I Woke Up in a Car

Before Eric and I left New York for good, we stopped by the New York office of his management team where I had set-up a meeting. The meeting was to discuss me coming back to work, to sports and athlete management. I left Eric in the office as I headed back to my boss, Susan's office.

Susan was a fiery redhead, nice, tall, leggy. She had started working here when she was my age and she had started as an intern. She led me to her office and I sat down. A million things raced through my mind. Was I really ready to come back to work? Could I work for Eric? Would I be working with someone new? and then my mind flickered to Rachel. She had the worst of intentions.

"So," Susan began from behind the mahoagany desk, her hands clasped together, legs crossed. "You'd like to come back to work. You're ready and you've got your home situation all figured out?" She asked.

I shook my head, "Not even close but I'm tired of living at home and fretting over every little thing." I said, smiling some and pushing my hair back out of my face, "I'm just ready to come back. I'm excited to work with Eric again, we get along well." I said, hinting at my choice of rider I'd like to manage.

Susan laughed, "Well, we're good to have you back on board honey." She looked at her laptop and clicked around before the printer on the other side of the room began to spit out paper. "Sadly, Rachel is here to stay as Eric's personal assistant until she quits or he requests a new assistant." She sighed, "I know she's not the best and can be a little overbearing at times but, she does the job." Susan got up and fetched the sheets from the printer.

I made a slight frown, damn. Well, I guess being back would be a good enough start. "Oh, well, I mean, I am sure the other clients will be just as fun to work for."

Susan smiled, "That's the spirit." The older woman said, "Now, I have a special assignment for you. As you know, Eric's brother John just signed to Burton. They have Burton reps who are employed but they're looking to add one more to their team to go with John. They want to give an assistant a trial run." Susan put the papers into a manilla file folder.

I hadn't seen John in months despite talking to him nearly every day, "Oh, wow, Burton? and I know John, we've met but it's been a while since I've actually seen him." I said.

Susan grinned from ear to ear. "Ari, don't blow this one. Burton is a huge deal. You might be the newest P.A. on our team but I fully believe in you and I really believe that you can do a great job." Susan sighed, "I worked for Burton for years and this trial, if they like you, they'll hire you after the season is over to manage their other riders, not just John. It's the opportunity of a lifetime."

The way that susan stressed the importance of this deal, of this trial run with Burton stuck to me. I had never really been nervous all my life but suddenly my knees knocked together. From what I understood, Burton was a big, if not the biggest, name in snowboarding and it was a big deal to work for them.

I left Susan's office on a bit of a cloud. My mind was no longer focusing on Eric and Rachel, my stressful time of leaving my parents. My mind was racing ahead to all of the awesome things, fun parties, and more importantly, hard work that was to come.