Page 5 of See You at the Sunset

But such was Jia.

“Fine. Then, here are some papers we need you to sign before you go.”

Jia looked down at the stack of papers before her and briefly wondered ifthere/their/they’rewere misused as they always were in the documents she corrected on the regular.

There were three signature lines at the bottom of the document, each with a name and title typed below it, one with a red flag sticker next to it. She signed where she was directed, next to the blank spots listed and waiting for the signatures ofGenevieve Gordon, Human Resources ManagerandHenry J. Shin, Esq., Senior Counsel.

“You’ll receive a copy of the countersigned document along with an exit survey we’d like you to fill out, couriered by the end of the day,” she was told. Jia had never received anything by courier in her life. She wondered if the courier rode a bicycle or simply took the train. These were the random thoughts Jia would later recall from the morning she got fired.

The rest was a blur.

“Have a nice day, Genevieve. I’ll miss working with you,” she said on her way out. And she meant it.

Jia was—at least she had been until ten o’clock that morning—the assistant to the chief of staff at Bakerson’s Group, a financial company of some sort, though she never really knew what they did. The office was on the twelfth floor of a building just off Bryant Park, and the company was in the top fifty on one of those lists with letters and numbers on it that everyone in New York seemed impressed with. It was—at least it had been until ten o’clock this morning—the most serious job she’d ever had in her life. One she was, at the time of hiring, completely underqualified for. But if they were going to give her the job, she was going to do the best she could. Apparently her best wasn’t good enough. Again.

She didn’t know what she was now.

Jia wasn’t even thirty, yet she already had a string of professional failures in her wake. Let’s just say her résumé was not going to knock anyone’s socks off. She had, at times, suspectedthis job wasn’t for her, everyone in their black or gray or navy attire, quietly working, speaking in hushed tones, smiles rare. But she was willing to stick it out at least a little longer. At least until she could find a job thatwasfor her.

Because for the past three months, two weeks, and four days, she wasn’t the screwup everyone made her out to be her entire life up until this point. True, at the end of the day, bartending brought in more cash and being a Pilates instructor was a lot more fun. But thisfancy corporate job, as her mom put it, had garnered the respect of her parents and offered a brief reprieve from their incessant nagging.

Now this former fancy corporate job was further proof Jia couldn’t cut it in adulting.

The office manager came around and handed Jia the unmarked twelve-dollar box. “Thank you for always having the supply closet stocked. It helped a lot,” Jia said. For some reason, it was important she knew that someone noticed. Jia should have told her sooner.

As she placed her pictures of the girls’ trip to Cancún last summer, three tubes of e.l.f. lip gloss, and the six Post-it pads she had collected in her top drawer, Jia realized she didn’t have much here at her office desk. Unlike her tiny apartment that was cluttered with knickknacks and mementos and screamedJia, she’d kept this six-by-six cubicle void of any real personality. Guess past Jia had done current Jia a favor: less to pack up upon termination. She knew the drill.

“Did you hear the new girl got fired?” Jia heard the voice of someone from down the hall where a group of young women gathered standing around a copy machine.

The assistants were all women. And the executives were all men. And of course Jia felt a certain way about that. But sherealized early on there was nothing she in this position in the company, or in her position in life frankly, could do about it.

She quickly crouched below the cubicle wall so she would not be seen.

“Already?”

“Usually they last at least a year.”

“Not in that department they don’t.”

“Which new girl?”

“Jia, the one with all the bright clothes.”

“The one who talks too loud all the time?”

“Yeah, that’s the one.”

“Too bad. I really liked her. She was nice and always made sure there were clean coffee mugs.”

That was nice of her to say.

“Nice doesn’t get the job done. She was never gonna make it here. Too soft.”

Guess that was considered a bad thing, being soft.

Jia needed to get out of there before she was caught eavesdropping and they’d send someone over to embarrassingly escort her out of the building. She hoped the ladies would all be okay now that they were one person down and would likely have to pick up some of the slack until they’d hired a replacement.

She placed the lid on the comically oversized box for the limited contents and took one more look around her cubicle as she contemplated her next move.