"Not that, not that, DEFINITELY not that-" Evelyn rambled as she threw multiple items of clothing out of her wardrobe.

"What was wrong with that one?" Lilian questioned as she sat on the foot of her friend's bed.

"Well nothing per say... It's just not perfect for my first day at Williams. I need everything to go smoothly so I just can't waste any time worrying about whether my collar is straight or not."

Lilian laughed at how stressed out she was. "Okay fair enough."

"Stop laughing." Evelyn turned to her sharply.

Lilian held up her hands in surrender and mimed zipping her lips.

"Thank you." She said before turning back to her very disorganised wardrobe.

After about 5 more minutes of rummaging through her drawers, Evelyn finally found something to her liking and held it up to get Lilian's opinion on it.

"How about this?" She held up a black, long sleeved turtle neck with a dark blue blazer and trousers to match.

"I think it's perfect." Lilian nodded and ushered her to go put it on.

Evelyn smiled and headed into the bathroom to change.

She emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later and stepped out with a flourish to show off the outfit.

"So what's the verdict?" She asked.

Lilian pretended to act like a very serious fashion critic as she studied Evelyn's outfit. "Hmm yes very sophisticated, very professional..." She thoughtfully stroked her chin.
"It has my approval."

Evelyn laughed at her performance. "Much appreciated, thank you."

She smoothed down her clothes and then reached for her bag to check everything she needed was in there.

"You ready for this?" Lilian asked.

Evelyn ignored the butterflies that were squirming in her stomach and nodded. "Yeah... Yeah I think I am."

Lilian raised an eyebrow. "That wasn't the most convincing answer..."

Evelyn sighed. She knew exactly what she was getting at. Lilian wanted to know if she's ready to see George again after all these years.

In all honesty, Ev wasn't sure. She didn't know whether she was happy, nervous or absolutely terrified at the possibility of seeing him today.

After eight years of not speaking, would he really forgive her just like that?

"Look," Ev started. "I don't know if I'm fully ready or not, but I do know that this job is everything I've been working towards since I was 16 years old so I can't screw anything up today."

Lilian nodded at this. "I get it, I get it." She stood up and placed a hand on Evelyn's shoulder. "I'm sure you'll smash it today."

Evelyn let out a shaky laugh. "Thanks Lili."

"It's what I'm here for." She gave her a reassuring smile.
"Now!" Lilian suddenly clapped her hands together and pointed at Evelyn's hair that currently looked like a bird's nest. "We're gonna need to sort this out before you can even think about stepping out the door my friend."

"Oh god." Evelyn chuckled as Lilian sat her down in front of the vanity desk and began to brush out all the knots and tangles.

"Ow!" She yelped as Lilian tried to detangle her bed hair.

"Sorry! Your hair is just- argh- really tangled in the morning." Lilian said as she struggled to get one particularly stubborn knot out of her friend's hair.

"Aha!" She whooped in success as she finally managed to get Ev's hair knot free.

"Took you awhile." Evelyn said with a smirk.

"Hey, I'm trying to help you here." Lilian slapped her lightly on the head and then began to tie her hair up.

"Nothing too fancy by the way. I don't need to make that much of a statement on my first day."

"Alright, prude." Lilian snickered.

She finished tying up Evelyn's hair after a few minutes and then gave her a mirror so she could see the result.

"No, nuh-uh no way." Evelyn shook her head, trying to hide a laugh.

"What's wrong with this?" Lilian asked with a gleeful smile.

Evelyn looked at her impatiently. "Lili, I need people to take me seriously at this job and putting my hair up in little pigtails isn't going to help my case." She snatched the hairbrush from her and then redid the whole thing herself.

Lilian chuckled to herself as she watched Evelyn tie up her hair into a sleek low bun.

"There. Much better." She smiled in the mirror at her complete look.

"Beautiful."

"I know right?" Evelyn smiled to herself.

Lilian shook her head in amusement. "Well it's good to know your ego is still intact."

Evelyn stuck out her tongue and then turned back to her bag, double checking everything was in there.

"Ev, you've checked that bag about 5 times in the space of 30 minutes. I think it's safe to say everything you need is still in there."

"I know but-"

"Nope, no 'buts'. You've got everything you need, you don't need to keep checking your bag every five seconds." Lilian interrupted her before she could protest any further.

As she walked over to her friend's side, the clock on the desk caught her eye.

"Speaking of which, you need to leave in about 5 minutes."

"Wait what?" Evelyn turned around and grabbed the clock frantically. "Oh my god I need to leave right now-" She began grabbing her things in a panicked rush and made a beeline for the hallway.

"Wait Ev slow down-" Lilian said as she ran after her.

"No time!" She snatched her keys off the counter and bolted for the door.

"Ev stop-" Lilian reached out and grabbed her wrist before she could get out the door.

"I need to get going I don't have time for this-" Evelyn protested.

"Oh my god if you'd just let me TALK." Lilian slapped her on the head and she shut up immediately.

"Thank you. I was going to ask if you needed a ride?" She held up her car keys and looked at Evelyn pointedly.

"Oh... Oh right, yeah that would be great thanks." She smiled sheepishly, remembering that she didn't actually own a car herself.

Lilian laughed with a slightly exhausted sigh. "My god... When will you ever learn to just calm the f down."

"Maybe when I'm not about to be late for my first day at my dream job?" Ev shrugged her shoulders and pursed her lips.

"Alright Miss passive aggressive." Lilian laughed before grabbing her keys and then pulled Evelyn out of the door.

After a smooth car journey (with no traffic luckily), the two girls arrived at Williams HQ.

Evelyn looked at the huge building in front of her and let out a shaky sigh. "So, this is it..."

"It sure is." Lilian turned to face her and squeezed her hand in reassurance. "You're gonna do amazing."

"I hope so." She squeezed her hand in return.

Evelyn checked her watch for the time. "Okay, I need to head in now." There was still some uncertainty in her voice but she pushed it aside, not wanting her nerves to get the better of her now.

"Good luck!" Lilian reached over and wrapped her in a huge hug before they made their goodbyes and Evelyn hopped out of the car.

Her hands shook slightly as she walked over to the entrance so she shoved them in her pockets in attempt to settle her nerves.

"Okay this is it" Evelyn thought to herself. "Your first day at your dream job. Yep, absolutely no pressure at all." She shook her head with a sigh and continued walking up to the doors.

Her nerves were beginning to get worse as she approached the front of the building. 

"It's okay, it's fine. You're gonna do great." Ev spoke in her head, desperately trying to settle the anxiousness that was building up inside her stomach. "You've already got the job! All you need to do now is get through your first day without any problems. You should be fine. You will be fine." Evelyn took three deep breaths and nodded to herself, regaining her confidence.

"Okay... you've got this." She said under breath just as she reached the doors to the entrance.

After one last deep breath to prepare herself, Evelyn finally strode through the revolving doors to the entrance.

The atmosphere inside of the factory was incredibly active. There were so many people rushing around doing all kinds of different jobs in preparation for the new season. It was almost overwhelming for Evelyn.
"Wow..." She looked around in amazement at everything that was going on around her.

Everyone was so hardworking, in fact there wasn't a single person in that factory that wasn't busy doing some kind of work.

It felt quite hectic but instead of panicking or becoming completely overwhelmed, Evelyn just smiled.

She was right in her element and suddenly all of her previous worries had disapated (mostly) and being here didn't seem so scary anymore.

Now feeling more asure with herself, Evelyn walked up to the reception desk with her head held high.

As she walked across the room with some stride in her step, some of the workers actually stepped aside to make way for her.

I guess confidence really is key.

The receptionist looked up as Evelyn approached the desk and smiled at her.
"Hi, how can I help you?" The receptionist said sweetly.

Evelyn smiled in relief at their kind expression.
"Hi there, I'm actually here for my first day at my new job-"

"Evelyn!!" An excited squeal cut through the room as Emily Bradwell, Ev's new supervisor, bounded over to her.

Evelyn almost jumped out of her skin at the very sudden mention of her name.

"Oh- Emily, hi!" She extended a hand to her as she walked up next to her and Emily shook it enthusiastically.

"It's so great to finally see you in person." Emily's smile was so wide, Ev's cheeks hurt just looking at it.

"Yeah you too." Evelyn chuckled slightly at her incredibly positive energy.

Emily's enthusiasm was much more easier to handle when Ev wasn't  struggling with an intense hangover at 8 in the morning.

"I hope your journey here wasn't too bad. The roads can get quite busy around here on a Monday morning." Emily stated with a sympathetic smile.

"Oh not at all, my journey was actually quite smooth sailing." Evelyn responded. "Only took about 35 minutes which is pretty good considering where my apartment is."

"Well that's brilliant! Off to a great start to your first day then." Emily grinned once again.

"Yep, for sure." Evelyn couldn't help but laugh at how joyful her new supervisor was.

The two of them conversed back and forth in polite small talk for a bit until the receptionist

"Em, just to let you know, Jost wants Ms Wilson shown around the building as soon as possible. George is in and out of the building today so he might want to get them introduced."

Evelyn's heart leaped into her throat at the mention of his name.

"Ah of course." Emily nodded in response and turned back to Evelyn.

"So we'll get your ID sorted first so you can actually get into the building tomorrow and then get you officially logged onto the system."

Evelyn nodded, trying to shake away the butterflies in her stomach that had just returned.

"You'll have to sign a few things but nothing too complicated or anything." Emily then noticed Ev's anxious expression and gave her a kind smile.

"Don't worry, the first day is mainly just getting you familiar with the work and everything. No one will be  expecting you to pull out all the stops immediately so don't put too much pressure on yourself."

Evelyn sighed gratefully. "Thank you, that's really relieving to hear."

"Of course." Emily smiled and then led her down one of the hallways. "Oh and George is an absolute gentleman too so you don't even need to worry about meeting him. It should be a breeze with people as polite as you two."

Evelyn chuckled awkwardly.
"Yeah, it should be." She thought. "But life just isn't that kind is it?"

-

Next part will continue on directly from this chapter :) I originally meant for it to be all one chapter but I already wrote over 2000 words in just the first half so-

Also I realise this might not be the most exciting chapter (I ramble on a bit too much with my writing 😭) but I haven't published in ages either so... Hope you enjoyed!