Breene, K F - Jessica Brodie Diaries 01 (20 page)

The bottom line wasn’t that there
was something wrong with me, it was just that all my friends in Texas were
either married and went home evenings (JP and a couple other people from work)
or were connected with William (Candace, Ty, Adam, Moose).

I finally just gave in, called a
spade a spade, and started looking for jobs in
L.A.
I hated to leave the company I currently worked for, but I had friends and a
life in
L.A.
Or hell, maybe I would
go off to
Australia
with Lump and find me an Aussie.

It was a day after that decision
that I received the phone call.

“This is Jessica,” I answered in
mild surprise. I didn’t get many calls on my work line.

“Do you have to yell it across the
world?” Juniper shouted from behind her plant. Professional was her middle
name.

“Jess? Jessica?” Lady asked
confusedly.

“Hi Lady. What’s up?”

“Jessica—Gladis had an accident.
She’s been taken to the hospital.”

My blood froze in my veins.
Rigidly, clutching the phone in a white knuckled grip, I fought to remain calm.
“What do you mean accident, Lady? What happened?”

“She was walking down the stairs
and tripped. She didn’t fall far, but… She is okay. I wasn’t on duty yet. That
excuse for a maid was there! But Gladis might have broken something…”

“Where is she, Lady?”

I got all the info for the hospital
and literally ran into my bosses office. In one breath I told him what happened
and said I had to go to the hospital ASAP. He complied without thought or
emotion, and I was out the door.

I sat into my car and said a little
prayer. It was on its last leg. Half the time it coughed to life instead of
started. I needed a new one, but didn’t want to buy one here if I was going
back to
L.A.
or over to
Australia
.
I barely got it started.

Now I was pushing it. It started to
smoke but I kept going. Sure, Gladis was probably fine, but she had been
basically my best friend for the last three months. She had helped me heal from
the Dusty thing, she was my shoulder to cry on for the William thing, and she
was always around to cheer me up, or just hang out. Now she might need me, and
I was damned sure going to return the favor.

The car died a block from the
hospital. It needed water. Well, what it needed was a new radiator, but water
could get it further. Not bothering, I got out and started hoofing it. I didn’t
want to run because I was in new shoes and they would tear up my feet, so I
walked quickly. I was still a limping, sweaty mess by the time I got to there.

One step through the automatic
sliding glass doors had me hesitating. I hated hospitals. I hated the death I
could find here. Even that blast of smell, the sterilized musty odor, had my
stomach turning in knots and trying to purge.

But Gladis was in here, and she
needed me to be strong. She needed a friend, not a wimp. Stealing my courage, I
plowed through the square halls along the shiny white floor.

As I finally walked through the
door to her room I ran into Lady.

She reared like a spooked horse.
“Jessica!”

“Sorry—“

“Jessica, this place is filled with
morons!” Lady seethed with her hands on her hips. “Thousands of dollars a day
and no one can get a cup of water. Useless!” She stepped around me and walked
out the door at a brisk, determined pace.

I glided into the room, trying not
to touch anything hospital, including the floor. Gladis lay in the horrible
barred bed, her gray hair wispy against the pillows. She looked so small and
fragile.

I curled my hands into fists,
focused all my bearing on not crying. On not succumbing to my panic. And mostly
failing. “Hey Gladis.”

She opened her eyes. “Quit cryin’
girl, I’m not dyin’!”

I smiled through my tears. “Sorry.
What happened?”

She chuckled. “I fell down the
stairs. In my youth everyone would think that my husband was beatin’ me. Now
they just think I am clumsy.”

“Nah, in the past they just said to
your face they thought your husband was beating you. They really thought you
were clumsy your whole life!”

I dragged a chair to her bedside.

“S-so…” I stammered. “What’s wrong
with you?”

“I sprained something or other.
They thought it was a broken hip at first, but there weren’t that much damage.
Just careless was all.”

I nodded. Lady came back in with
some water followed by a nurse.

Gladis asked Lady, “Did you let the
kids know?”

Lady nodded.

“How long ago?”

“A little over an hour.”

“Did you leave a message or talk to
them?”

“Messages.”

“Hpmph." Gladis turned back to
me with a glower. "You watch, Jessica. One of them will show up, check in
then report back to the others. They are just waiting for me to check out of
life so they can cash in!”

“Don’t talk like that Ms. Peek.
That ain’t the way t’all,” Lady said. It sounded like she’d said it a million
times.

Gladis rolled her eyes at me. “Just
wait and see.”

The afternoon and early evening had
passed. The sun had set and Lady, Gladis and I were sitting around playing
backgammon when the first of a long string of flowers arrived. Gladis’s
step-kids still hadn’t shown up or called.

Lady jumped up and checked the tag.
“Mr. and Mrs. Markenson and sons.”

“Oh, that’s nice,” Gladis said. The
game continued.

A couple hours later Gladis started
to doze. Without speaking a word, Lady and I cleaned up the game with economic
efficiency, and I was out the door, not wanting to wake her. She wouldn’t want
me going back to an empty house and would try to stay up. Which was pointless.
There was no way I was sleeping in a hospital. Never again.

The next evening, after having
spent my livelihood on water to get my limping beast moving again, I smuggled
in chocolates. I had done a great job of controlling my tears until I heard
that Gladis had surgery that morning on her hip.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I roared.

A nurse poked her head in.

“Jessica, you are hysterical,”
Gladis placated.

“Yes, I am! You should have told
me!”

“You would have only worried.”

“Which is my job to do, so you
don’t have to. Don’t keep that kind of stuff from me again!”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Told you,” Lady said smugly from
her chair in the corner. She was knitting a scarf out of electric blue yarn.

Gladis just sighed.

“What did they do to you?” I
prompted. “What was the damage?”

“Just a few pins, is all. But it’s
still my bones. I don’t need a new hip quite yet.”

“I few pins? How bad was—“ I
stopped mid-tirade and pinched the bridge of my nose. “I need a freaking
coffee.”

I stormed off. Hospitals made me
crazy. More crazy, truth be told. Add that to Gladis withholding information…

I wanted to explode. And cry.
Definitely cry.

After making my point in the
cafeteria, and getting extremely bored and uncomfortable, I trudged back,
intending to make them suffer a few more minutes with my sulky attitude. As I
neared the room I caught a familiar scent. Like a Bloodhound, my nose honed in.

Gremlins in my chest started
clawing with vigor, scratching to get out. Ripping my heart apart.

Eyes closed, I stopped in the
doorway. Then shook my head. I wasn’t strong enough for this. Gladis not
revealing how serious her injury really was, an extended period in the
hospital, and now this? No.

I turned, planning to leave my
purse behind and come back later.

“Jessica, dear, come in,” Gladis
called.

Damn her!

Tom Davies, a woman his age that I
assumed was Denise Davies, and William turned around to regard me.

I peeked around Tom to catch Gladis
looking stone faced. My eyes pleaded, looking for an excuse. I got nothing.

“Sure,” I said quietly, looking at
the floor as long as I could.

“This is Jessica,” Gladis said to
the room, not waiting for me to get to the far side of her bed.

I turned and faced the onlookers,
courage barely keeping my back straight. The only one I didn’t know was
William’s mother. She was shorter than me with elegantly highlighted hair. How
is hair elegant? With a ton of money, that’s how. It had about four tones of
dark blond all mixed together in symmetry. No roots, either. She probably kept
it up constantly with hair appointments every six weeks.

Her large string of pearls set off
her sophisticated outfit. She had William’s way of carrying herself, or I
should say he inherited hers—all confidence, but with an ease to her that
didn’t shout ego. She was the model of grace. Oh yeah, and she had a giant diamond
on her finger. Tom's fellow owner of the world.

“Jessica, I believe you know Tom,”
Gladis said.

“Hi again!” I said delightedly.

He smiled and nodded his head in
return.

“This is Tom’s wife, Denise,”
Gladis continued.

“Hello Mrs. Davies. Pleased to meet
you.”

“It’s a pleasure,” she replied with
an easy smile.

It was then that I noticed her bag.
It was a Louis Vuitton that I hadn’t seen before, and I was up on all the
latest. It was the cutest bag ever! Mid-sized bowling ball style, fairly
simple, black with the classic
LV
’s
etched.

“Oh my God,” I exclaimed. “I love
that bag! That must be new to the shelves, if you didn’t get it before release.
I haven’t seen it yet.”

She looked down at her bag and up
at me with interest. “Why yes, actually. I just got it today. First release. Do
you own Louis Vuitton?”

I smiled sheepishly. “I don’t, no.
I have a friend that has a few. I tend to steer toward Prada or Gucci, but I
still love to look for that great find.” I didn’t mention that I didn’t have
Prada or Gucci bags, either, but someday I would love to.

“Oh.” She nodded politely.

And now I see where William got his
standards. Well, phooey.

“And Willie,” Gladis finished.

Do or die time. Without skipping a
beat, I let my eyes slid left. My heart slid down to my stomach. I stopped
myself from gulping.

He was just as handsome as I
remembered. His hair was a little shorter, he was a little tanner, his muscles
looked a little bigger, but the same clear blue,
Caribbean
eyes that could reach out and shake my hand on their own. Butterflies filled my
stomach and my groin started throbbing. Cupid was raging war on the Kung Fu
master. My heart was shoved into my feet to make room.

Lump always talked about muscle
memory. Doing something over and over again until your body did it on its own
with little prompting or thinking. I wasn’t sure if there was such a thing as
emotion memory, but if there was, I was now experiencing it.

It seemed like a few days ago that
I danced with him, felt him against me. It could’ve been last night that he
held me close after the Dusty thing, promising safety with the warmth of his
body. No time since he reached out to wipe away a tear rolling down my cheek.

“Hello again, William. It is nice
to see you,” I said pleasantly, hoping to hide my misery. I was casual, I was
unaffected, I was staying strong. Nothing to it.

I was an exceptional actor.

“Hi Jessica. It's been a long
time.” His voice was just as deep and smooth as I remembered. His distance was
just as great.

Would it be weird of me to start
crying?

I went to stand on the other side
of Gladis’s bed, partially to hide my visuals for two seconds while the pain
left my face and settled into my body, and partially to put some space between
myself and the Golden God, now as radiant as ever. I wondered if he was still
with that big boobed woman? Or maybe someone else?

Gladis and the Davies clan started
talking pleasantries. I tried to pay attention. I did try. Instead, I pulled
the trick you master in school where you look interested and follow the conversation
with your eyes, but your brain is at least a thousand miles from your body.

The hurt from what he said to me on
the dance floor, and seeing him leave with Booby McGee, was so fresh it was
like the knife was still twisting in my gut. If I concentrated hard enough I
could hear the blade scraping against my rib bone. It was a disgusting sound.

Every time I tried to clear my head
and focus on my surroundings his scent would waft by and physical pain would
manifest. My whole body was both fluttering and tingling with electricity. I
felt the hurt mixed with the elation of seeing him again, mixed with the
desperation to touch him, mixed with the primal urge to flee from the pain.

It was then that I realized the
room had gone quiet and everyone was looking at me. Looking to Gladis for a
cue, I followed her gaze to Tom. Who must have just asked me a question, being
that his eyebrows were raised quizzically.

I smiled bashfully. “I’m sorry,
Tom. My thoughts trailed away to other matters.”

He smiled with knowing. “I was just
asking how it is going at work?”

“Oh. Great! I really like it there.
The company is good to its employees so it is a really nice working
environment. Thank you for asking.”

“And how do you find your bosses?”

“I just have the one—Mr. Nash. He is
okay. He pretty much just tells me what he needs and I figure out a way to get
it for him. It’s pretty easy work. I’ve asked for more responsibility but no
one has any at the minute, so…”

Tom nodded and looked at William,
who also nodded. It occurred to me that I might’ve missed an important part of
the conversation.

Tom began again. “The business is
growing so it is a good possibility there will be new, higher level positions
opening up. I’ve heard you might qualify for some of those. You should consider
applying to see if your skills fit our needs.”

Our needs?

I shook my head. “I’m sorry, I must
have missed something. Forgive me if I sound dense, but…how exactly do you fit
into the business?”

Tom’s eyes widened in surprise. He
looked at William again, making me want to scream at him to stop turning to
William for answers. William slightly shook his head. Tom looked at Gladis, who
didn’t move at all, then back to me.

“Oh. Well. I had thought someone
told you by now. Well…I own the company. My family does, I mean.”

Well. Fuck me right up the
backside. Wait, let me bend over first—make it easy on you.

My eyes must have looked like
saucers and my mouth hung open. If I had a big tongue, it would have rolled out
over my teeth and hung down the side of my chin.

I tried to recover quickly, but I
just didn’t know what to say. I looked at William, changed my mind, and jerked
my head to Tom while I said, “Well, good thing I like my job or I might have
said something negative. Ha ha.”

That seemed to ease the tension somewhat.

Someone might have mentioned his
ownership—like freaking Candace! I was gonna kill her! Gladis would be getting
yelled at again, too!

In the meantime I went numb. Nail
in the coffin.

“Anyway,” Tom continued, “I've
heard a lot of great things about your work performance. You've been with us a
short time, but already it seems you’ve out grown your current position. There
is room for you to advance, should you choose to.”