Authors: Marisa Logan
“It's not a promotion,” he said. “Not really. It's a transfer. But there will be a pay increase. QA has a lot more responsibility than Information Resources. And there's some travel involved. Sometimes you'll need to be flown out to some of our facilities around the country, to help with inspections.”
“But I don't know anything about health inspections.”
“You don't need to,” he said. “What you need is spirit. The ability to stand up to people, to see past their bullshit and get at the truth. To analyze the data coming in from reports and find the discrepancies and the cover-ups. There's a sub-department in QA that takes care of the actual science, the testing and all that. But most of the staff is responsible for investigating the goings-on around the company and finding anything that needs to be fixed. And that's something I think you can do.”
Tessa sat back in her chair. Her head was spinning so much that she wasn't sure she'd be able to stand. “I can't believe this.”
“Believe it. Oh, there's just one thing.”
She looked up at him, holding her breath. “Yes?”
“This situation?” He gestured between the two of them. “It stays between us. I still have to take care of that reporter, and I don't want word getting out that one of our employees was conducting an unauthorized investigation. It would give the media the wrong idea.”
“Of course,” she said. “I won't say anything.”
“Good.” He got up and walked her to the door, then shook her hand. “Take the rest of the day off. You look frazzled. Tomorrow morning I'll have the paperwork ready for you for the transfer. You'll need to fill out some new forms, so that payroll gets updated on your new position. That sort of thing.”
“Yes. Of course. Thank you.”
“Thank you, Tessa,” he said. “For showing me that you've got moxie.”
Tessa headed for the elevator, still in a daze. Mindy saw her exiting Mr. Morgan's office and she hurried over. “Hey, girl, what's going on?” She looked to Mr. Morgan as he closed his office door. “Are you in trouble or something? You're not getting sent home, are you?”
“No,” Tessa said. “Not really.” A grin spread on her lips.
“Then what happened?”
Tessa laughed. “Apparently, I'm finally moving up. You're looking at Dunham Enterprises' newest Quality Assurance Agent!”
Chapter 13
Tessa went home, changed out of her nice suit and into jeans and a t-shirt, and poured herself a glass of wine. She was suddenly pent up with energy, and she needed an outlet for it. It was a beautiful, sunny day outside, so she grabbed her gardening supplies and headed out to tend her plot.
The seeds she had planted a few weeks ago were just beginning to sprout. She filled her watering can and gave them all a healthy drink, then tended to a few of the seedlings that needed her care. Most of the community was out today, including some people Tessa didn't usually see, since she was normally at work right now.
Mrs. Mackenzie had made some homemade lemonade, and Tessa graciously accepted a glass. And while she stood in the sunshine sipping it, she looked across the way and saw Mr. Jones, out during the day for once, tending to his own little plot. It was no longer a Mystery Plot, though Tessa was still determined to one day solve the mystery of just how he got his crops to grow so beautifully.
The ringing of a bell called Tessa's attention to the other side of the garden, and she saw Samson riding his bike around the corner. He was dressed in his usual jeans, with an indie rock band t-shirt, and a bandana holding back his hair. He pedaled over to her, pulled out his iPod's earbuds, and gave her a concerned look.
“So, you got fired then?” he asked, no doubt expecting that to be the only reason she'd be home during the day.
“Actually,” she said, handing him a glass of Mrs. Mackenzie's lemonade. “That's a pretty interesting story.”
She told him all about her encounter with Mr. Morgan and how it had gone. He laughed and shook his head, clearly as flabbergasted by the story as she had been. When she finished the story he said, “Wow. I guess it just goes to show you how much having the guts to stand up for yourself can pay off.”
She looped her arm through his, and together they walked through the garden, admiring all of the new life growing all around them. And when Tessa passed by Topher's patch where he grew his award-winning zucchini, she didn't even think twice about the type of fertilizer he was using. She was determined from now on to keep her nose out of other people's business.
Except at her new job, of course. Where poking around to find out the truth was going to be what she did every day of the week.
THE END
(Clean Version)
A Contemporary Romance
J.L. STARR
Copyright © 2016 by J.L. Starr
All rights reserved, worldwide.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned or distributed in any printed or electronic form.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Book Description
Jenny Campbell grew up sheltered from the world, forbidden from dating or even wearing skirts that come above the ankle. Not allowed to work, she spends her days taking care of her siblings and spending time on her computer where she befriends someone as geeky as her.
She's always been drawn to stories of adventure and sensuality, especially those in her favorite comic book series, Crimson Star.
After she sneaks off to a comic book convention dressed as the comic's main character, she starts off on a path that leads to her own adventures, and finds the confidence to break free and go for what she truly wants.
This is a 26,000 word contemporary novella with no cliffhanger.
Content Warning: Although this is a clean version, it contains mature subjects.
Chapter 1
As their last opponent fell to the ground, Anastasia leaned into Wilhelm's embrace. She melted against him as his strong, protective arms wrapped around her. With him, in his arms, was the only time she could shed the cloak she used to protect her emotions during her job as an international super spy and expert computer hacker. She knew she could open herself up to him, let him inside her life.
“Anastasia,” he whispered.
She looked up into his eyes. He leaned down. She held her breath, her lips parted, waiting for him to—
“Jennifer! Get off that damned computer and come down here. I need you to set the table.”
Jenny sighed, rolling her eyes at her mother's impatient tone. “Coming, Mom!” She skimmed the pages of the collaborative fan fiction she was working on with her friend Jeremy. It was a shame she had to stop. She had just been getting to the good part.
Just like in real life, her mother always managed to get in the way of her romantic aspirations.
She quickly finished off the paragraph:
—to kiss her like she'd never been kissed before.
Then, at the bottom of the page, she added in an out-of-character note to Jeremy:
OOC: Sorry I had to cut this short. Mom's on my case again. You can pick up the next chapter with the kiss!
She submitted the post to the online forum, a comic book fan site and collaborative writing group, then closed the window. It was just as well, she decided, that she hadn't been the one to write the kissing scene. She'd never even been kissed. She'd read enough books and seen enough movies (not to mention online videos that her mother hopefully did
not
know about) to know how to describe a kiss on the page, though she was always worried that she didn't get it right. She just hoped that one day she'd get the chance for some “empirical research” on the subject.
She headed downstairs to set the table. By reflex, she grabbed six plates out of the cabinet. Then she caught herself and put one back. She moved past the head of the table, where Dad used to sit, and laid out the rest of the plates one by one. While she worked on getting the rest of the table set, her mother kept pestering her the entire time.
“Don't forget to get your little sister washed up before we eat. And where is Mark? He'd better not be outside. I told him to keep his butt inside the house.”
Jenny called to her sister, “Katherine! Go find Mark, please, and tell him dinner is ready.”
“I asked
you
to find him,” her mother said. “I swear, Jennifer, sometimes it's like you don't even listen.”
Jenny sighed and hung her head. She didn't bother arguing with her mother. She could have explained that she was still busy setting the table, and couldn't do two things at once. Or that Kathy was sitting around doing nothing when she was supposed to be doing her schoolwork. But arguing with her mother just made her get snippy.
She quickly finished with the table setting and headed through the house to round up her siblings. She found Kathy lounging on the couch, playing a game on her phone. Jenny lightly popped her on the back of the head and said, “Dinner, skreb. Go wash your hands.”
“Don't touch me,” Kathy snapped, batting Jenny's hand away. “And stop calling me 'skreb.' You're the skreb.”
Jenny headed down the hall and found her youngest sister coloring in the bathroom. “Cassie, what are you doing? Your coloring books don't belong in here.”
“Mark kicked me out of our room,” she said. She was leaned over on the ground, the coloring book laid open before her. Though Cassie didn't actually color in the pictures. She always drew around them, adding her own drawings into the white space surrounding the pages.
“Clean that up and wash your hands,” Jenny said. She headed down the hall to Cassie and Mark's room. The little house only had three bedrooms, so ever since Cassie was born it had been Mark and Cassie, the two youngest, in one room, with Jenny and Kathy sharing another. Though the one blessing Jenny had in her life was that Kathy fell asleep on the couch as often as not, lending Jenny some semblance of privacy from the fourteen-year-old scourge that was her little sister.
“Mark!” Jenny tried the door knob and found it locked. She pounded on the door with her fist. “Mark, come on, Mom says it's time for dinner.”
There was no answer, as usual. Jenny grumbled and fiddled with the door knob, then headed to her room to grab a hair pin. She knelt in front of the knob and jimmied it open. She'd done it a thousand times, especially since Mark had hit puberty and started isolating himself all the time. Being the only boy in a house with four girls had to be hard on him, though he was such a pain in the ass that Jenny had little sympathy for him.
She opened the door and looked around. There was no sign of her little brother. She checked in the closet and under the bed, then opened the window and looked out into the backyard.
She didn't see him at first, until she twisted around and peered up. Mark was sitting on the carport that hung over the side of the house, reading a book.
“Damn it, Mark, get your ass down from up there before Mom throws a fit. You're getting too big, and one of these days that thing is going to collapse right out from under you!”
Mark ignored her, as he usually did these days. “Mark!” she hissed, trying to keep her voice down so Mom wouldn't hear. “Seriously, I'm not about to get in trouble for you again. You know you're not supposed to be outside.”
“My friends are allowed outside,” he said, still not looking up from his book. “It ain't like I'm going nowhere. I ain't even left the house.”
“Yeah, and you know Mom won't give a darn about that.” Jenny grumbled and climbed out of the window, her long skirt getting tangled around her legs. She hated wearing long skirts, but her mother always had something to say about her becoming too “worldly” and “tempting all the young boys” if she wore anything above her ankle. It irritated her that even at the age of nineteen, she wasn't able to pick out her own clothing.
She reached up onto the carport and grabbed Mark by his ankle. He squealed and tried to kick her away, but she pulled him down and caught him, though just barely. He was getting big enough that pretty soon she wouldn't be able to wrangle him anymore. “Get inside!” she hissed, pointing to the window. “And go wash up. You've got tar on your hands again.”
Her little brother grumbled, but obeyed. All of the Campbell kids had learned at a young age not to toe the line. And it was even worse since their father had died. He'd been the only one who could keep their mother's temper in check.
Jenny eventually managed to get all of the kids cleaned up and settled down at the dinner table. Sometimes she felt like a second mother to them. God only knew she did more for them than their actual mother did. The youngest, Cassie, even sometimes slipped and called Jenny “Mom.”
When the meal was served, Mom led them through saying grace. Jenny tuned out the words. She didn't have the heart to tell her mother that she no longer believed in God.
“Amen,” Mom said at the end, crossing herself. Only Cassie mimicked the gesture.
While they ate, Cassie rambled on about some cartoon show or another, while Mark and Kathy kept poking at each other and throwing things whenever Mom wasn't looking. In between keeping them all in check, Mom said, “Oh, Jenny, I forgot to tell you. I'm going to the hairdresser's and then to dinner with your Aunt Margie tomorrow, so you'll need to keep an eye on the little ones.”
“What?” Jenny froze with a forkful of spaghetti halfway to her mouth. “Mom, no. The convention's tomorrow.”
“What convention?” Her mother barely looked at her, busying herself with helping Cassie with her napkin.
“The comic convention. I told you months ago.”
“I don't remember anything about that.” Her mother gave her a suspicious look. “Well, you'll have to go another time. I already made an appointment.”
“There is no 'other time,' Mom. The convention is only in town this weekend. I already bought my tickets.”
“Tickets?” Mom frowned at her. “What tickets? Where did you get money for tickets to some comedy show.”
Jenny clenched her fists under the table. “Not comedy, Mom. Comic. As in, comic books?”
“Oh, that crap again?” Mom waved a dismissive hand at her. “Look, taking care of your little brother and sisters is more important than going to read some comic books.”
Jenny closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to keep her cool. “It's not just for comic books. Some of the authors are going to be there signing autographs. And there's a panel on—”
“Well whatever it is,” Mom said, giving her a stern look, “it'll have to be another time.”
“Why can't Kathy watch the kids?”
Kathy got a panicked look and lowered her head, clearly trying to stay out of this.
“Because she's just a child,” Mom said.
“I'm fourteen!” Kathy protested.
“It's not like they can get into any trouble,” Jenny said. “Geeze, Mom, you don't even let them out in the backyard to play anymore.”
“Children get snatched out of their own backyards all the time, Jennifer.” Mom slammed a hand down on the table, making all the kids jump. “There's no need for them to be outside when they're perfectly safe in the house.”
“Except for when they drive each other crazy being cooped up all day!” Jenny stood up, knocking her chair back as she did so. “You're so damn difficult! Why can't you just get your hair cut a different day?”
“Sit back down,” Mom said. “And don't you dare talk to me like that. I've had enough of your attitude.”
“I'm going to the convention,” Jenny said. “I paid $60 for my ticket and I'm not letting it go to waste.”
“Where did you even get $60 from?” Mom glared at her suspiciously. “Have you been in my purse?”
“Just...just leave me alone!” Jenny hurried from the room. She ran into her bedroom and slammed the door shut, then locked it. She shoved a wooden door stopper under the crack in the door to hold it shut, just in case anyone else in the house knew how to pick a lock.
She threw herself onto her bed, staring up at the ceiling. Mom pounded on the door, shouting at her, but she ignored the shouts. It was the same old arguments, day after day. Even more so since Dad died.
When Mom stopped pounding on the door and gave up, Jenny pulled her box of comics out from under the bed. She flipped through the pages, admiring the pictures of Anastasia Star, a.k.a. the Crimson Star, named so for her bright red, flowing hair. If her mother knew Jenny was reading the Crimson Star's comics, she'd no doubt take them away and burn them. Anastasia was an international super spy, and a woman who used her seductive nature to keep her enemies off balance, wielding her sexuality as a weapon. Yet she did so without ever losing her sense of personal pride and self-worth. Jenny had admired Anastasia, wanted to be her, since she first read the comics when she was thirteen.
If her mother tried to keep her from leaving the house tomorrow, Jenny decided she would just do what Anastasia would do. You couldn't keep a super spy locked up in her bedroom. Not when she was a woman with a mission.