Broken Together

by Cassie Beebe

  Jacob followed, and as they waved to Iris on their way to the door, she called out, “See you soon, Mister!”

  He tried to smile, but it was stiff as his conscience continued knocking, urging him toward Al’s office to come clean about his application.

  He wrestled with himself all the way to the door, through the parking lot, and to Jenna’s car. He told himself it was stupid and pointless to even consider telling the truth. There was no way Al was going to dig into his past and discover he had lied, and if he told the truth, it would be impossible to keep it from Jenna while working for her uncle. No, he absolutely was not going to tell him.

  “I think I need to run some errands,” Jacob said, hesitating by the passenger door.

  Jenna looked up at him with a raised brow.

  “I’ll just catch a bus back to campus,” he shrugged. “But hey, thanks again for dinner, and for the job stuff.”

  “Oh. Uh… okay,” Jenna stammered. “Did you want a ride, or…?”

  “No, I’m good. Thanks,” he answered with a small smile. “See ya back at campus,” he waved, moseying back toward the restaurant.

  “Okay… see ya,” she muttered.

  He walked slowly, giving Jenna time to settle into her car, start the engine, and speed off toward campus. Once she was out of sight, he strutted through the restaurant doors.

  Iris was halfway to the door herself, car keys in hand.

  “You forget something, baby?” she asked him.

  “Um,” he muttered, his voice cracking. He cleared his throat and started again. “Actually, I was wondering if I could talk to Al for a second?”

  She looked back at the office door, deliberating. “Uh, yeah, sure,” she said. “I gotta get home to my little girl, but I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”

  “Great, thanks,” he said, ignoring the blood pumping wildly through his veins.

  “See ya later, sugar,” she said with a wave over her shoulder as she headed to the front door.

  “Have a good night,” Jacob replied, stepping up to Al’s office and trying to calm his stomach. He swallowed back the nausea that was creeping up his throat and knocked on the door.

  “Come on in,” Al called out.

  Jacob took a breath and stepped inside the office.

  Al looked up from his desk and a wide smile spread across his face. “Jacob! Forget something?”

  “No, sir. I, um… I just wanted to say something about my application,” he explained, still hovering by the door in case he needed a quick escape.

  “Oh, well, of course,” Al replied, sitting back in his chair and gesturing to the seat opposite him. “Please, come on in and have a seat.”

  Jacob stared at the chair, deliberating whether or not it was too late to turn around and catch a cab back to campus. Swallowing his trepidation, he marched forward and took a seat.

  “Um,” he began, clearing his throat and starting again with more feigned confidence. “Sir, I’m afraid I wasn’t entirely honest on all of the application questions,” he admitted.

  Al’s eyebrows pulled together in concern. “I see,” he said simply, and Jacob’s heart pounded hard in his chest. “And which question were you not entirely honest with?”

  Jacob opened his mouth to “um,” but thought better of it. He closed his mouth, took in a breath through his nose to calm his nerves, then started again. “It was the first question on the back page, sir.”

  Al nodded. He shifted the files he had been looking through to the side and pulled out a single sheet of paper, turning it over to the back page and reading the first question.

  Jacob’s anxiety was reaching peak heights, and he was beginning to feel the warmth of sickness rising in his throat. He closed his eyes covertly for a moment, taking careful breaths through his nose to dissuade the nausea.

  When he opened his eyes, Al set the paper down and placed his intertwined fingers on the desk. His expression was more disappointment than anger, and that helped calm Jacob’s nerves a bit.

  “Um… I can assure you, sir, I’ve never lied on an application until today,” he defended. “It’s just… well, with everyone around, and…,” he shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. The point is, I shouldn’t have lied, and I wanted to clear that up.”

  Al considered that with a nod.

  There was a long minute of silence while Jacob tried not to fidget in his seat. Finally, Al spoke up.

  “You know, Jacob,” he began, shifting to sit up straight. “The most important thing I’m looking for in an employee is someone I can trust,” he said.

  Jacob’s heart sank.

  “Yes, sir,” he nodded, rising from his seat. “I understand. Thank you for your time,” he said, turning for the door.

  “So, when can you start?”

  Jacob stopped in his tracks. Thinking his ears may have betrayed him, he turned around and appraised the slight grin on the man’s face. “What?” he asked.

  His grin spread a bit wider. “It takes a big man to admit when he’s wrong,” Al explained. “I’ve never been one to hold a man’s past against him. The important thing is what kind of a man you are today,” he declared, pointing a finger at him to seal his point. “And I can see that today, you’re a man with integrity. That’s the kind of person I’ve been looking for.”

  Jacob’s shoulders relaxed and he let out the breath he had been holding for the last minute.

  “But… you don’t care? That I lied to you? That I was… Why I was…,” he trailed off, struggling to say the words aloud to a near stranger.

  “Like I said, we’ll give you a shot. See how it goes,” Al stated. “So, when can you start?”

  Jacob stared at him, flabbergasted by the decision. When his senses came back to him, he shook his head. “Right now?” he chuckled.

  Al’s eyebrows shot up. “You mean that? Because I’ve got a lot to get through tonight, and it’d be nice to be home before midnight for a change.”

  “Oh,” Jacob muttered, still stunned by the incredible turn of events. “Yeah, sure. What do you need me to do?” he asked, sliding off his backpack and setting it on the empty desk chair.

  “You know how to use Excel to make a spreadsheet?” he asked.

  “Yes, sir,” Jacob answered.

  Al smirked. “You can call me Al, remember?”

  Jacob smiled. “Right. Sorry, s- er, Al.”

  “I’ll go grab the drawer, and we can count up the profits for today. Help me punch ‘em into this here spreadsheet,” he gestured to the computer on his desk. “Why don’t you have a seat here, and I’ll be back,” he said, pulling out his own chair for him.

  Jacob took the seat, feeling entirely out of place as he pulled up to the desk and opened an Excel document on the computer.

  “Hey, uh… one more thing,” Al said, turning around in the doorway with a serious expression.

  “Yeah?”

  He took a moment, formulating his words. “As an employer, I don’t have any more questions for you at the moment. But… as an uncle,” he said, eyebrows pulling together.

  Jacob sat up straighter, waiting.

  Al met his gaze. “Jenna doesn’t know about this?”

  Jacob sighed. “No, sir. I mean, Al.”

  “That’s why you lied?” he asked. “You didn’t want her to see your answer?”

  His cheeks were hot. “Yes, sir.” He didn’t correct himself this time. This was definitely a “sir” conversation.

  Al nodded. “Do I have any reason to be concerned about your friendship with my niece?” he asked, the severity of a protective father figure clear in his voice.

  “No,” Jacob answered quickly, shaking his head. “No, sir. Definitely not.”

  The stout man nodded again, taking in Jacob’s response. “Well, okay then,” he said, the tension in the air dissipating. “I’ll go get that drawer.”

  Taking a breath and relaxing his shoulders, Jacob turned back to the computer screen.

  “Oh, and Jacob,” Al sa
id, halfway out the door.

  Jacob looked up.

  “You know, Jenna… she’s been through a lot, and…,” he trailed off, pressing his lips together as he tried to think of the appropriate words. With kind smile and a twinkle in his eye, he said, “Well, she might be a bit more open minded than you’d think.”

  THE JOB AT THE diner was a perfect fit for Jacob. All of the help Al needed with the books was able to be done at night, which meant that Jacob could still go to all of his classes and get his homework done before heading to work. The informality of the position suited him, as well, because Al seemed happy to have him there every night, regardless of how much or how little work there was to be done, and Jacob was happy to have the money.

  He had been nervous, at first, about spending so much time alone with someone who knew about his past. There was ample time for questions, but after that first night, Al never broached the subject again.

  After a week of work, when he got his first payment – in cash, another benefit of informality – he headed to a nearby department store to get the first thing on his list of wants: clothes.

  He wandered around the men’s section for a good half hour, getting dizzy from all the styles and patterns and colors. This was another aspect of life that he had grown accustomed to having decided for him. After living on the run for several years with limited space for personal belongings, and being at Bellevue after that, he wasn’t used to having so many options. It wasn’t until he was faced with the array of styles that he realized he had no idea what his own personal “style” was. In the hospital, he always wore sweat pants and neutral colors, because that’s what they gave him. On the run, he had been satisfied with jeans and a black t-shirt, because that’s all he could afford.

  Picking up a blue flannel shirt and examining the texture of the fabric, he tried to think back to how he used to dress, before everything. Clothes had never been important to him, and even before his life was turned upside down, they never had the money for anything fancy. It was jeans and t-shirts back then too.

  He headed over to the jeans, and now that he knew his size, it was simple enough to pick up a few pairs in varying shades of blue. From the table of $3 t-shirts, he grabbed a white, a black, and a gray to add to the one black and one gray he already had.

  There was comfort in familiarity, but looking down at the stack of clothes in his basket, he couldn’t help but think about the fact that he was supposed to be embracing change, becoming a new man. Of course, clothes weren’t necessarily an important factor in that regard, but as he passed by that blue, flannel shirt again, he grabbed it and tossed it with the others.

  Callie and Angela had caught wind of Jacob’s new job, and when they did, they insisted on going out to dinner and a movie to celebrate. It had been a while since he had spent any real time with them, outside of class. They were still friendly, but things had never been quite the same since the Movie Theater Incident. But Jacob was pleasantly surprised when Callie had mentioned that he should invite Jenna to dinner with them. Perhaps she was ready to bury the hatchet and their friendship could return to what it was before.

  Jacob smiled at that thought as he fixed his hair in the mirror, still wishing he could afford a haircut, and took another look at himself before heading out the door. He tugged on the ends of his new flannel shirt, unsure of how to wear it. He had it hanging open over a black t-shirt, copying the picture on the ad he had seen in the store. Remembering the way the man in the photo had worn it, he unbuttoned the wrists and rolled one sleeve halfway up his arm, comparing it with the other unrolled one. It was off script, but he decided to go with the unrolled look. It looked slightly more formal, and by the fancy-sounding Italian name Callie had told him, he was pretty sure the restaurant they were going to was a nice one.

  Giving one last straighten to his collar, he grabbed his dorm key and headed for the lobby to meet Jenna. The other girls were already out shopping for the day, so they decided to meet up at the restaurant. Jenna was waiting for him in the lobby, sporting bright red lips and a black dress, made edgy by the low neck-line that was crisscrossed with thick, black strings laced through gold rivets. She had even swapped her usual well-worn converse for gold, strappy heels, and he felt vastly underdressed.

  She caught sight of him as he stopped and stared at her, preparing to run back to his room and change. Into what, he didn’t know, but clearly what he was wearing wasn’t good enough.

  “Hey,” Jenna greeted with a smile, walking up to him. She looked down and gave a light tug on his flannel. “Nice shirt.”

  “Really?” he asked hopefully.

  “Yeah, it looks great on you,” she said, patting it back into place on his chest. “Brings out your eyes. You ready?”

  Now that he had confirmation he wasn’t dressed like a homeless person, he relaxed and said, “Yeah, let’s go.”

  Jenna yawned as they stepped into the car. “If I start to drift off, you’re in charge of slapping me,” she said as they buckled their seat belts.

  “Uh… should I be driving?”

  She laughed. “Nah, I’m fine. I just haven’t been sleeping much lately, but I think I’ve gotten a second wind.”

  Not fully convinced, Jacob turned on the CD player and cranked up the volume just in case.

  The restaurant was about as fancy as Jacob expected. Real silverware and cloth napkins, but no table cloths, for which he was grateful. Table cloths generally indicated hefty prices he was not prepared to pay.

  The other girls were already seated on one side of a booth, and as soon as Jacob and Jenna slid in across from them, their waiter came by to take their drink orders.

  Jenna ordered a merlot, and Callie and Angela had a few questions about the drink menu they had been studying. They finally settled on virgin margaritas, and the waiter turned to Jacob.

  “And for you, sir?” he asked.

  “Um,” Jacob began, pretending to look over the drinks for a moment. “Do you have iced tea?”

  “Yes, sir. We have regular and peach.”

  “I’ll try the peach,” he decided.

  “Very well, sir,” the server replied with a small bow as he retreated from the table back to the kitchen.

  “So, tell us about the new job!” Angela said with a grin.

  All the girls turned their eyes to him. “I’m doing bookkeeping for Jenna’s uncle. He owns Big Al’s diner,” he explained, and Angela gasped.

  “Oh my gosh, I would literally kill somebody for one of their shakes right now,” she gushed. “I had no idea that was your uncle,” she said to Jenna.

  “Yep,” she smiled.

  “I bet you got all the free shakes you wanted growing up,” she mused.

  Jenna laughed. “Well, when I was in town, yeah. I’m from Chicago, but I used to visit him and my aunt a lot after they moved down here.”

  “Huh,” Jacob muttered, realizing he had never asked Jenna where she was from.

  “So… have you always lived in Chicago?” Callie interjected a bit stiffly, and Jacob and Angela glanced between her and Jenna.

  “Um,” Jenna stuttered, taken aback by Callie addressing her directly. “Yeah. I grew up there, but I’ve travelled a lot since then.”

  “Ooo, really? I’ve never been anywhere,” Angela let out a wistful sigh. “What’s your favorite place you’ve been?”

  The waiter returned with their drinks then, and their conversation was put on pause while they delivered their food orders.

  “Actually, I really like it here,” Jenna shrugged after the server disappeared.

  Angela grimaced. “Really?”

  Jenna giggled. “Yeah. I mean, there’s a reason I decided to stick around for four years. People are really nice here. And you can’t see stars like that in the city,” she nodded her head at the window.

  Angela looked out the window. “Huh,” she said, still baffled by anyone being in Cottonwood by choice.

  There was a lull in the conversation, as everyone focu
sed on their drinks and the breadsticks the waiter had dropped off.

  “So, what’s your major, Jenna?” Callie asked, again drawing everyone’s attention.

  She was sporting a controlled expression of polite interest, and Jacob smiled to himself at the effort she was putting forth to make Jenna feel welcome.

  “Business finance, with a minor in music composition,” Jenna replied, taking a sip of her wine.

  “Music?” Angela interjected. “What do you play?”

  “Guitar, piano… sometimes a little ukulele, when I feel like it,” Jenna smiled.

  “That’s awesome! My boyfriend’s really musical, but I can’t carry a tune to save my life,” Angela snorted.

  The server came by again then, carrying with him a tray of food, and another younger man followed behind with another tray. Everyone took a moment to admire their plates and express jealousy over each other’s orders.

  “Hey, where is Brandon tonight?” Jacob asked, twirling pasta with his fork.

  Angela had just shoveled in a large piece of ravioli, so she covered her mouth and chewed for a minute, speaking around the food. “He had to work.” She swallowed. “He’s got like three part time jobs. Which is cool, I guess, but it means he’s never around for stuff like this.”

  “Hm,” Jacob replied, chewing his own food now. “That’s too bad.”

  “Do you have a boyfriend, Jenna?” Callie blurted out, showing more genuine interest in this subject than her previous inquires.

  Jenna’s hand paused mid-way through slicing her parmesan chicken, and her eyes darted toward Jacob briefly. “No,” she said.

  Callie’s shoulders dropped a bit, but she put on a smooth expression and just said, “Oh.”

  Jacob peeked at Jenna, but he couldn’t read her blank expression.

  “So, Callie, I was thinking we could meet early tomorrow morning, for the presentation?” Jacob interjected.

  “Yeah, that sounds great,” she enthusiastically agreed. “Should we skip Bio?”

  “What? And leave me alone with Amber? I don’t think so!” Angela whined.