by K. S. Martin
Jess shook her head. “And I won’t be getting some either. He didn’t kiss me goodnight, he didn’t ask for my number, and he didn’t ask me out again.” That wasn’t exactly true, she chided herself, because he did ask, but she was busy. He didn’t ask for another day, though, so that counts, right? she reasoned with herself.
“I’m going to be an old maid, Lolly, so get used to it. Don’t bother matchmaking either anymore, and don’t try to convince me that I’m a hot, gorgeous babe because he would’ve kissed me goodnight if I were. We both know that I am a hideous freak,” Jess spat, staring at the TV overhead.
***
Jess stuck her earbuds in her ears and worked the stair climber harder than anyone ever had, Lolly was sure of that. She walked slowly, contemplating her friend. She was not hideous. She was gorgeous. What was wrong with these men? Lolly checked out Jess’s rear. It was not flat or slim, it was curved and lovely, it was not too big but proportionate to the rest of her. Her breasts were bigger than average but not gargantuan, and she had a waist. Jess was an hourglass, and who wouldn’t want that? Lolly would kill to be an hourglass instead of a tree trunk. She walked faster at that thought. Jess had a sweaty V down the front and back of her gray shirt by the time she finished. Lolly was on a bench reading a magazine, already showered and dressed.
“Did you finish early?” Jess asked.
“No, Jessie girl, you finished late, but I thought I would let you take out that anger on the machine instead of me. Don’t worry, you’ll feel better tonight. You know that it always cheers you up.” Lolly winked and shifted her red lollipop around in her mouth. “I’m going to head over to Joe’s and grab us some coffee. I will meet you out front in fifteen.”
***
Jess nodded and hurried to the shower room. She had twenty minutes to get to work or face the wrath of the wicked witch. She showered and scrubbed her hair. She toweled off and rubbed her hair dry as well as she could. She braided the long strawberry mass and twisted it up into her usual bun. She hurried into a jade-green blouse and a pair of black dress pants with low-slung heels. If he saw her, at least she looked good. Damn him. She’d barely slept because of him. Why ask her out in the first place? Why hadn’t he just left her alone? Jess sniffled. She could’ve liked him. She could’ve had passion for him. He could’ve given her tingles in some places besides the small of her back. She nearly tripped over the loose carpet when she left the locker room, and cursed. Someone had duct taped it but it still caught her heel. She hurried across the floor to the front door and went outside with two minutes to spare.
***
James watched her from across the gym. Jess hadn’t noticed him and he stayed out of sight so he could watch her. She focused her laser beam concentration on the wall straight ahead of her. He’d never seen anyone push a stair climber that hard, and James would bet that she could crack walnuts with those thighs. Jeez, he wanted between them. She was incredible. He loved to see her sweaty with her skin dewy and her hair curled in wet tendrils around her face.
She was so damned beautiful and she was his, James resolved. She was his and he was not giving up on her. He watched her as he did a rep of arm curls. Lolly came out of the women’s locker room but didn’t see him. They hadn’t been introduced, but he knew who she was and her relationship to Jess. He also knew that she was standing in the doorway when he picked Jess up yesterday. He could smell that perfume a half-mile away. She went and sat on a bench behind Jess and pulled a magazine out of her bag. Jess was still at it, still whipping the machine into shape. The corner of his mouth lifted and he switched arms. She pushed the stop button and said a few words to her friend then hurried into the locker room.
God, he’d love to follow her in there and help her wash her workout off then massage her aching muscles. James adjusted his shorts and kept his eye on the door that she would exit from. When she came out of the locker room, she looked in his direction. Had she seen him? She hissed “Shit!” He was almost sure that she’d seen him on the free weights. He was going to try to ask her out again but wow! Shut down twice in less than twenty-four hours.
He shook his head and dropped the weights. She’d never noticed him before in here, but he’d watched her across this gym a hundred times. He preferred to observe her without her knowledge while he gathered his intel. He’d studied her patterns and finally gotten the coffee habit down pat. What she liked and what times during the day she would visit the coffee bar. It wasn’t easy while he was working, but he had it down to an art.
He knew she ate at Dan Dan’s twice a week, because he’d seen her go in a couple of times and then took up residence in the corner booth where he could watch her. It was easy to watch undetected because she rarely faced the world head on. He felt she was easily frightened, and all he wanted was to protect her and keep her safe from the world. She came in and picked up a takeout bag usually, but once she’d sat and eaten wonton soup, dim sum, and Mongolian beef. He was going to have to unlearn all of that if she truly did not want him. Her habits and haunts had become his. Now he would have to find new ones because she found something about him repulsive. He took a deep breath.
He didn’t understand it and had been certain that she was the one, his mate. Usually women fell at his feet, especially human women and definitely submissive women. Not this one though. “Uh no.” Wow. That was real jab to his ego. He picked up his towel, wiped the equipment, and watched the tall black woman hand his beautiful girl a tall mocha with two shots upside down. He knew what was in that cup. What he wouldn’t give to be the one to hand her the first cup of coffee every morning. He stalked to the locker room and punched a locker on his way through. There were other men in various stages of undress, but all of them gave him distance. He was big, he was a cop, and he was in a foul mood. Bad combo.
***
“Here’s your coffee. Now hurry up before you get into trouble and I will meet you in the garage after work to head over, okay?” Lolly gave her the cup. Jess hurried away, calling “Okay” over her shoulder. The witch was a real stickler for being on time.
At her desk with thirty seconds to spare, Jess sipped her coffee while her computer powered up.
“I didn’t get your project yesterday evening, Jessica.” The witch stuck her head in Jess’s doorway. She was really a perfectly charming woman, Jess supposed. She was in her early forties, had short black spiked hair and wasn’t awful to look at. She always looked as though she stepped off the cover of a magazine, and at least her previous five husbands must’ve liked her at some point. She had four children, all with different fathers, and Jess heard someone call her “the hooker” once. Yikes!
“I didn’t finish, but I will get to it this morning,” Jess said brightly.
“I told you that I needed it yesterday. You should’ve stayed late.” She scowled in that way that she had. It was a look that men never saw and was usually reserved only for Jess. Jess just didn’t understand why this woman never cut her any slack. She worked hard, took on extra projects, and always helped.
“I had something that I needed to do and I couldn’t stay late, but like I said, I will finish it this morning.” Jess could almost feel her backbone and steeled herself for what would certainly come. A workout usually made her more confident, and she was also still determined to grow a spine.
“If you can’t handle this job, Jessica, maybe we should find someone who can.”
Jess drew a deep breath. She was sick of people stepping all over her when she’d bent over backward to accommodate them. There would be no more crossing oceans for people who wouldn’t step over a puddle for her. Jess had had enough. She steeled herself and stiffened the backbone that she was trying to develop. Jess was in a fighting mood today and she let it fly.
“Ms. Lansing, I am sorry that I didn’t get it finished. I could’ve finished it with time to spare, but since I had to do payroll for three hundred employees, I ran out of time. If you want to reprimand someone, you should go to payroll. I don’t
mean to throw her under the bus, but I spent five hours doing her job. I skipped lunch, but as I said, I had an appointment and could not stay late. If that’s not good enough, then maybe you should find someone else that you can dump other people’s work on and abuse.” Jess stood up and started to gather her things. She had definitely had enough. Enough of this witch, enough of this job, and enough of men. Damn them all! Hello, backbone.
“Sit down and finish your project. I want it before lunch. I’m glad to see you finally stick up for yourself.” Ms. Lansing winked and left.
Jess flopped back down in her chair suddenly deflated and exhausted. Her new backbone disintegrated into jelly as she collapsed. Her heart was hammering and her hands were shaking with unspent adrenaline, but she’d stood up to the witch. That was close. She’d nearly quit. Oh my God!
“Well.” She sighed and smiled. “Take that,” she murmured and went to work. She would finish this project before lunch with no problem. There were only a couple of hours of work left to do and later tonight, payoff for a week well done.
Jess went for her three o’clock coffee ten minutes earlier than usual, hoping that she wouldn’t bump into James again like yesterday. A police officer was at the machine, and she started to back out of the room when she saw the uniform, but he was smaller and blond. He smiled at her and nodded as he left. Jess nodded back at him without looking at him. She made her coffee and went back to her office, slowly sipping the brew. At least the monster worked correctly today. Her project was complete, but she had a few things that she needed to order for different departments.
Her heart stopped when she came across the requisition for ammunition and practice targets. It had his name across the bottom. He’d touched this page. He’d signed it. Jess ran her finger over the signature. She sighed. He wasn’t as interested as she’d thought, and it was time to face that fact. If he were, he would’ve asked for another date when she wasn’t busy, and he certainly would’ve kissed her goodnight. Right?
Jessica researched his products, found three vendors, got three quotes, and ordered his supplies. “Moving on,” Jess sighed. She placed his paperwork in the done pile. When she finished ordering, she would stamp them all “complete” and send them back to their owners. Jessica finished sealing the last envelope when Lolly walked in, bringing her cloud of perfume with her. Jess gathered the envelopes so she could drop them into the central mailbox for distribution on Monday. She was glad that this week was over and behind her.
“Are you ready, Jessie girl?” Lolly gave her a gummy smile when Jess smiled and nodded. “Good, I’m ready to get my charity on. Let’s go.” Lolly had changed into her dark green sweats and hooded sweatshirt that said St. Francis in bright yellow over the left breast. Jess had her uniform in a tote bag and slipped into the restroom near the mail office.
Lolly waited in the foyer and leaned against the wall, sucking on her lollipop. Jess came out a few minutes later looking like Lolly’s shorter, paler twin. Her hair hung down her back in a long braid.
“Ready?” Lolly asked, and Jess nodded. “Your turn to drive.”
“I know. I know.” Jess hated to drive, but since it was her turn, she wouldn’t fight Lolly on it, and besides, if she drove them there, Lolly had to drive the van.
“Guess what I did today,” Jess said once they were inside of the Civic. Lolly looked at her curiously after buckling her seatbelt. “Ms. Lansing came in this morning to chew me out. She said that I should’ve stayed late to finish my project. I tried to explain that I had an appointment and she didn’t care, of course.”
“Of course she didn’t.” Lolly twirled her lollipop then crunched into it hatefully. Lolly didn’t like Ms. Lansing either.
Jessica pulled out of the garage and went left to head to St. Francis’s. “She said that maybe she should find someone else to do my job.”
Lolly gasped.
“I apologized and explained that I skipped lunch and tried to finish but I couldn’t stay. I think she should reprimand Carol, since she can never come to work on payroll day. Then I told her that maybe she should find someone else and I was going to leave. I really was. I am so tired of her chewing me out for sport.”
Jess turned down the street that would take them to the church. They were in a seedier part of town now. The bums sat right out on the sidewalk with their bottles wrapped in brown paper bags. Prostitutes congregated on corners, and there was a general malaise to the area. It always seemed darker here than in the rest of the city, and it didn’t matter if it was high noon.
Jess pulled into the parking lot behind the shelter. St. Francis’s was the huge Catholic church next door. Volunteers, priests, and nuns ran the shelter.
Lolly got out and tucked her purse under the front seat but kept her wallet with her. Jess did the same.
“She told me to finish the project, then said that she was proud of me for sticking up for myself, and then she winked at me. Can you believe that?”
Lolly grinned. “I’m proud of you, too.” Lolly held open the dark green fire door behind the little brick building. Jess looked up at the towering gray stone church next door. She’d always found the gargoyles that sat on watch around the top charming and frightening at the same time. The turrets and spires made it seem more like a castle than a church. She’d been inside of it once and it was truly beautiful. The pews gleamed from long hours of tired hands waxing them, the statues were perfect, and the stained-glass windows that day shone in jewel tones from the sunshine. The vaulted ceilings left her in awe. Jessica didn’t attend church since she did not practice a religion, but if she were to pick one, she would come here.
Jess went inside the squat brick building beside the church to find Father Mike, who ran the shelter. He gave them a wave and pointed to the trays already piled up on the cart against the wall of the industrial kitchen. She noticed he looked haggard today, but as usual he was managing the kitchen, staff, and volunteers. The man was tireless. She admired him for that. She looked around at the kitchen. Spotless as usual. Father Mike demanded it. Gleaming chrome appliances, plain white dishes, and plastic cups sat on brushed aluminum work surfaces that a local restaurant donated when they remodeled recently.
Father Mike was busy counseling a teenager who looked homeless. Jess’s heart clenched. The people who came here for help broke her heart. Jess and Lolly started loading the meal trays into the van that he had set aside for the disabled and older members of the church. These people did not get out. They had no one to look after them, and the people delivering the meals were the only humans they saw.
Jess grabbed two cups of coffee to go and took the keys to the van from the hook on the pegboard. It was Lolly’s turn to drive the van since Jess drove them to the shelter.
Lolly tried the ignition and it sprang to life. “Who’s first?” Lolly asked.
“Double trouble,” Jess said, looking at the route sheet.
Lolly grinned and stuck a fresh lollipop in her mouth.
Jess cracked the window and sipped her coffee. “Why isn’t Mrs. Jacobson on this list? I’ve been serving that sweet old girl for six years now. Hang on, I’ll be right back.”
Jess hopped out and jogged back inside the shelter. When she came out Lolly cringed. Jess was wiping tears from her cheeks. She climbed into her seat.
“She passed on Tuesday,” Jess said quietly and sniffled. That’s why Father Mike looked the way he did. Mrs. Jacobson was his favorite aunt and she was Jess’s favorite person to visit. New tears ran down her cheeks, and Lolly passed her a tissue from the box in the console. “No one called me. Father Mike said that they are cremating her tomorrow, but there won’t be a ceremony. It’s what she wanted. He said that nobody came to see her in her old age, so nobody needed to come see her dead except him. I went to see her every Friday night for the last…” Jess broke down in sobs, and Lolly patted her back then hugged her. Jess wiped her nose and stared out of the passenger window.
The van lumbered quietly to Eighth Street
to the small run-down apartment complex where Mr. Thompson and Mr. Fitzpatrick lived.
“Which do you want?” Jess asked when the van stopped. She stuffed her tissue in her jacket pocket. “I’ll take Jerry and you can have the horny leprechaun,” she giggled.
“It’s not funny.” Lolly scowled. “He’s quicker than you think, and I am not his damn Nubian princess.”
Jess laughed again and got the tray that she would deliver to Mr. Fitzpatrick. Jess ran the tray up the three flights of stairs to apartment C. He immediately looked past her for Lolly and was clearly disappointed to find only Jess. Jess carried the tray into the small, depressing apartment. A low couch that was once gold but now brown cowered against one wall. A long Formica coffee table covered in old newspaper stood sentry before it. The parquet floor needed scrubbing, the area rugs needed to meet a vacuum, and the TV was a console straight out of the seventies. The apartment smelled like cherry pipe tobacco, but she’d never seen him smoke one.
“How are you, sir?” Jess smiled brightly.
“All right, I guess. I was hoping to see Lolly today. I look forward to that, you know.”
Jess nodded and retrieved yesterday’s tray from the counter.
“What did you bring me?” Mr. Fitzpatrick did look like a leprechaun, Lolly was right. He was diminutive, redheaded, and bearded. He even smoked a pipe. All he needed was a green hat, suit, and pointed shoes and he could be the Notre Dame mascot.
“I brought you the Salisbury steak today, sir—mashed potatoes, green beans, and some vanilla pudding, all of your favorites.” Jess smiled. “Is there anything I can do for you, sir?” She looked around hoping he would let her straighten up, but no.
“Nah, I’m good, Jess. Next time, will you send Lolly up? I like to see her face.” He really looked disappointed, and Jess felt bad for him. She should make Lolly come up here and say hello. Mrs. Jacobson was still weighing heavily on her mind.
“Will do, sir.” Jess headed for the door with the empty tray. “If you do need anything, please call, sir.”
