Zenith Solutions.
Hi Thea, great timing. We’d love to move quickly. Are you free Monday morning?
I read it twice.
Monday morning.
Yes, I wrote. 10 a.m. works.
On Thursday, the calls shifted tone.
Keith stopped sounding managerial and started sounding strained.
“Thea, I know this isn’t how either of us wanted things to go. We’re running into a few unexpected issues with some of the monitoring workflows you maintained. Nothing major yet, but it would really help if we could schedule a short call.”
Unexpected issues.
Nothing major yet.
I could hear him trying to keep the situation small enough to fit inside his pride.
Natalie called twice more. Lawrence called once. Damian texted at 6:12 p.m.
Hey Thea. Really hope you’re doing okay. If you’re open to it, I’d love to buy you coffee and ask a few questions about the systems. No pressure.
I stared at the message.
No pressure.
That was new.
At Apex, pressure had always arrived wrapped in team language.
Could you just jump on for a minute?
Could you take a quick look?
Could you help Damian get up to speed?
Could you document that by Friday?
Could you handle the overnight deployment since you know it best?
Could you be flexible?
Could you be patient?
Could you understand?
No pressure meant pressure, except now I was allowed to see it.
I did not respond.
Friday morning, the number of missed calls had become absurd.
Forty-seven before breakfast.
By then, curiosity overcame discipline. I poured coffee, sat at the kitchen table, and listened to one voicemail from Keith.
His voice had lost the careful warmth.
“Thea, we’re experiencing service issues with several clients. The team believes some of your automation may have stopped running after your departure. I know you resigned, but we could really use your expertise. I’m authorized to offer a consulting rate of two hundred dollars an hour if you can assist today. Please call me back.”
I paused the message.
Two hundred dollars an hour.
My salary at Apex had worked out to roughly sixty-two.
It had taken three days for my value to triple.
I listened to Lawrence’s next.
“Theodora, this is Lawrence. We need to speak urgently regarding a platform stability matter. Please return my call today.”
Then Natalie.