Juniper isn’t answering her phone and when I swing by her townhouse, it doesn't seem like she is home ignoring me, either. This is the longest I’ve gone without talking to her since...well, ever. I spent a lot of time with Tim this week talking him through all his anxiety about Alice and the pregnancy. And then I spent a ton of time trying to find Juniper and not succeeding.
As my Gram would say, I've been a mope. I did the whole circuit, everything I'm supposed to do. Nothing is right without Juniper. All of it feels empty and shallow. There is nothing my trainer can do to work me hard enough to forget how empty I'm feeling without the sound of her voice.
I have no idea why she’s avoiding me since she called to tell me the news about Tim and Alice, but I can only assume something happened at work with Tim going off the rails. And so I do the thing she told me not to do: I drive downtown and barge into her office.
And she’s not there. Her laptop isn’t on the desk, her purse isn’t hanging on the door. What the fuck? She’s not at home and she’s not at work? Something isn’t right here. I start to panic that she told my brother about us and he fired her already. But where would she have gone even if that happened?
Raking my fingers through my hair, I can’t even think straight. I stomp down the hall and past Donna, right into my brother’s corner office.
He’s sitting behind his desk, his chair turned so he’s staring out the window at the river. I can’t tell if he’s still panicking, or just pensive, or what. “Tim, we need to talk, brother.”
He doesn’t turn around. I see him sigh. “What’s going on now, Ty? Please tell me how I have fucked up your life, too. Maybe take a number, though. The list is getting long.”
I sit down in one of the chairs at his desk. It’s too small for me. “Jesus, Tim, if you’re going to represent athletes, you need to get some bigger fucking chairs in your office.”
He swivels around at that and sees me trying to wedge myself out from between the unforgiving arm rests. I slump over to the couch instead. “I just need to say that you can’t fire Juniper.”
“Fire her? Why would I do that?”
Oh. So he doesn’t know after all. Then where the fuck is she? I’m starting to try to piece together where she might be when Tim presses me for more. “Ty, why would I fire her? Why would you storm in here worried that I’d fire Juniper Jones?”
I clear my throat uncomfortably, and say, “Well, I can’t find her, so I assumed you fired her.”
“Why would you be looking for her? All your business is settled for the next few months at least. She’s at some damn boat race. Left this morning. Wait a minute--”
His eyes spark and he stands up, starts pacing. “She called you to tell you about Alice.”
“Yeah, because she was worried about you. With reason!”
“No. This is different.” He squints at me. “I can’t fucking believe you, Ty. You’re sleeping with her.”
I pause a second too long, and Tim continues railing into me. “You can’t leave one thing alone without dipping your dick in it, can you? Not my study group in law school. Not the fucking cheerleaders from the high school hockey team. And not my best employee. I really don’t need this right now from you.”
“Tim, it’s not like that.”
“Get the hell out of my office.”
“No way, man. Not until you talk to me about this.”
“This is seriously the last thing I need right now when I’m trying to figure out how to support a fucking family now with Alice and Juniper both telling me I’m an idiot. Jesus, I just passed on the Cleveland deal, Ty. Do you know how that makes me look? I went after them and then told them no thank you and--”
“Tim, I’m in love with her.”
“What?”
“Juniper. I’m not just sleeping with her. I’m in love with her. I want to be with her. Like, forever. I think.”
“What are you even talking about?”
“I’m telling you I didn’t just come into your office and fuck your employees to be an asshole like when I was younger. I met Juniper before she started here. And I’m in love with her.”
“She’d been sleeping with you and still took you on as a client? Jesus Christ. This is an ethics nightmare. Does your agent know about this?”
“I mean, she didn’t know who I was then...it’s just...it’s complicated.”
“You’re damn right it’s complicated, Tyrion! God, get out of here so I can get to work trying to fix this.”
“You of all people should know about falling in love with someone you maybe shouldn’t. Or was that not you rutting on the conference table in the hockey arena with your corporate chef?”
“You need to shut your mouth and get out of here, brother.”
“I saw the damn security footage, Tim. So don’t tell me you don’t know what it’s like to get carried away. And now you and Alice are having a baby. And Juniper and I are in love.” I stand up and start walking toward him, not sure what I’m going to do but not feeling particularly civil. It's been awhile since we Stag brothers had a brawl.
“You’re so in love you didn’t know she was off competing in a boat race this weekend? Spare me, Ty.”
I freeze. He’s right about that. Why didn’t she tell me she was going to race? I sigh, take a deep breath, and continue. “Look, just reassign me to Ben or whatever his name is. Can you do that? And don’t fire Juniper?”
He starts laughing, but it’s a sort of crazed laugh. “I can’t fire her. She’s a fucking genius. She could be fucking my entire client list and I couldn’t fire her. I wonder if she knows that…”
Tim starts muttering something about return on investment, but I stopped listening to him after he said he couldn’t fire my girl. I don’t even say goodbye, but I brush past him and head down the hall. I have to figure out where the hell she went.
Suddenly, I remember that Ben guy has a sister who rows. Juniper knew her from Boston. I bet he knows where she is this weekend. But where the hell will I find him? I’m stomping around like an idiot when I stumble across the kitchen. “Alice!”
She screams and drops a pan of food. “Oh shit, Alice, I’m sorry I scared you. Are you ok?” I rush over and help her pick everything up. “I’m really sorry.”
“Ty, it’s ok. You just startled me.”
“Hey, so, can I say congratulations? About growing my niece or nephew in there?”
Her face lightens up and I can tell not too many people have been happy for her about this. She throws her arms around me--as much as she can. Alice is a really tiny person--and thanks me.
“Oh come on, Alice. Don't thank me--of course I'm excited about a baby. Anything you need, you let me know. Even if that’s just to beat some sense into my brother." I pop one of the dropped pastries into my mouth, and of course it tastes amazing. She smiles at me. "Hey, you wouldn’t know where Juniper is this weekend, would you?”
Alice looks puzzled. “She didn’t tell you?” I shake my head. “She’s at the regatta in New Haven.”
“New Haven! I remember that that was her upcoming race. Awesome.”
“But there’s more! The rowing coach guy saw her training earlier this week.”
I listen as Alice tells me everything about Juniper's big opportunity. I can't fucking believe she shut me out from this, but I'm not missing it. I'm going to support her no matter what, in person. I rush out of the Stag Law building to catch the first flight I can find.