But it made her smile devilishly anyway.
Chapter 15
DROPPING THE BALL
Liz landed back in the Raleigh airport after three days spent in New York City working with Nancy at the New York Times over fall break. She had never worked so hard, but also had never had a better experience in journalism. Nancy had a knack for utilizing people’s strengths, and Liz had been knee-deep in the political reporting area at the paper. She had shadowed various people, assisted in research, writing, and editing, and had even gone out into the field with a seasoned reporter.
The experience further solidified that she was really doing what she loved. She was so often locked away in the academic setting that she didn’t always see what it really felt like to be out there. The college newspaper, while an incredible publication, was nothing compared to starting a career at a professional newspaper.
The only downside to her being in New York for her break meant that she didn’t get to see Hayden. They visited each other as frequently as they could, but as his job grew more demanding and midterms rolled around, they found less and less time together.
It wasn’t the end of the world. A part of her just wanted to drive to Charlotte and shirk her responsibilities. But that wasn’t like her at all . . . She hadn’t been able to do any work for the school newspaper while in New York, and she had homework on top of that. So at least she would be keeping herself busy.
As soon as she got home, she changed into jeans, a three-quarter-sleeve blue button-down, and her knee-high brown boots. She twirled a pink chevron scarf around her neck and grabbed her North Face jacket and laptop before heading right back out the door to the paper.
She parked in her normal parking spot reserved for the editor and trekked up the stairs and into the Union. Liz plopped down at her desk and fired up her computer. She had a million emails regarding editorial work, newspaper design, next week’s stories, and on down the line. She would be up all night sorting through the mess.
A while into her email binge, Liz heard the office door opening. She checked her watch and saw that it was already eight thirty at night. She suspected she wouldn’t get out of here until well past midnight. She actually considered pulling an all-nighter. But she hadn’t thought anyone else would show up at the paper on their fall break.
“Hello?” she called, standing and walking out of her office. A smile broke out on her face as she saw Hayden standing in front of her. “What are you doing here?”
She rushed forward and wrapped her arms around his neck. He drew her into him and kissed her cheek. “I got two days off and knew you would be back from New York today.”
“You could have called!”
“Nah . . . it’s better to see that beautiful face when I surprised you,” he said, cupping her cheek and kissing her lips.
“I just can’t believe you’re here. I really didn’t think I’d get to see you until next weekend. How did you know I would be here, anyway?”
Hayden shrugged and gestured for her to walk back into the office. “I called Victoria and she told me.”
“Ah, makes sense,” Liz said, taking a seat her desk. “Well, if I’d known then I wouldn’t have started all this stuff.” She gestured toward the cluttered desk and her open laptop.
“It’s all right. No rush. Do you want to just finish up and then we could head out? Maybe we could get dinner at Top O,” he suggested.
“That sounds great. There’s no way I’m finishing all of this tonight anyway,” she said. The piles of emails would still be there tomorrow for her to take care of.
“What do you have to do?” Hayden asked, walking over to her computer, reading over her shoulder.
“Just some basic stuff. Layout, editing, new material. The usual.”
Liz began to pack up her other stuff as Hayden scrolled through the mass of emails she had neglected while working in New York. She had so much other stuff to do on top of the newspaper that she probably should have just stayed, but how often did she get to see Hayden these days?
“You have a lot here,” Hayden said.
“Yeah. I’ve been pretty swamped the past two weeks, and then the New York Times on top of all of that,” Liz said, shrugging. “I’ll get through it all.”
She heard Hayden sigh as she tidied up her desk and pretended to put it into some order. If she had known he was going to be here, she would have made some kind of effort to make it look presentable. Now she was just doing it out of habit because she knew that he liked things tidy.
“Liz, you know I really don’t like that you’re dropping the ball with this kind of stuff,” he said, his voice carrying the edge of authority he used when he had been editor of the paper. She had always thought that voice was commanding in a gentle, nudging way. Right now . . . it didn’t have that quality. It sounded a whole hell of a lot more like her boyfriend was about to reprimand her.
“Dropping the ball on what?” she said, turning to stare at him, her hands on her hips. She didn’t know why the comment immediately made her defensive. She was editor of the paper now, not him, and she was doing just fine. In fact, sometimes she thought she was doing a better job than Hayden had, because she didn’t have to micromanage people.
“You have about a hundred emails in here. Things that really need to get taken care of. I know you have this big internship lined up at the New York Times, but that doesn’t mean you can let my paper turn to shit.”
Liz froze, her blue eyes narrowing. “Excuse me?”
“Look, I picked you for this position because I thought you could handle juggling everything at once. If you can’t, then maybe you should think about how that affects the newspaper and not jeopardize its reputation for your other projects.”
“You think I’m jeopardizing the reputation of the newspaper by having a few unread emails?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Stop making this sound bad. I’m just saying that you should consider the impact of your carelessness. I would have never let this go on like this,” he told her.
“Well, I’m not sure if you noticed, Hayden, but I’m not you,” she said, rounding on him. “And the only reason anything is being neglected is because my boyfriend took a job hours away. So sorry if you wanted to see me.”
He quickly tried to backtrack. “This isn’t about us.”
“No. I think this is very much about us and actually has little to do with the paper. So perhaps you could just spell out to me what’s going on.”
Hayden shook his head in frustration. “See, this is it. I built this paper into a well-oiled machine. I took what a bunch of other editors had done and made it all run like it was on wheels. I laid the foundation and now you’re trying to dig away at what I created by being as selfish as all the other editors before you.”
Liz’s eyebrows rose sharply. “Selfish?” she said in a strangled voice. “I’m being selfish by pursuing my career? I’m being selfish by visiting my boyfriend who wants me to see him? I’m being selfish by not being you?”
“Lizzie . . . , calm down, please. It has nothing to do with our relationship.”
“You keep saying that, but it’s not what I hear. All I hear is someone who is pissed off and jealous because his girlfriend is interning at the New York Times when you stood no chance at the Washington Post, and reminiscing about the good old days in college. And now you’re being an asshole to me when I don’t deserve it,” she spat.
“I’m not jealous. That’s fucking insane. I got internships in D.C. too; that doesn’t mean you’ll get a job at the New York Times out of college, especially not with the way you’re running this newspaper,” he retorted harshly.