I’m sorry. I think this is a final decision,” Nancy said. “Good luck with all that you pursue. I know you’ll find something else. You won’t waste your talents.”

What did she say to that? She mumbled something numbly and then got off the phone. She couldn’t keep talking to Nancy about the job that she would never have again. Her dream job. Gone. Poof!

In a matter of weeks, everything that she had worked toward had completely fallen apart. No job. No internship. No paper. No prospects. How had she gone from complete and total success and control of her career path to this mess? And what was she going to do now? She had no path. The last four years had been wasted. If the New York Times wasn’t going to hire her after they had already put the offer on the table, who would be willing to work with her?

She wanted to just go home and figure out how to fix everything. She wasn’t crying as she had this morning only because she was in shock.

Professor Mires walked out of her office at that moment and paused with her hand on the door. “Oh, Liz, I thought you would already be gone.”

“Sorry. I had a phone call,” she said hollowly.

“Is everything all right?”

“Fine.”

Professor Mires narrowed her eyes and pushed her door back open. “Take a seat, Liz. What is this all about?” She didn’t sound unkind, just concerned.

Liz knew that she should have held it in, but she just couldn’t do it; it all spilled out. She had to have a release somehow from all the pressure of carrying all of her troubles around. After she finished, Liz slumped back into her chair, exhausted.

“This is all . . . unfortunate,” Professor Mires said, choosing her words carefully. “I’d heard about your relationship with the Congressman, but I didn’t realize it had resulted in all of this.”

“Well, no one else does either.”

Professor Mires leaned forward on her desk, crossed her arms one over the other, and stared at Liz meaningfully over her glasses. “You are a very intelligent, charming, hardworking young woman. One of the very best that I have had the pleasure of working with. I cannot fathom that something like this would hold you back from achieving everything you set out to do. To be honest, I think it is an opportunity to see what more you can accomplish.”

“What do you mean?” Liz asked cautiously.

“You want to be a reporter for a large newspaper. Well, one chance is gone. What are you going to do now? Every door that closes leaves another one open,” Professor Mires said. “I’m not going to fail you just because you can’t go to New York over spring break, or keep you from graduating with a degree in journalism just because you don’t have a reporting job lined up. There is more to life than your job and your career. You never know. You might stumble into something else you like.”

Liz knew this all sounded logical, but her heart was too heavy to put much stock into it.

“You took the GRE, correct?” Professor Mires asked.

“Yes,” she said, nodding. She had taken the grad-school exam last semester at Professor Mires’s request. She’d had no intention of attending graduate school at this point in her life, but the scores were valid for several years down the road and it might not be a bad thing to keep in the back of her mind.

“If you’re interested, perhaps I could make a few calls and see if I could get you some late acceptances for graduate school programs. Would you be interested in using that as your plan B?”

Liz’s mood brightened marginally. A plan. Oh, God, she hadn’t realized until Professor Mires had said that how much she put into having a plan. Without one she had felt empty.

“Yes,” Liz said, making a split-second decision. “If you don’t mind making the calls, I would love the opportunity to apply to graduate school.”

“Then it’s settled,” Professor Mires said.

Liz stood to go and then stopped and turned back toward her mentor. “Ma’am?”

“Yes, Liz?”

“Why do you do all of this for me? The colloquium, the internship, the New York Times, and now graduate school. I appreciate it, but I just don’t get why you would help me so much.”

Professor Mires pulled off her glasses. “Because you do it all for yourself. You go out of your way to be better and you do it exceptionally well. I’d like to clone you just for your work ethic. In truth, you go above and beyond and it makes me want to go above and beyond for you. Because someone like you, Liz, deserves more than taking a necessary temporary leave of absence and a job offer withdrawal.”

Liz stared at her professor, slightly stunned. It was such a relief to hear someone truly believe in her and not judge her for her actions. It made the world feel like a better place, lighter, freer, worthwhile.

Before she made it out the door, she smiled back at her professor. “Thank you . . . Lynda.”

A ghost of a smile crept onto her professor’s face.

Chapter 10

LIKE A DREAM

Liz, Victoria, and Daniel flew to D.C. that Friday afternoon. They had received confirmation from Brady’s secretary that someone would pick them up from Security and were told to just look for a sign.

She was glad that Victoria and Daniel had gotten approval to visit the Johns Hopkins campus so they could come with her. Victoria calmed Liz’s jitters by cracking jokes the whole flight.