If there was one thing Elise was a stickler for, it had to be time and attendance.
One day? Sure, take care of whatever you’ve got going on, and don’t get the rest of her staff sick. Two days? Two consecutive days missed? You were really pushing it. Pressing your luck. Practically asking for Elise to micromanage you out of the place.
More than two unplanned, inconsiderate, flipping days? Unheard of.
No one had ever lived to see three or more days and tell about it.
On the books, it was always a voluntary resignation or some other legal designation that absolved Elise of fault. But anyone who had ever worked for her knew she had ways of helping people find the exit. Add in a banker asking for a promotion, and Julie might as well blackball herself from the whole industry.
The case of indigestion was one thing because Julie had shown up for work, but the dang treadmill debacle had put Julie on the radar. There was no time to haggle with a hangover and shot nerves over meeting Mrs. Farfalla. Especially, not when Julie was going to need to fake some kind of rare disease to be able to make the interviews for the branch manager opening.
Julie rushed home to shower, change clothes, and scrub her foul mouth clean. Thank goodness it was Friday. She needed a Friday in her life. Although Julie had just survived mind-blowing sex and body-breaking orgasms, she had had some uber-epic fails lately, and Nico had been around to witness all of them. Still, she didn’t dare ask what else could go wrong. The universe would find a new way of answering her. It had made a believer out of her.
If she was going to do this—this whatever it was that was brewing between her and Nico—Julie had decided she was done with the pretenses and putting on a brave face. He’d have to take her, foot-in-mouth disease and all.
After nearly an hour of the brain-numbing thud-swish of windshield wipers, Julie pulled her car into a space facing the branch. She watched as Elise entered the building and inspected every inch before putting up the all-clear signal.
Elise had laid down the law yesterday in a novel-length text message. From the first few sentences, Julie was discovering that her days on easy street were a thing of the past. Next week, after the long Memorial Day holiday weekend, Julie would be at Kid Savers to fulfill Elise’s community service requirement with the bank. The week after that, the shit would hit the fan.
Between her days filled with shadowing, coaching, cold calls, portfolio management, and the new progressive goals Elise had set for her, Julie had her work cut out for her. Really, what was she waiting on? Now, more than ever, it had become apparent that she ought to consider other employment options, and quickly.
Sometime after Elise had outlined the guidelines for Kid Savers and Julie had demonstrated how to reset an online-banking password for the umpteenth customer of the day, her cell phone vibrated against the inside of her desk drawer. A message from Nico.
On the outside, her face was blank. On the inside, slippery wet images of them in the shower scrolled through her mind, and she was all gooey and doing her happy dance.
She swiped at the message and touched her finger to the widget to unlock the screen.
Nico: Can I see you tomorrow?
They were the words Julie wanted to hear, but she’d hoped he wanted to see her tonight. Maybe for dinner or drinks. Better yet, there were at least three new movies at the theater she’d been dying to see.
Movies?
Julie remembered she’d promised to visit her mom. She’d sounded so excited about cooking together and getting the Laurich Girls back together for a good romance movie marathon.
But, she didn’t have to stay the whole night.
Julie: What time are you thinking?
The three ellipses bounced onto the screen and settled there for a moment, then they disappeared. This was the root of all Julie’s mixed emotions with texting. It was great if you wanted to get a quick message across, or if you didn’t want to talk to a long-winded person. On the flip side, so much could be read into a series of letters, punctuations, and emojis.
Nico had read her message, but he was either crafting a two-page text, or he was hesitating. But why? He’d asked to see her tomorrow.
Julie’s mother’s voice rang in the back of her mind. Something about paying for the milk when he could have the cow for free.
Dammit.
As the ellipses disappeared a second time, Julie bit her lip and tried her hardest not to read so much into the message Nico had sent without sending a word. He could be doing anything. He could be using the bathroom, or eating. Maybe he had another call.
She cursed her need for instant gratification. Her patience, or lack there of. The waiting was killing her. Just as she was about to turn off the ringer and stuff the phone back in her desk, a chime pinged.
Nico: If you have plans, it’s okay.
Was that doubt she heard? Now he sounded like her.
Julie: I just promised I’d hang out with my mom for a bit. How about 7:30?
Nico: It’s a date.
Julie exhaled a breath she hadn’t noticed she’d been holding and gave a small fist pump. Yes. She looked around the branch and no one seemed to notice her on her phone. Elise was still in her office being frigid and evil. The tellers each had clients at their windows, and no one was waiting in the lobby to be helped by her.
A smile tugged at her lips as she allowed herself to revel in the exciting premise of what they might do tomorrow night. As the image of the previous night flooded back to her, Julie panicked. Shit.
Julie: Mind if we stick with food this time?
Nico: Lol. Nope. I’ve got something planned. Something, fantasy worthy.
Julie: Want to share?
Nico: Nope, but I’m counting the minutes until I see you again.
With that, Julie put her phone away, hoping beyond hope that whatever he had planned involved his magic tongue.
That night when Julie got home, she took one look around her cluttered apartment and collapsed on the couch. As she kicked off her shoes, she took in the snapshot of her life on the go. She’d only been in the place for a few hours at a time in passing, what with Liz’s appointments, her training sessions, and all the Nico run-ins. It was no wonder her life had unraveled on her. Sadly, her living space reflected that chaos.
It was Friday night and all she really wanted to do was throw her suit in the laundry bin and change into her extra-soft micro-fleece pajamas and a pair of fluffy socks. A little white noise in the background and a good book spelled bliss. Then, she could float back up to cloud nine, where she’d spent the rest of the day after Nico’s text.
At work, she’d worn a goofy grin that wouldn’t fade. And Julie could tell that it got under Elise’s skin, too, which only made it that much more fun. But Nico was “counting the minutes” until he saw her again. What could have been better than that?
Julie dragged her bones off the couch and picked up the few scattered cups on the coffee table and set them in the sink. The place really was a mess. She leaned against the counter and cracked her neck at the job ahead. She’d do some light picking up tonight and save the deep cleaning for the morning. The sooner she started, the sooner she could get back to her daydream.
One floor up, someone turned on some music. It wasn’t loud enough to hear the lyrics, but the melody floated into Julie’s apartment, something light-hearted and upbeat. The kind of song that made her want to grab the broom and sing into the handle. It was what she needed, a little mood music. To add to the ambiance, she lit the mandarin pineapple candle on the entry table.
Under the sink, she unspooled a garbage bag off the roll and shuffled to the beat through the apartment, emptying trash cans. Her next go-around was with the laundry basket.
Julie could almost see the newly-cleaned shine on the tabletops and the floor when the doorbell rang. She flipped her wrist, checking her watch. It was nearly nine o’clock. She wasn’t seeing her mom or Nico until tomorrow. Earlier, she had talked to Liz, though. Her friend and Derrick were working things out again, so maybe she wanted to talk.
“Who is it?” Julie called, lightly padding toward the door. She peeked through the peephole and jerked back almost as quickly. Her hand rested on the knob for a beat as she took in a deep breath before turning it.
“Sophia,” she muttered, nonplussed.
“Well, hi to you, too, Jules.” Her cousin gave her a once-over before she breezed past her in a brightly colored Lily and Jack frock. She made herself at home—basketball belly and all, sinking into the couch. “I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” she asked. Not that she cared.
As always, Sophia didn’t wait for Julie to answer, she was always regimented and reeling. “I see you’ve made some changes. The hair is great on your bone structure.” She twisted on the edge of the couch in Julie’s direction. “And what did you lose…thirty or forty pounds? It’s amazing, really.”
Julie stood at the door with a white-knuckled grip locked around the knob. She closed her eyes and inhaled before she reluctantly shut the door and locked it with Sophia on the wrong side of it.
She sighed, fully prepared to ignore Sophia’s backhanded compliments. Thirty or forty pounds? Damn, how much did she think I weighed?
“No. I was just straightening up a little. I’ll be out most of the day tomorrow and I won’t have time to clean.”
“That’s all right. I’m here now, and this won’t take long. Austin’s flight lands in about an hour and I need to be there to pick him up.” Sophia pulled a planner from her sensible brown leather tote. She opened it up about halfway, where a blush-pink polka dot bookmark held her place. It read, “bless your heart” in dainty script.
A laugh bubbled up inside Julie. She could diminish Sophia to the size of a grain of salt if she wanted to—bring her right back down to planet earth. Thankfully, though, when she’d dropped the pounds, she’d held onto her tact and dignity. Of all the things that she admired about her cousin, her tendency to bend whichever way the wind blew wasn’t one of them.
When they were young, Sophia had backbone. She was a brilliant firefly with convictions and righteousness and the best ringlets at Johnson elementary. It might have had something to do with Aunt Helen kicking Uncle Charlie out when she caught him dipping his stick in someone else’s hole. When he left, he took all of his money with him. Either way, Sophia had changed then. That was when Julie took note of Sophia’s favor toward those who had nice things.
For them, she’d bend.
Like a weed, she swayed in the way of things and gifts. In the name of keeping up appearances, she only wore the best clothing and carried the best bags. Only certain name brands were allowed in their house. In the same token, only certain people fit the bill. Most importantly, no man measured up without a boost from his bank account.
The first time Julie met Austin Harman, she knew Sophia and Austin’s was a match made in a luxury-loft heaven. He was rolling in dough; his sweet-tea trust fund made celebrity riches look like they were just scraping by. The way Sophia had looked at him, she couldn’t get him down the aisle fast enough. She hadn’t been with him a month and she was already finishing his sentences and taking on his Southern euphemisms, changing from a city girl to a Southern belle overnight. She hadn’t ever been to the South, yet suddenly she was blessing everyone’s hearts and “fixin’ to do this” and “fixin’ to do that.”
Julie could have died when she heard Sophia tell Aunt Helen that she “reckoned Austin was madder than a wet hen.” This was Sophia, who had cried at a petting zoo. Wouldn’t come near an animal, now every reference she had included one.
Between wet hens and holding horses, it just didn’t suit. She’d put on the mask and now it was stuck. Or rather, she was stuck in a sweet-tea world of pastel clothing and “bless your heart” bookmarks.
Sophia cleared her throat, all business now. On the page in front of her, she pulled her slender finger over a checklist that ran the length of the sheet and stopped at a section with an unchecked box. “We’re just about forty days out from the shower now, and Mom and I were discussing what tasks we thought you could handle. We’ve got all the big stuff covered, but if you would be a sweet peach and take on the games, that’d be dandy. Give you something to do. You know, keep your hands busy, since you’ll be stag.”
Julie bit her tongue. Sophia and Aunt Helen never missed an opportunity to rub anything in her face. Stag? Since when had baby showers become the go-to couples event? Normal people gathered their best female friends and relatives for a quaint get together with light food, gifts, and games. Who in the hell knew this “shower” was going to get so out of hand she’d need a date?
She tuned Sophia out and wondered if it would be too weird to invite Nico. Would he think she was insinuating something by it?
When Julie met Sophia’s gaze, her face screwed into an apologetic smile that failed to reach her eyes. “What? You don’t have a husband.” her cousin asked.
It wasn’t what she said that annoyed Julie. It had more to do with the sneaky, unnecessary way she always managed to throw in the irrelevant fact that Julie wasn’t married yet. Without saying it, Sophia was highlighting the fact that Julie and Patrick hadn’t worked out. They never made it down the aisle. As if it just wasn’t in the cards for Julie. She supposed in her cousin’s mind, Julie’s singleness was permanent.
“Really, Sophia? Can we try to focus on this shower? I’ve got other things to do, so if you could get to the point, that’d be great.” Julie wound her finger in a circle a few times, indicating that she wanted Sophia to wrap it up.
“I’m just saying,” she sang with an extra dose of Southern twang.
For the sake of Mom and Aunt Helen, Julie bit her tongue and stifled an urge to punch a pregnant woman in the throat. Her cousin could do petty better than anyone she knew. So Julie clenched her teeth and nodded her assent. “Sure. I’ll do the games.”
She had to pick her battles.
“I knew you wouldn’t leave us hanging. I told Mom just the other day how you were sweet as pie and surely you’d do the dirty work. Now,” Sophia skipped all the fake flattery and immediately put on her business cap, straightening her posture until it was ramrod straight. She checked the empty box and flipped to an empty page in her notebook. “What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of shower games?”
Sophia’s gaze narrowed and nodded like she was in serious focus-mode. The way she looked at Julie, anyone would think Julie was about to reveal the secret to the fountain of youth. It was that important.
If she was being honest, Julie hadn’t given Sophia’s baby shower a second thought. She knew her presence would be required, but she had no plans of being part of the planning. If anything, she was hoping to lurk in the back and slip out when the games started.
“Well…we could stick with the regular games like who knows Mommy best, baby bingo, and baby predictions.” Julie listed the first games that came to mind.
“No, no, no. That won’t do at all. This is going to be an amazing event to remember. Think Southern chic. We’ve already hired the planners to turn the backyard into a garden extravaganza. We’re talking cedar wood and gossamer silk. Stunning centerpieces filled with pink peonies and hydrangeas. Parisian macaroons. Only the best scalloped floral china and tea sets. I need you to think bigger.” Sophia threw up her hands in exasperation. “Bigger,” she echoed for effect.
Bigger? A big headache.
Julie’s brows raised with Sophia’s rising octave. This was getting out of hand. She’d have to talk to Mom. Worst come to worst, she might have talk to Nico about attending this “big” event.