by Mimi Grace
“An irrelevant technicality.”
“I’m just going to use the restroom before we go,” Diana said.
Yvonne had been studying Jolene and finally asked, “Girl, what’s going on?”
Suddenly feeling drained from the things falling apart in her life, Jolene closed her eyes. “I don’t want to get into it tonight.”
“Fine. Just don’t bottle it up too long, okay?”
Jolene nodded and gave her friend a reassuring smile. She would tackle this problem later. For now, she wanted to wallow in misery.
Chapter 18
Jason had been running a lot in the past week. The problem with that was he wasn’t a runner, at least not a long-distance runner. Give him a football or a Frisbee and he could make it down a field, otherwise it was a no-go. He kept his fitness up by lifting weights and running sprints on the treadmill. But he’d chosen to forsake his God-given sense and pick up the habit because it was the only way he found he could sleep through the night. Without it, he’d wake up hours before his alarm was set to go off to rub one out because of a vivid sex dream he had about Jolene.
He lived in hell wanting someone so much but having to fight the impulse to contact her. There’d been several times he’d been a click away from ordering a bouquet of gardenias to Jolene’s office. He stopped short every time only because it struck him how presumptuous it was. He’d already apologized the night of the opera, and her silence was answer enough. He had to respect and accept that. But that left him biding his time until that weird longing for Jolene’s company went away.
It was only now that Jason fully grasped how his hookups with Jolene had disrupted his schedule. He no longer needed to reshuffle workouts and spending time with his family to find time to hang out with Jolene. That should’ve made settling back into his long-standing routine easier, but dissatisfaction nagged at him more than it had when he realized his life was stagnant. He’d finally left his comfort zone and discovered that he liked being there.
To battle this new restlessness, he’d tried eating dinner in the park across the street from his apartment instead of in front of the television. But it only helped the first time he tried it. The search to find respite in what had become a too-restrictive routine was why he currently sat in a bar with the staff from the clinic for happy hour. The fact he rarely socialized with them was clear because he failed to find any of the jokes and stories they told funny. He stirred the ice cubes in his glass with his straw and tried to pick up the song that played over the chatter in the bar.
Janet, a dental hygienist, noticed that Jason was out of the loop. “Dr. Akana, I can’t believe you actually came out with us.”
The party of eight turned to him as if just realizing that it hadn’t been a hallucination when he accepted their invitation for drinks and appetizers. Jason took a sip of his water and smiled, not really knowing how to respond to the obvious assertion that he was somewhat of a loner.
“He’s probably sick of us always asking and decided to just throw us a bone and grace us with his presence,” Malcolm, a fellow dentist said.
Jason laughed with everyone else. “Trust me, you’re the only one besides maybe my mother who wants to be around me right now.”
Jolene walked into the meeting with Carmen and Jessica determined not to look defeated. She’d worn her best suit and a pair of heels that made her stand taller than some men in the office. With her, she brought a single piece of paper that outlined additional services she suspected the apothecary owners were looking for.
“All right, let’s hear it,” Jessica said once they were all seated in a boardroom at Able & Quinn.
Jolene looked between the two women. Carmen maintained a blank expression, probably trying to avoid undermining the negotiations with her usual sympathetic glances. Jessica, well, she was doing her best impression of an intimidating Robert De Niro character.
“First, I’d like to hear from you why you fired us,” Jolene said, placing her hands on the desk.
Jessica leaned back into the seat and crossed her arms. “I didn’t think you were serious about our campaign.”
Jolene clenched her teeth and took a moment before saying, “How so?”
“I wasn’t seeing results.”
There was evidence Jolene could provide that showed the effectiveness of her work, but statistics and numbers were not going to win her back this account. “You’re building a brand. Recognition won’t happen overnight unless you know Oprah or you are Oprah. But despite that, I’ve done a good job boosting your visibility.”
Carmen shifted in her seat.
Jolene needed them to see they’d be lost without her. She was the life buoy they were inconveniently leaving behind to venture into unknown waters. “You’re supposed to launch in seven weeks, who do you think knows your company and customers enough to pull it off?”
Carmen sat up straight and said, “We do.”
The tension in Jolene’s jaw was building. She’d debated what tactic to use during this meeting, and she realized that Carmen might respond to a more gentle approach but Jessica wouldn’t. And they all knew who was running the show.
“Are you willing to take that gamble?” Jolene asked. “You are experts on the products you sell, but are you confident enough in your ability to convince other people to care about your brand and company?” She let the silence hang for a beat. “Because I am.”
Carmen nervously looked at her partner. Jessica had taken to tapping a furious rhythm on the table with her fingers.
Jolene let them sit with their thoughts, hoping doubt swirled within them.
“I need people to stop hating me,” Jessica finally said.
Jolene let out a breath. It was as she thought. Jessica’s ego was taking a beating from all the social media backlash, and she was disappointed that Jolene hadn’t made it disappear.
Jolene slid the paper she’d brought with her in front of the women. “We can work on that.”
Later that day, Jolene found herself in another difficult spot trying to keep her butt in the air in a downward dog position. Yvonne effortlessly maintained the pose with her lithe frame.
“And we’re going to stay here for a while. Peddle your legs and feel the muscles in your calves stretch. Go back to your intention whenever you feel like you’re collapsing,” the yoga instructor said from her place at the front of the room.
Jolene had succeeded in regaining Essential Essence Apothecary as clients. There would be more TV and radio appearances to further counter the public’s perception of Jessica. Jolene had been able to book a last-minute segment on the morning news for a few days from now that would highlight the rise of local women-owned businesses.
“I’m trying to see how I can spend the least amount of time with Jessica and Carmen,” Jolene said. She kept her voice low and peeked under her armpit to look at Yvonne.
They moved into some position called warrior pose that made Jolene’s legs wobble. Yvonne opened one eye and looked at her. “Are you sure you don’t want me to go instead?”
“Yes, I’m sure—”
There was a shushing sound from someone upfront.
Jolene lowered her voice even more. “It’s a simple TV interview. I might have to get lunch with them, but I’ll be back in the office early afternoon.”
“You have an entire team behind you if something comes up. Remember that.”
They transitioned into cobra pose.
“And if you just want to vent and bitch. Call me,” Yvonne said.
Jolene hoisted herself the best she could into a downward dog once again, feeling appreciative of Yvonne’s support over the past two weeks. In fact, all her colleagues had been great. It was the type of professional but kind work environment she wished existed throughout the company. If she ever got her dream PR firm started, that would be something she would work to foster.
The chaos at work had left her too emotionally drained to think about Jason and how awkward they’d left things. Whatever t
hey had going on prior to the night of the opera no longer existed. That should’ve been fine; Jolene’s arrangement with Jason was supposed to be casual and temporary anyway. But despite her best intentions, their interactions hadn’t felt like an appendage to her regular life. They’d felt weirdly intertwined and important. So, here she was, in a lopsided tree pose, wishing she’d called him a few days after the opera.
“Thank you, girl,” Jolene said her voice catching a bit.
Yvonne looked over, squinting in the low-lit studio. “You better not be crying during yoga. If you start, I’ll start.”
“I’m a cold-hearted zombie. I don’t cry.”
Yvonne snorted a little too loudly, receiving another hush from somewhere in the room. “That’s what you want the world to think.”
Anthony stood in front of Jason and a few of the other community center kids who had been willing to sit and give Anthony feedback on his presentation for the science competition. He ran through his hypothesis and evidence; it was clear and persuasive. Jason nodded throughout the monologue, following along, and trying to access the dormant knowledge on introductory chemistry. He clapped once Anthony bowed.
“Yeah, I don’t know what the hell you said, but you sounded smart as shit,” said a boy around twelve years old named Christopher who hadn’t looked up from his phone the entire time Anthony presented.
“I think you’ll win,” said Trisha, a fourteen-year-old with braids and braces.
“Good job, Anthony,” the program coordinator said from her place where she monitored the rest of the kids running around the gymnasium.
Anthony looked expectantly at Jason, waiting for his critique.
“You have an interesting experiment with a competent hypothesis. Your evidence and explanation of it were thorough. It’s really good. But I think your presentation could be improved.”
The young man shuffled where he stood and waited for Jason to expand on his point. If Jason had learned anything about PR from spending time with Jolene, it was that presentation and how you’re perceived could do a lot of the legwork in convincing an audience to invest or take interest in your brand, or in Anthony’s case, his argument.
Jason left the wooden bench he sat on with the rest of the kids. He moved toward Anthony’s neat, but simple poster paper. “You could use more colors for the different sections. It’ll help you stand out in a sea of black-and-white font at the competition.”
Anthony nodded, understanding.
“Also, when you present and recite your information try to pause and look up once in a while. Nobody wants to stare at the top of your head.”
“I get nervous, man.”
“Practice your speech till you don’t even have to think about what you’re saying anymore. It’ll help.”
“My teacher told me to look at the audience’s foreheads instead of in their eyes,” a girl named Danielle offered.
Jason pointed to Danielle. “That’s a good tip. Also, you can hold the Wonder Woman pose for a few minutes”—Jason demonstrated by putting his hands on his hips and throwing his shoulders back—“before getting in front of the judges. Studies show that it’ll make you feel more confident.”
Anthony looked skeptically at Jason. “I don’t know, man, sounds like some fluff psychology.”
Jason raised his hands. “Listen, you’ve got nothing to lose by trying it out.”
Anthony let out an exhausted breath. Jason was tempted to emphatically declare that he’d win, but he knew he couldn’t make that assertion.
“Can we leave now?” Christopher asked, directing the question at Anthony.
Anthony shrugged and the bench cleared.
“All you can do is be well prepped and put your best foot out there,” Jason said. He encouragingly patted Anthony on the back. “And lucky for you I’m a perfectionist, so I have a few more things you can improve upon.”
Anthony gave him a nod and a smile. “Okay, I’m listening.”
Later that evening, Jason arrived home from his evening run. His shirt was soaked and his heartbeat still erratic, but the session had been the fastest he’d run since he started his bizarre “get over Jolene” regimen. It had been a long day. In addition to volunteering, he’d also performed wisdom teeth extractions on two different patients. He enjoyed the process. It was a little bit of an art. But he’d made the mistake of once mentioning that to a patient when he first started practicing. It didn’t really comfort people to know their dentist enjoyed a process that would probably cause them discomfort for several weeks to come.
He was slowly getting back into the groove of everything. And he’d finally succumbed to Mrs. Bayuk’s suggestions he go out with her granddaughter, and they had a date scheduled for tomorrow. He removed his headphones from his ears and let his music fill his kitchen as he chugged his protein shake and stretched his hamstrings and quads. The EDM music he preferred to run to was suddenly replaced with the ring of an incoming call. Without looking at the caller ID, he picked up the phone. His mother was the only one who’d call him at this time.
“Hellooo,” he said, drawing out the word in the way his mom usually answered her own calls.
“Hi, Jason?”
Jolene.
Her voice, the way she said his name. It was like he’d been wandering a desert and had just gotten his first sip of water. He savored the sound for a moment, but failed to find his voice, his brain trying different conclusions on for size instead. Had she forgiven him? Was she still annoyed?
Dammit.
“I’m sorry to bother you. And I know we left on bad terms. I wouldn’t be calling if it weren’t important. And I’ll completely understand if you don’t want to talk to me right now—”
“Jolene, what is it?” His heartbeat refused to slow down.
“I need the biggest favor, and I don’t know if it’s something you’re even allowed to do.” She took an audible breath in. “I have clients. They’re supposed to appear on live TV tomorrow, but they mixed up the radio and TV interview dates. And that wouldn’t be a big deal except”—she took another breath—“one of them planned to get her teeth whitened before the TV interview because she couldn’t stand how they looked the first time she appeared on TV.”
She spoke so fast. He could hear how anxious she was, and he had the intense desire to see her and soothe her.
“She’s threatening to not show up. Which would mess up everything. And so this is where I ask you: Can you do an emergency teeth whitening? I know it’s technically not a dental emergency, but it’s a career emergency.”
He let her words settle in him. Processing everything she said. And even before he articulated anything, he knew he would help her.
“What time is the interview tomorrow?”
“Eleven o’clock.”
“My first patient arrives at eight o’clock,” he said, mentally seeing what he needed to do to make this work. “Your client will have to come in before we’re officially open at 6:30 a.m. It will take ninety minutes to complete the procedure, and by the time it’s complete, the receptionists will have started for the day and can go through billing everything.”
“Thank you, Jason.” There was emotion in her voice she failed to hide.
Jason grabbed the back of the chair in his kitchen. “You’ll be there too, I’m assuming?”
“Yes. I’ll be there as well.”
His heart soared, and he took several seconds to compose himself. He didn’t want to make her wary of seeing him again. They said goodbye, and Jason called the owner of the clinic and let him know he would be doing a teeth-whitening treatment before the clinic opened. Then he made an alert on his phone to pick up donuts for the receptionists.
He settled into bed after taking a shower and eating a dinner he didn’t really taste. He had worked out and had a busy day at the clinic and that would usually grant him a dreamless night. But he did dream that night. Nothing sexy, but it was as if his brain had finally been given permission to once again think of
the beautiful woman with a smile and spunk that could light up a room. His Jolene dry spell was almost over.
Chapter 19
Jolene sat in the parking lot of Nottingham Dental, anxious and wary. She looked at her image in the front viewing camera of her phone for the third time, making sure she looked all right. She glanced at the car parked beside her. Jessica and Carmen sat there waiting for the dentist she had dismissed quite strictly a fortnight ago. They were the only cars in the complex that held Jason’s dental office, a coffee shop, a gas station, and a small grocery store.
She had almost gone off on Jessica for her stubbornness about her teeth having to be whitened. She had pushed and pleaded with Jessica to reconsider, but the woman had felt some type of way at the few comments that had mentioned her teeth on her last TV appearance and wouldn’t budge. She even pulled the “I can call Mr. Able and see what he has to say about this” card, and Jolene had racked her brain for solutions. She had thought about whitening strips and toothpaste you get at the drugstore, but Jessica insisted they weren’t strong enough.
Then the solution appeared in her head like a gopher popping out of a hole in the ground. The dread of having to explain everything overshadowed the thrill of relief that passed through her. How would she ask for a favor from someone she hadn’t accepted an apology from? She’d half expected Jason to hang up on her or at least scoff at her attempt. But he hadn’t. He hadn’t even sounded amused or self-satisfied at her groveling. He had simply offered a solution. She pressed her head into the steering wheel, willing for the day to go at turbo speed. The dry bagel and orange juice she had for breakfast had settled weirdly in her stomach.
A soft tap interrupted her thoughts. She jolted and looked out. And there he was, her knight in blue scrubs at six a.m. She’d never seen him in his work garb. It was appealing and sexy. Like he could be part of one of those medical dramas where everyone is hot and sleeps with one another. He stepped back, allowing her to exit her vehicle.
