by Mimi Grace
Nicole’s pregnancy was unexpected. The fact that she was pregnant so soon after landing a good job was less than ideal, but if anyone could juggle pregnancy, motherhood, and a busy work schedule it was Nicky.
“It would be the least weird thing that’s shown up in our building,” Yvonne said.
They looked at each other and laughed, simultaneously recalling how Jasmine from HR brought her iguana to the office for a few days while maintenance work was done in her home. Unfortunately, nobody knew about this temporary addition, and a few coworkers had found the reptile perched on the kitchen counter in the break room. Chaos ensued and panicked calls to animal control were made till Jasmine was able to explain the situation.
They were still laughing, and Jolene clutched at Yvonne’s arm. “Stop making me laugh, my mascara is going to run. I can’t look like a hot mess today.”
Yvonne and Jolene made their way back from a quick coffee run to a big meeting with their boss and a few potential sponsors who came to talk about the logistics of Essential Essence Apothecary. Jolene needed to be alert and a bit bubblier than she usually was because at least one of the representatives responded well to dynamic presentations.
“Hey, you’ll do fine,” Yvonne said, noting her sudden nervous demeanor.
“God, I know. I just don’t want to mess it up even a little bit.”
They rode the elevator to their company’s floor. When they stepped out, the usually sweet receptionist, Taylor, responded meekly to their greetings. Jolene should’ve known then that something was off, but if not with that, then perhaps she should’ve known when she noticed the lack of loitering interns.
“Is it me or is it very quiet in here?” Yvonne asked.
Jolene nodded as they turned a corner and found several of their colleagues, specifically the ones working on the Essential Essence Apothecary account, standing in front of their boss’s closed office door. Fred, the graphic designer, had his ear pressed up against the door.
“What are you guys doing?” Jolene asked.
Three pairs of eyes turned to them, their faces grim and strained. Before Jolene could interrogate them further, the big door opened to reveal their boss, Craig Able. He looked displeased. His thick eyebrows pressed closely together as he studied them like he was some sort of Spanish bull and they a flailing red sheet.
“Everybody in,” Mr. Able said.
All five of them quickly scurried into their boss’s office and the spacious room with a large desk and generic paintings on the wall grew stuffy. The mechanical drone of the air conditioner did nothing but heighten the tension in the room. Craig Able was a short, solid-looking man who Jolene wouldn’t be surprised to learn smoked expensive cigars and collected watches. He stood behind his desk, leaning heavily on his muscular arms.
“Where’s Miss Baxter?”
Jolene raised her hand from her place against the door and squeezed past her coworkers to the front of the group.
“Tell me why I just got off the phone with Jessica Langley from Essential Essence Apothecary who informed me that she’s firing us as her PR reps?”
Dizziness hit Jolene so fast and hard, it shocked her that she didn’t find herself sprawled on the carpet.
“Wait, what do you mean?” Jolene asked, the words coming out in a rush.
Mr. Able set his eyes dead on her. “What words in that sentence didn’t you understand?”
She shook her head and remained silent. What was going on? She had just spoken to Jessica and Carmen yesterday about this meeting, everything sounded good. Nobody was agitated. The backlash from the video had been taken care of. Sure, pasta emojis still appeared on their personal and business social media timelines, but it didn’t overshadow the positive feedback and response their brand received.
“Does anyone have an explanation, since your leader seems to have lost her ability to speak?”
This couldn’t be happening.
“Sir, I have no idea where this has come from. I just spoke with Jessica and Carmen yesterday, and they didn’t express any misgivings, but I’ll contact them right away and figure this out.”
“Miss Baxter, this is the biggest contract you’ve ever led, and I thought you could handle it.”
“I can, sir—”
“Evidently not, because you no longer have clients,” he said. The room seemed to vibrate at the sound of his voice.
“I’ll fix this.” She would. If she had to literally beg Essential Essence Apothecary to take them back, she would do it. And if she had to be sweeter to Jessica and coddle the obviously egotistical woman, she would. Her eyes stung as tears threatened to spill, but she pressed her fingernails into the palm of her hand. She would not cry in front of this man.
“Make sure you do,” Mr. Able said as he lowered himself into his chair. “Now, get out of my office.”
As they left the room, Jolene felt the sympathetic glances of her colleagues. They knew how hard she’d been working to keep their testy clients happy.
Yvonne grabbed her hand. “Babe—”
“No, it’s fine. I just need a moment. I’ll email everyone with a plan once I figure one out,” she managed to say.
Trying not to run or start wailing in the middle of the hallway, Jolene got to the restroom as fast as she could. Looking in the mirror above the sink, she expected tears to come but they didn’t. Instead, she stared at herself for a long minute.
“You’re going to fix this.”
There wasn’t any time to lick wounds or feel sorry for herself. She held her hands under cold water until she could no longer stand it. She dried them and put her now cold hands against her face and neck. Once in her office, she kicked off her heels and removed her blazer. She had work to do.
The July long weekend had snuck up on everyone. Jason had expected to spend it near a grill, but instead, he waited in line for drinks for his mom and aunt. They’d convinced him to extend his duties as an unpaid chauffeur and actually attend the opera with them. There was a backlog, and many of those who had ordered drinks were left to stand to the side and wait for their orders to be fulfilled.
“Popular show, isn’t it?” asked a meticulously dressed man beside him.
Jason inwardly groaned. He didn’t feel up to making small talk with a stranger at the moment, but he nodded and looked out at the foyer full of people waiting to be let into the auditorium.
“Personally, I’d rather be at a bar or something, but the things you do for women,” the man said as he adjusted the cuffs on his expensive suit.
Jason nodded and gave a smile that he hoped didn’t come off as a grimace.
“And, of course, she’s being the social butterfly I love,” he said, pointing to a group of people.
Already weary of the conversation, but determined not to be completely aloof, Jason cast a polite glance in the general direction the man pointed in. But Jason was taken aback when in his casual perusal of the foyer, he caught sight of Jolene standing with a group of women in their sixties and seventies.
He felt something leap in his chest. She wore a black cocktail dress with an asymmetrical neckline, and her curly hair was now straight and held in a high ponytail.
The man had not stopped talking, but it no longer grated on Jason’s nerves. The stranger talked about the acoustics of the auditorium and how he ended up with some of the best seats in the place. Jason continued to watch Jolene, and when she looked up, they made direct eye contact. His pulse picked up in the base of his throat. He must’ve imagined the way her eyes lit up as she raised her hand to wave at him.
He and the man next to him waved simultaneously.
“You know Jojo?” the man asked.
Jason noticed that the man had stepped closer to him and watched as Jolene made her way toward them. Her dress hugged her hips and legs, making her strides shorter than usual. Immediately he envisioned himself peeling the dress off of her heated body and replacing it with his hands and tongue.
“Yes. Family friends,” Jason
responded.
Was this man Jolene’s friend or work associate? Jason now really hoped that he hadn’t come off cold.
“Ah, so you’re probably familiar with how stubborn she is.” The man nudged him on his arm with an elbow. “But it’s just a matter of time.”
Sure, Jason knew Jolene was willful, but it confused him why this man pointed this out to him, a virtual stranger. A nagging feeling at the back of Jason’s neck ticked. “Sorry, just a matter of time?”
The man looked over to Jason. “Until Jojo admits she has feelings for me.”
Jason’s heart met his stomach at the base of his feet.
“She’s playing hard to get,” the man explained. “We once went to that French restaurant in the west side. I would highly recommend, by the way. We could barely keep our hands off each other long enough to eat our food. Thank God the car I used that night had roomy back seats.”
The cocky smile on the man’s face was the last straw.
“Excuse me,” Jason said as he bypassed the man and walked to the standing tables at the side of the foyer where his mother and aunt were waiting for the drinks he had abandoned.
“Jason, baby. What’s wrong? Where are our drinks?” his mom asked.
His aunt touched his face with the back of her hand. “You look a little gray.”
“It’s nothing. Sorry. The line was extremely long.” He grabbed his aunt’s hand and squeezed it tenderly. “I’ll take you guys somewhere after the show.”
He tried to temper down the feeling of hurt that bubbled within him. He knew Jolene wouldn’t break their agreement to exclusively sleep with one another until their arrangement was over, but he never thought she might currently be interested in someone else.
“That’s okay.” His mom shifted to see beyond his hulking torso. “Oh, Jolene.”
The woman who was wreaking havoc on his internal equilibrium appeared next to him. She smelled of her trademark mango and coconut, and he clenched his jaw at the assault of the scent.
“Hi, Ms. Elizabeth.” She gave his aunt a hug and did the same to his mom. “Hi, Ms. Nadine. How are you two?”
They engaged in small talk and his aunt and mom told her that this night out would be part of a future podcast episode. Jolene looked engaged and amiable as always, but she didn’t acknowledge him at all.
“Where are your seats this evening?” Jolene asked.
His aunt showed her their tickets.
“I have really good seats, some of the best in the auditorium. I can trade with you. You two can sit in my and my friend Yvonne’s seats.”
“Oh, no, you deserve to experience what you paid for,” his mom said.
“Don’t worry. Yvonne’s girlfriend is playing the part of Dido, so we got a discount on our tickets.” Jolene was already taking the tickets from his aunt and placing the higher quality tickets in their stead. “Plus, we’ll also be attending the show on closing night.”
“Do you mind?” Aunt Liza asked him. He caught on then that she’d been watching him intently. He wasn’t exactly exuding calm or any reasonable expression when it came to their current conversation. It was the question that finally drew Jolene’s gaze up to his. She looked a little tired. Her eyes weren’t as bright or expressive as they usually were. He squashed the impulse to draw her into his embrace.
“No, not at all,” he said.
Jolene guided his mom and aunt in the right direction of their new auditorium entrance. He similarly walked toward his own entrance and mentally planned what he would say to Jolene when he called off their arrangement. He’d prefer to do it through text, but she deserved an in-person conversation. He’d have to check when he was available to meet her somewhere. Before he could make it to his auditorium door, Jolene intercepted his path and grabbed his forearm with a surprisingly firm grip and dragged him to the corridor of a nearby stairwell.
“Okay, whose pet did I kidnap?” she asked. She stood with her hands on her hips and her brows slightly furrowed.
Not one to mince words or play some coy game, Jason said, “Are you interested in dating someone else? Not that we’re dating or that it really matters, but I don’t want to be used to make someone you’re actually interested in jealous.”
Her back straightened and the furrow in her brow deepened. “What? Where is this coming from?”
Jason nodded toward where he and that man had been standing near the bar. “That man in the nice suit—”
“Mark?”
“Sure. He seems to be under the impression that you two are fated lovers or something.”
She let out a choked sound. “He said that?”
“More or less.”
“And you believed him?” She looked pissed now. “Oh my God.”
“You haven’t done anything wrong, I just—” What did he want? She wasn’t dating Mark at the moment, but the idea that she simply bided time with him till she was ready to commit to Mark bothered him. A lot. He didn’t know why, and he definitely couldn’t tell her that. It sounded irrational and possessive.
She pinched the bridge of her nose. “He’s someone I work with sometimes. I went out with him once when I first started working at Able & Quinn years ago. We didn’t even kiss. I wasn’t interested. But I didn’t know he was going around claiming we’re soul mates.”
And just like that, Jason regretted everything. “Jolene, I’m sorry. It was none of my business, but I should’ve asked you about it instead of getting weird.”
She stared at him for a long moment, and before the hardness in her face could soften, the buzz in the foyer got noticeably softer, indicating people were being let into the auditorium.
“We should take our seats,” she said.
She didn’t wait to see if he followed as she walked to their entrance. And because of the seat reshuffling several minutes earlier, he now sat beside Jolene and Yvonne. If the opera singers had done cartwheels across the stage, he wouldn’t have noticed. He managed only to stew on the guilt he had for offending someone he really liked.
Jolene was stuck sitting next to Jason during her friend’s opera. Her annoyance with Jason was nothing like the rage she felt for Mark, and from where she sat, she could see him sitting a few rows in front of her. She had the fleeting thought that she should’ve been more assertive when she rebuffed Mark’s interest, but she dashed the idea away because she’d been clear. Mark had been the one who’d decided to ignore her signals. She felt hot with the mix of anger and embarrassment that surfaced when she thought about Mark misleading their mutual friends and acquaintances. How many people did she know who believed her and Mark were in some type of relationship?
Instead of concentrating on the way Yvonne’s girlfriend, Diana, perfectly played the soprano part of Dido, she fumed. When it wasn’t about Mark, it was about how disappointed she was with Jason for doubting her. For making her feel horrible even if it were momentary. Because when she’d spotted him across the foyer, she nearly sank into the floor when she recognized the look he gave her. It was the same one he’d given her throughout the years, full of coldness and distance. She hadn’t appreciated till then how she’d become accustomed to the playful glint in his eye that let her know he was ready to verbally spar with her.
The last few weeks she’d been feeling frazzled, having to deal with her work setback, and she thought she at least had one aspect of her life in order. This fight, unlike the numerous squabbles they’d had before, felt more personal and real. She and Jason would most likely discuss this in some long, drawn-out conversation. She hated big, serious discussions about states of relationships. She had dozens of them throughout her short-lived marriage. They were just emotional excavations that left her feeling nauseous and even more confused with the status of the relationship.
For now, she had to tolerate sitting next to him for the next two hours. His body, too big for the smallish theatre seats, brushed up against her. If her dress weren’t so restrictive, she might’ve crossed her legs or leaned into the side
where Yvonne sat.
Diana ended the aria she sang, and Jolene clapped diligently; however, she had a pang of guilt over not giving her friend’s performance her undivided attention. But after a tense intermission and more impressive singing, the opera ended and Jolene was ready to hightail it out of there before she had to interact with Jason further.
However, she had to say goodnight to Ms. Elizabeth and Ms. Nadine, and she also had to wait for Yvonne and Diana who she was giving a ride home. So, they all stood in a circle in the entranceway that other opera attendees vacated.
“That was fantastic, wasn’t it, Elizabeth?” Ms. Nadine asked.
Ms. Elizabeth nodded, pressing her hands to her chest. “Exquisite.”
They gushed over particular performers and were delighted to meet Diana when she finally emerged from backstage. The petite opera singer with dark, lush, wavy hair and arresting eyes met her girlfriend with a kiss and took the praise with grace.
“Di, this is Elizabeth and Nadine. They’re”—she briefly looked at Jason—“family friends.”
“We would love if you would join us on an episode of our podcast,” Ms. Nadine said almost immediately.
“I would enjoy that. It would have to wait till the season is done, though.”
During this exchange, Jolene and Jason stood awkwardly apart, listening and nodding and smiling where appropriate. She caught Yvonne’s eye and with telepathy that had been built and fortified through years of friendship, Jolene sent out an SOS signal.
“It’s getting late, we should really be heading out,” Yvonne said soon after.
“Oh, yes.” Ms. Nadine looked at her smartwatch. “It is.” They all said their farewells, and Jolene briefly made eye contact with Jason. He looked as if he wanted to say something to her and he actually might have, if she hadn’t averted her eyes. The family finally disappeared from their view.
Jolene hugged Diana. “You’re the best Dido I’ve ever seen.”
“This is literally your first time seeing the opera,” Diana said as she returned the hug and laughed.
