Her mouth drops open, and her eyes go wide. And before she can say another word, I flee to the break room and slam the door shut.
I sit on a bench and bend forward, putting my head between my knees like they do in the movies, and taking shallow, gasping breaths. After a few minutes like this, my chest stops squeezing and my heart slows down. I sit up, and just as I do, the door flings open.
Kasumi marches in so ferociously that the breeze of her anger blows past me. She bangs open her locker and snatches her chef’s coat from the hook.
“Did Xavier fire Samantha?” I whisper.
She whirls around, hands on her hips, and gives me the most contemptuous stare I’ve ever seen. “No, Xavier didn’t fire Samantha.”
I blow out a relieved sigh. “Oh good.”
She turns back to her locker, grabs her purse off the shelf, and haphazardly stuffs her chef’s coat inside. Then she tosses it over her shoulder with one arm of the coat still trailing over the side. “Xavier fired me.”
Chapter 18
I stand outside Kasumi’s apartment building holding an overstuffed pastry box like a white flag. Kasumi hasn’t answered my calls or texts in over a week, so I baked a double batch of her favorite chocolate croissants and came over here. But now that I’m outside her door, I’m not really sure what to do. I try texting her again—Hey, I’m here at your building. Can we talk?—but she doesn’t reply.
I press the buzzer for apartment number three, and her roommate answers.
“Adrianna, it’s Sadie. Can you buzz me in?”
There’s a long moment of silence, and I can imagine Kasumi and Adrianna whispering about what to do. Then the static of the intercom comes through the speaker, and a slightly fuzzy version of Adrianna’s voice says, “Sorry, Kasumi’s not here.”
Defeated, I set the pastry box on the step. I brought croissants, I text. I’m leaving them on your step. Then I head down the block. Right before I cross the street, I glance over my shoulder at Kasumi’s building. The door opens, and her head pops out. She looks left and right, and then she grabs the box off the step.
“Hey!” I take off running so I can catch her before she disappears back inside. “Kasumi, wait.”
She hesitates, biting her lip, and for a second, I think she’s going to act like she doesn’t hear me. Her hand grasps the door handle, but to my relief, she turns around and takes a step back outside. “What do you want, Sadie?”
I come to a stop in front of her stoop, panting from my sprint down the sidewalk. “Can I talk to you? Please?”
“Fine.” She shifts the pastry box under her arm. “Talk.”
“I’m so sorry about what happened last week,” I say, still slightly out of breath. “I can’t believe Xavier fired you. Maybe if we go tell him that it was all a mistake…”
“It wasn’t a mistake,” Kasumi says sharply. “And I’m not going to say it was. I’m not going to kiss up to him or apologize or pretend that I was in the wrong when I wasn’t.”
“Okay, maybe I can talk to him.” I’ve been sucking up to Xavier for months in order to keep my job, and the last thing I expected was for my best friend to get sacked instead of me. So, if it will fix this mess, I’ll happily show up in Xavier’s office to remind him he was robbed of the head judge position on Top Chef, his braised short ribs are the best in all five boroughs, and Oh, by the way, can Kasumi have her job back?
If I get him in the right mood, maybe it could work.
But Kasumi’s eyes narrow and her head swings back and forth. “I’m not going back there.”
“But—” I start to argue. Even a lot of well-paid restaurant workers live paycheck to paycheck in New York. What if Kasumi can’t pay her rent? Or she loses her apartment? What if Xavier blackballs her, and she can’t find another job?
My breath catches.
What if instead of my Very Bad Year, this has turned into Kasumi’s Very Bad Year?
“Listen, Kasumi.” I climb the steps to her door two at a time until I’m standing in front of her. “If you won’t go back to Xavier’s, do you need help with money or anything until you find a new job?” I tried not to dip into my nest egg during my own Very Bad Year, but this is different. I can’t let Kasumi end up homeless because she landed upside-down in my time loop.
For a second, her face softens. “No. I don’t want to take your money, Sadie.”
“But how will you afford to pay your rent?”
“I’ll be fine.” Kasumi shrugs. “I have a couple of things in the works.”
I wait, hoping she’ll say more, but she just moves the pastry box to her other hand and reaches for the door handle. “Well, I’ve got to go.”
I shift my weight nervously. I know she’s still mad, but we’ve been friends for over a decade. “Are we still—do you think we can still hang out?”
Kasumi sighs. “I don’t know.” She swings back around to face me. “It’s not just this thing at Xavier’s. You’ve changed. Maybe the pressure from your parents has finally gotten to you. Or maybe it’s Alex’s new job with all those finance-bros that’s making you care more about superficial stuff instead of what actually matters.”
“What?” I stumble back against the stair railing. “Alex’s job has nothing to do with it.” But a little part of me can see how she might think it does. Until Alex started working at Wright and Moore, he never used to hang out with guys who made inappropriate, sexist comments and hit on us at parties. The few times Zach slithered around during my Very Bad Year, I shut him down. But in my second chance year, I’ve been putting up with him. I’ve been putting up with a lot of things that make me uneasy.
Confusion curls in my gut like a Swiss roll and suddenly, I’m overwhelmed by the desire to tell Kasumi everything. Maybe if she knew how things went wrong during my Very Bad Year, she’d understand. “Actually, Kasumi, the thing is…” I raise my eyes to meet her gaze. “Do you believe in the supernatural? Like, magic and wishes… things like that?”
Kasumi stares at me like I’ve just told her I’ve given up chocolate.
“Look, I know it sounds far-fetched.” I take a deep breath. “But the thing is that about seven months ago, I met this fortune teller, and she—”
“Are you serious?” Kasumi cuts me off. “I just lost my job, and I’m trying to talk to you about our friendship, and you’re going on about fortune tellers?”
Oh God. This isn’t going well. “No, that’s not what I’m doing—” Except that’s exactly what I’m doing. “It’s just that—”
Kasumi shakes her head. “I really do have to go.” She looks down at the pastry box in her hands, a frown creasing her brow. “Thanks for the croissants.” And before I can say another word, she turns and disappears into her building.
Why did I think this was a good idea?
I slowly turn and start walking for home. And because the universe likes to kick me when I’m down, my phone buzzes with my mom’s name. I swipe to answer.
“Hi, honey, what are you up to?” she asks.
“Oh… I just left Kasumi’s apartment.”
“Well tell her hi from me,” my mom says, showing she wasn’t really listening.