Lovestruck (15 page)

Barbara leaned over to whisper into Jennifer's ear. "No. I want to keep your smell on them."

Jennifer swallowed and rubbed a hand over her mouth. Barbara patted her shoulder.

"I have to go talk to Jeffery and get back to the office. Want to get together after you finish with your classes tomorrow?"

"Sounds like a date." Jennifer bit her lip.

Barbara reached over and flicked Jennifer's bottom lip
. She is so adorable when
she's nervous.
"Now go back to work. Don't worry. You look fine." Barbara winked.

Jennifer nodded and opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something.

Barbara waited in anticipation. But Jennifer didn't say a word. Instead, she opened the bathroom door halfway to peek out to see if anyone was around. Apparently the coast was clear, because she walked out, leaving Barbara wondering what she'd been about to say.

"Oh my god. I can't believe I made out in the bathroom." Barbara giggled and clasped her hands over her mouth, overcome with giddiness for a brief moment. She couldn't wait until the next time when she was with Jennifer. The girl added a whole new fun dimension to her life. They still needed to hide what was growing between them, but at least their relationship seemed to be back on track.

Barbara wished she could say the same for the hotel. Some decision would have to be made and fast before her meeting with Kyle James. She and the real estate tycoon would decide the future of the St. Jennings.

She took one last glimpse into the mirror and drew in a few deep breaths. Pulling back her shoulders, and standing tall and proud, she made her way out of the bathroom. As she walked through the locker room, where some workers took their break, she sniffed her hands and smiled.

Soon she would have Jennifer again and do her very best to make her accept the position as her assistant before she found out about the planned firings.

"Jennifer, before you leave for the day I need you tidy up my desk. I have to go see the janitorial manager in a few minutes," Jeffrey said as he stood, rifling through a stack of paperwork. He mumbled something under his breath.

"Sure, Jeffery. What did you just say? I missed the last part." Jenny had fifteen minutes until her shift ended and was anxious to meet Mike and Tonya at The Watering Hole
.
She'd been on cloud nine ever since she and Barbara had their fun in the bathroom earlier.

"What? Oh nothing. These numbers are just disappointing. It doesn't—never mind."

Jenny studied Jeffery's expression. He seemed very out of sorts. She almost asked if he was feeling okay, but he walked away from her before she had a chance.

"He's so weird sometimes." Jenny mumbled under her breath.

"Of course he's weird. This is Bane we're talking about here."

Jenny spun around, her face heating as she realized Tia, one of the other employees who sometimes manned the front desk, had overheard her comment about Jeffrey.

Tia smiled. "It's okay. I won't tell him you've been talking about him. But you better go ahead and clean his highness's office before he finds something else for you to do, like scrub the floor." She laughed and turned away to help some guests who walked up to the front desk.

Jenny turned back to Jeffery's desk with a grimace. Even though she'd just straightened his office two days ago, it looked like someone had ransacked the place.

Desk drawers hung open and papers were scattered all over the room. Pens lay on the floor and some post-it notes looked like they'd procreated as they lay in almost every corner of the room. She put her hand on the desk and then immediately pulled it away when she encountered some sticky, unnamed substance.

"
Eww
. . . what the hell?" She gasped and looked at her fingers covered in a strange, mysterious brown goop. She shook her hand, but it wouldn't come off. She walked out of the room, masking her disgust behind a thin-lipped smile as she hunted under the front desk for a bottle of spray cleaner and a roll of paper towels. Cleaning supplies in hand, she went back into Jeffery's foul office on a mission. First, she sprayed her hand and cleaned it. Next, she took everything off of the desk, sprayed the top and wiped it down with the paper towels. When the surface was shiny and clean, she placed everything back on top. She also cleaned the computer keyboard and monitor as well as the computer mouse.

"What a pig." Jenny grumbled. She lifted the phone receiver and wiped away the grease with a clean paper towel. When the phone appeared to be spotless, she placed the receiver against her ear to make sure she could hear a dial tone. She was surprised to hear a click and a voice talking on the opposite end.

"Hey, Rich thanks for getting back to me." Jeffery's voice came over the line.

Jenny wrinkled her brow. Why would Jeffery be talking to someone on a hotel landline when he had his Blackberry on him to make personal calls? She shrugged, about to place the receiver down, when she heard the other voice on the line say something that stopped her in her tracks.

"I have your resume and can promise you an interview will be set up by next week. I can't believe the St. Jennings is closing. The hotel has been there forever."

"Eh. What can you do? Cousin Barbara has a big fish interested in buying the building. She'll easily net a cool hundred mil on the place. She's also thinking of cutting the staff. Between now and the time we close, we still need to try to turn a profit. Even if she decides not to sell, we'll probably still need to cut costs. I've been up to my balls in meetings with these idiots over the past few days. They have no clue half of them may be cut loose." Jeffery explained.

"What about you? Not that you should have anything to worry about with
The
Barracuda
being your cousin. You have a pretty sweet deal there."

"You would think the bitch would offer me a position in the main offices instead of keeping me here in this shit hole. She comes in and acts like she's god or something and tells me what to do. I've been running the show here for years, not her. She never gave a rat's ass before, but now that she can put a little more change in her pocket, she suddenly decides to show an interest. Acts as if she is so stressed out half the time.

You'd think she would be jumping for joy unloading this load of bricks. "

"After next week, you don't have to worry. As long as the interview goes off without a hitch, you're in, buddy," Rick said.

"Great. The highlight of all of this is I'll be around for some of the firings. She's given me some responsibility on deciding who stays and who goes. I can't wait. It'll be great to see who'll be begging me to stay." Jeffery chuckled and Rick joined in.

"Anyway, what are you doing . . . ?"

Jenny pulled the phone away from her ear and gently replaced it on its cradle.

She sat down in Jeffery's chair, shocked to her core. She wasn't surprised by the way he'd spoken on the phone, but what he had said to his friend had stunned her. How could Barbara do this to her, and her friends who needed their jobs to survive?

Jenny covered her mouth. At first she had found it very strange that Barbara would offer her a job as her assistant, but now it made perfect sense. If Barbara thought about closing the St. Jennings, she and everyone else, including Mike and Tonya, would be out of jobs.

She stood, not sure how to handle this information. Apparently, no one else knew . . . just Jeffrey, Barbara, and now her. But now that she knew, how would she handle it? Should she tell everyone, ask Jeffery what the hell was going on, or confront Barbara herself?

As she tried to decide the best course of action, Jeffery waltzed in.

He was reading his Blackberry and didn't notice Jenny standing there. He finished reading his email message and glanced around his office. "You can leave now."

Jeffery ordered.

Jenny moved to the side as he walked over to his desk and sat down, but she didn't leave.

Jeffery looked up at her. "Is there something else you need?"

Jenny felt like her heart was going to explode. She licked her lips and took a deep breath. She had a second to decide if she should mention what she had overheard on the phone.

"I've been wondering how your meetings are going with everyone."

Jeffery placed his Blackberry on his desk and leaned back in his chair with his hands behind his head and his stomach bulging out over his pants. "Pretty good.

Nothing too out of the ordinary. You know how it went down since you had your own with Ms. Jennings."

"Oh yeah." She wondered what Barbara had said about her to him. "Did she say anything interesting about me?"

"You haven't been a big subject of discussion, other than mentioning your meeting went well." Jeffery made a face as he answered the questions she threw his way.

"What exactly are these meetings for?" She persisted.

"Typical review type stuff. Nothing to worry about."

Jenny couldn't believe Jeffery could lie so easily. She was utterly disgusted by him, the whole situation, and appalled with herself for falling for a woman who could be so callous. Barbara and Jeffrey were two peas in a pod.

"That's good to know. For a moment I thought . . . well, it's silly, but maybe these meetings are to fish out certain employees who are lacking in their work."

"What are you getting at, Jenny?" Jeffery asked. He sat up and tapped his fingers against his chair.

"From other stories I've heard—"

"Jenny, go home. There's nothing else to talk about on this topic. I don't know what you've heard, but you should know better than to listen to rumors. Sometimes you worry about things that don't concern you."

Jenny clenched her fist as she tried to hold back a retort that would get her fired.

"Okay. Thanks."

As she walked away, Jeffery called out to her one last time.

"Jenny, if you see Mike tell him I have the book he wanted to borrow from me."

"I'll make sure to give him the message," she said in a taut voice and walked out the door. Without saying a word to anyone else, she rushed into the locker room and ran straight into the bathroom where only a few short hours ago she'd spent those brief, too-perfect moments with Barbara. As she splashed her face with cold water, she held back a sob. It didn't help. A few tears fell from her eyes and dripped down her cheeks.

After Jenny had her mini-breakdown in the bathroom, she calmed down. At the moment, she didn't know what to do next. She found herself in a position of being damned if you do, damned if you don't. She knew she couldn't stay in the bathroom all night. Her friends were waiting for her to stop by The Watering Hole.

She took in a few deep breaths and went over to her locker to get her things. She had two text messages from Mike, one missed call, and a phone message. Looking at the number, she recognized it as Barbara's. If she listened to the message, she would call her back and have it out with her. Instead, she would go have a drink with her friends and figure out what to do later.

Jenny walked out of the hotel in a daze, deep in thought. The rain had stopped and the night had turned clear, with only a few scattered clouds remaining in the sky.

She walked around the puddles on the sidewalk. She felt utterly exhausted, not just because of all the sexual exercise she had engaged in with Barbara, but because she felt used. It didn't help matters she knew key information everyone she worked with had a right to know. She walked to the bar with a heavy heart. She planned on having one beer but craved something a lot stronger—like a few shots of vodka or tequila.

For a Sunday night, The Watering Hole looked pretty crowded with regulars and others who wanted to get one last drink in before they started work or other important responsibilities come Monday. Just like the famed bar
Cheers
on television, The Watering Hole was a place to go where everyone really did know your name. The moment Jenny entered the bar, many happy memories came rushing back and she smiled over the trouble she, Mike and Tonya would get into as they got drunk under the watchful eye of James. Tonya's brother could be a big stickler but there were times he allowed the bar crowd to let loose, particularly on St. Patrick's Day, when bagpipers played to get the crowd excited. This would lead to some of the female patrons dancing on top of the bar. Jenny had been one of them once or twice.

The Watering Hole could be classified as a dive bar with wooden benches and tables in the front. In the back were pool tables, dartboards and a few televisions to watch sporting events. The regulars came there for non-watered-down drinks and the low-priced happy hour during the week.

Jenny saw Mike and Tonya sitting in the corner booth, sharing a pitcher of beer.

Mike faced the door, which he always did, in order have a clear view of James, who worked tonight. James chatted with an attractive guy in a suit, a Wall Street type, who drank from a glass of clear liquid.

James looked up and smiled when he saw Jenny. "Hey, Jens." He waved. She appreciated his nice smile and sparkling blue eyes. He had also started going gray around the temples and she couldn't help but compare him to Anderson Cooper, the news reporter from the cable news network she sometimes watched. She started to walk over and say hello, but Mike motioned for her to come over.

"I'll catch ya later, Jamie," Jenny said.

James looked over at the booth where his sister and Mike sat and lifted his hand in understanding. "Just come over when you need another pitcher."

"Will do," Jenny responded and walked over to her friends.

When she reached the booth, Mike made room for her to sit next to him. Without a word, she picked up an empty glass that stood in the middle of table, poured a full glass of beer and chugged. Both Tonya and Mike watched in silence, most likely due to the fact that they'd never seen her do such a thing.

In less than a minute Jenny finished the beer and let out a loud burp. "Excuse me." She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "I think I'm going to need something a bit stronger than just beer."