After the layoff, I spent many days immersed in clouds of personal chaos. But whether I liked it or not, I needed to make a plan.

If I had thanked myself for anything in this situation, it was the fact that I had enough sense to save some of the cash I’d made. I’d always liked to stay trendy, but when I moved here with Jason, some part of me knew that the only way it would work was if I had my own back.

That, however, did not account for rent or taking vacations, which looked like it had been put on ice from this angle.

The funny thing about not having a job to go to was that I got really comfortable with my couch and, worse, comfortable with how I tried to figure out the chaos in my life.

The law firm was a solid starting point for me, but as I found myself frantically pouring through job boards online, the hope that I could quickly bounce back started to wane.

I guess I could have picked up any old waitress job, but that wasn’t a long-term career. More importantly, that would never be enough to cover a round trip from Los Angeles to New York.

I'd been over this at least a thousand times in my head. The prospect of having to call my mom and tell her that I'd been let go was a devastation too difficult to face.

It wasn’t a secret that she thought I should have left here long ago and that being without Jason meant I couldn’t survive. If I also had to call her and say I was newly unemployed, I could only imagine how she would take that.

As I stared off into nothing, fully dissociated from the plight I was facing, my phone vibrated beside me.

It was Rebecca.

I knew best friends were the traditional go-to for hard times, but I’d never been much for pity parties.

It took a few rings for me to decide what to do, but once Becca had started sending texts through, I knew it would be impossible to hide this from her.

“Hey, girl.”

I tried to mask the utter defeat in my voice, but she wasn’t immune to my vibe.

“Ouch! Where’s the funeral, babes?”

“Oh, in my pocketbook. Thanks for asking.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“I’ve been let go from the firm, effective immediately, so that’s a thing now.”

“Like now?”

As much as I adored Rebecca, I couldn’t stand it when she did this.

“Yes, Becca, now. I have no job and not a pot to piss in.”

What’s new with you? I thought as I waited for one of the epic tales of glory.

“Oh, shit, hun! I’m so sorry!”

I wasn’t sure if I should say thanks for your condolences, but it felt that way.

“Want to hear the best part?” I asked.

“Shoot!”

Her enthusiasm was misplaced, but I couldn’t throw shade at her for that. It was her nature.

“It’s my mom’s 50th birthday in a couple of weeks.” I sighed. “I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do about that now.”

“Okay, well, let’s work it out together! I’m just on my way to the gym, so I can totally help bounce some ideas around!”

“Well, I was supposed to go home to New York because she’s decided that the age of 50 is the new apocalypse.”

“Ha-ha! What do you mean? Is she doing okay?”

If anyone knew about my family’s oddities and tendency to strangle the very life out of me, it was Rebecca.

“Oh, yeah, same old shit, different bucket. But she requires the family to come and pay homage to her greatness. Ordinarily, I’d just say no—which I totally did—but you know how she rolls.”

“Yeah, moms are really good at playing the ‘I’ve done everything for you’ card. So, what are you going to do?”

“That’s the thing. I have no ideas. I’m fresh out.”

“Sheesh, that’s a terrible combo!”

“Right? I mean, how could I even justify a trip like that?”

“Did you already commit?”

“Against my better judgment, yes. Yes, I did. Now, what am I supposed to do? Call her and give her ammunition?”

“Okay, well,” she hesitated, “what about savings? Is that a thing?”

“I mean, it is, but I’m hardly on my way to the Fortune 500 club. There’s no way I can fly there and back and keep this place and survive.”

“Ooh! Impossibly impossible! I love this! It’s giving me main character energy!”

As much as I hated to admit it, she was right. This was like a movie where the lead female is against all odds and must achieve and conquer the impossible.

God, I hated cliches.

“The irony is that after agreeing, I found a cheap flight and accommodations, then boom! The universe hits my stupid ass with this.”

The more I talked about it, the more I wondered if things would ever go right for me. Hadn’t what I’d just gone through with Jason been enough strife for at least a little while?

“What about job prospects? What is cooking in the kitchen?”

Her optimism was nearly heartbreaking.

“The kitchen is cold, babes. No bacon is shakin'.”

I knew my voice was practically flat and that the wind of life had been utterly knocked out of me, but I was trying to stick with it. Sometimes Rebecca was surprisingly good with life’s curve balls.

“Hmm, okay. I don’t know how you’ll take this, but I have an awesome idea for you! But can you do me a favor?”

Favors were a dangerous business, but I sighed and gave in faster than I thought I would.

“Tentatively, and I mean it, very tentatively.”

“Oh, shush! It’s not that bad! I have a friend —actually a few friends—who do this ridesharing gig. Have you heard of that?”

“Of course, I’ve heard of it. I don’t live under a rock, Becca.”

“Okay, okay, but to be fair, I don’t know how they get down in New York. It’s a really sweet deal, or can be, from what they tell me.”

Though I was always generally wary of advice that included ‘they’ when endorsing something, I looked around my very quiet, bright apartment.

Coming here was a huge gamble, and things hadn’t turned out in my favor so far. But I was grateful and realized how much this little place meant.

“Come on, Tabby, if this is going to work, you must be open to new things!”

“I know, I am. It’s just that it sounds so scary to me.”

“Why? And excuse me, do you think I would steer you down the wrong path?”

She did have a solid point. The one thing about Rebecca that could be relied on was that she was perpetually terrified of everything.

Generally, you would make it out in one piece if she were up for it.

“No, not at all, but if I happen to pick up some weirdo, then what? Are you gonna come save me?”

I laughed to mask the fear in my heart. This was a viable option, and it was also something that could help me short-term and long-term. I didn’t have the money to travel alone, but was it really safe?

“Pretty sure that’s some TV movie bullshit. Honestly, the type of people that would travel with you are probably not Ted Bundy.”

She laughed, but I couldn’t join in. Suddenly, the anxiety I’d been chewing on for a few days reared its ugly head and wanted me to know that it couldn’t be snuffed out that easily.

“Ah! You’re so stubborn, Tabby!”

“Is there something wrong with being stubborn about being safe?”

“Well, if you weren’t an able-bodied kick-ass chick, maybe. But since that’s not the case, and I think you’ve seen a few things in life between New York and here. . . You get my drift?”

“What about rapes and murders? You cannot sit there and tell me that no random oddball gets in with a fetish for feet or some shit.”

We both erupted in laughter, and I reveled in the spontaneity of it.

“Fair enough.” She chuckled again as I sat with my new sense of humor and contentment. “But, lucky for you, I looked into this for my boss. She’s a bit, you know. . . .”

“Like me? Paranoid?”

“Exactly!” She laughed again, but I knew she meant well. “Anyway, she wanted to book something like this for her out-of-town stay, so I poured into the statistics of assaults, etc., for ridesharing.”

“And what, it’s a bell curve?”

“No! It’s surprisingly low. As I said, I think most people, whether you’re driving or booking the service, are just going about their regular lives. Just makin’ the bacon, sweetie.”

I was slightly over half convinced, so I pushed her harder for information.

“Okay, say I agree to do this, am I going to actually make it to NewYork with what money I have? I mean, how do we know this isn’t just an end game?”

“I wouldn’t say you’ll be a millionaire, but you’re definitely going to be able to pull off New York and then some. Plus, if someone is in the same boat as you, I doubt they’re going to try to rob you.”

I forced myself off the couch into a sitting position, once again face to face with the computer that had been haunting me for days.

“Sooo, what’s the verdict? Are you going to jump on it?”

As I scrolled through some ads for rideshares, I realized she was probably right. This wasn’t a nightmare scene from one of those true crime shows, and it could solve all my problems.

“Okay.”

“Yes? Really?!”

She was always excited about little things like my life's saga. I couldn’t have asked for a better friend.

“Yeah, when you’ve got everything to lose, it’s a huge motivator.”

We hung up the call, and I sat still there, wondering if this was my last shot at keeping my head above water. Defeat wasn’t an option, and now that I had a prospect to make things easier, I would have been super dense to give this opportunity up.

***

It only took me ten minutes to fully adopt my new lease on life. Though it might have taken less, I wanted to ensure this was truly equitable.

Grabbing the keys off the counter, I decided I needed to get some sun, air, and, most of all, the myriad of work stuff I’d left at the office.

I hadn't asked about it during my makeshift exit interview, but I was confident they would be happy to see me, especially since there was no bad blood, at least from my end of it.

The drive was a half hour, decent by LA standards, and not something I understood until a month into living here. Here, the term traffic jam had a whole other meaning.

After briefly stopping for my favorite vanilla latte, I finally pulled into the parking lot. It was, on first inspection, a very strange experience. Of all the time I’d worked there, I’d never felt the goosebumps as much as I did now.

I didn't know what I expected, but the fact that the parking lot was a literal ghost town was more than discomforting.

With hesitancy, I grabbed the empty box I’d brought with me and made my way to the main doors.

It would be safe to say that this one topped the cake of all the unexpected events I’d been hit with.

Peering through the windows, all I saw was the absence of everything. There wasn’t a soul left there. All I saw was some broken chairs, open filing cabinets, and papers were strewn about.

Unless I’d known that there was a law firm here a short 48 hours ago, I would never have taken this place for functional.

Walking to the west side of the building, where my small cubicle had been, I noticed that even the things on my desk were gone. It was as if someone had gone in and erased every ounce of evidence they could.

I knew I wouldn’t get anywhere, so I threw in the towel. I wasn’t sure I’d even receive my severance, but one could always hope; that was how I got by this far.

The traffic accumulated as I made my way home, but after an extra five minutes, with a hot coffee in hand, I found it hard to complain.

Since the perks of being a single unemployed female meant that making dinner at dinner time didn't have to be a thing, I flopped back onto the couch I had recently become so intimately acquainted with.

As I looked past my obnoxiously large coffee cup, my eyes focused on the laptop before me.

At first, I couldn’t believe it. A huge chunk of doubt had been floating around in the back of my mind.

But, lo and behold, there it was.

A message.

From K.