Page 24 of Kevin's Destiny

“That’s some of the people I’ll be working with. It’s like an entire family of mix- matched people, but Erin’s making it work.”

“Sure, let me know.”

Almost an hour later, Lela showed up at her office and when Yvonne gave her a look over a pair of non-existent glasses. “Yes,” she said in a drawl, fucking with her. She knew why she was here.

“Um, ah,” Lela stuttered, then sighed heavily. “You know, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“I won’t ask who told you, but can you at least act surprised?”

Yvonne laughed as she cleaned up her desk, packed her last personal item into her purse, her favorite pen was all that was left, because she’d slowly taken things home during the last two weeks, and rose to her feet. Since she had already turned in her gun and badge, she didn’t have to come back to her office. In the doorway, she turned and looked into the room, and was surprised that she didn’t feel sad that she was leaving. With a quick nod, she turned on her heel and looked at Lela.

“We ready?”

“Yes, but you have to act surprised.”

“I will.” Yvonne laughed.

They rode down in the elevator together, but Yvonne held back, saying that Lela should go first. Lela started to walk away, then whipped back around and glared at her.

“You’re not going to leave, are you?”

Yvonne laughed. “No, I’m not going to leave. I thought you should go first to let them know I’m on my way. You know how much I hate surprises.”

“Yeah,” Lela said with a grin and hurried away. Ten minutes later, she received a text from Lela that it was okay to come in now, and Yvonne couldn’t help but grin when it read to act surprised. She walked toward the cafeteria, and saw all the lights were off, and as soon as she entered, they came on, and the entire room exploded in yelling ‘Surprise!’. She didn’t have to act surprised, because the sheer volume of the yell made her jerk. As soon as the lights came on, she swore that every single person that worked in the building was there.

For the next four hours, she talked, laughed, reminisced, and actually had a good time. The biggest surprise was that it wascatered with hors d oeuvres, and a buffet meal. At one point she walked up to her team and shook her head.

“What?” Mark Griffin asked with a grin.

“How the hell did you pull this off? A month ago, everyone in the entire building had given me the cold shoulder.”

“Yeah, that’s why we told you what Arroy was doing. However, back then, we didn’t know who he really was. Once you exposed him, and the military police took him away, Robert, Lela, and I went to every employee in the entire building and said they needed to apologize to you for their treatment. Someone, I don’t recall who, but someone suggested this party for you. Once it was known that you put in your notice, things started happening fast.” He looked around the room with a grin. “The catering is being done by one of the agents’ daughter or niece, I’m not sure which. We only collected enough funds from everyone to pay for the food and drinks. Since we already work in the building, Director Anderson said we could use the cafeteria.”

Yvonne nodded, and held up her glass of wine. “And the alcohol?”

“Again, we all tipped in and had the caterer bring it with them. Some sort of package deal.” He shrugged and sipped his own drink.

When the party started to wind down, Yvonne thanked everyone for, not only the send-off party, but also for the years she had worked with them. She saved her three team members for last, and not only shook their hands, but she hugged them also. Lela handed her a gift bag and grinned.

“This is from the three of us, don’t open it until you get home.” They hugged again, and as Yvonne turned to leave, she stopped her to lean in, and whisper, “Tell Myrna and Pedro we said hi.”

“I will,” Yvonne said with a laugh and a nod. She made her way home, and once she arrived, she decided to shower and change into her pajamas before opening the gift.

“Holy shit,” she said as she opened the box from inside the bag, and found an assortment of products from one particular manufacturer. She uncovered a watch, a laptop, an e-reader, along with a gift card with a significant amount. She also found a card with everyone’s signatures on it. She hadn’t realized how moved she had been by her co-workers’ thoughtfulness, until she felt the splash of tears on her hands. She quickly wiped her eyes, jumped to her feet, and walked the entire apartment, making sure she had packed everything.

By the time she went to bed that night, it was almost midnight, and she only lay awake for about fifteen minutes before she fell into a fitful sleep.

The next morning,Yvonne had put the last box into her SUV, and went back up to her empty apartment, and again walked through the entire place. Not that it was that big, but it had been hers for the last twenty years. It was almost sad to let it go, but she didn’t want to travel almost four hours one way in order to get to work. She turned at the knock on her open door and smiled as she looked at the landlord.

“Here are the keys,” Yvonne said as she held them out to her landlord.

“Thank you, are you sure you want to leave? You’ve been such a good tenant all these years. I know Mom and Dad had loved having you here.”

“Thank you,” Yvonne said with a gentle smile. Her original landlords had been this one’s parents all those years ago. “Yes,I’m moving onto bigger and better things. I’m sorry I didn’t repaint the walls, but I did scrub them, and cleaned all the dust bunnies out from behind the appliances.” She stepped back to allow her to walk around, and thirty minutes later, they signed the paperwork that she was leaving.

“I wish you luck, Yvonne.”