From Now On (18 page)

             
“I need to speak to you, Jo,” Becca said as she strode toward her.

             
“Now is not a good time.”

             
Becca scowled. “I think now is the perfect time. If you will come to my office, please.”

             
“Why don’t you just say it,” Jo said quietly. “Why don’t you just tell everyone here how I embarrassed you by helping Kathleen make happen something you’ve been fighting since your first day as deputy supervisor?”

             
“Excuse me?” Becca asked sharply as she glanced quickly around the room to see who might have heard what Jo said.

             
Suddenly emotionally overwrought, Jo let the anger that had been building in her chest from the moment she saw Danielle sitting in Mark’s cubicle have a voice.

             
“I don’t know what your problem is,” she said in a quiet, controlled voice, “I don’t know if you feel threatened by me for some reason or if you simply don’t like me. But this is a work place, not a playground. You can’t keep treating me like the nerd the cheerleaders only talk to when they need help with their homework.”

             
“How dare you—”

             
“How dare I what, Becca?” Jo took a step forward, forcing Becca to move backwards a few stumbling steps. “I am a good employee here. I produce twice the work you have ever done in the five years we have both been here. If anyone deserved that promotion, it was me. The only reason you got it is because you are better at brown nosing.”

             
Becca paled. “You can’t talk to me like that. I am your supervisor! I could fire you for that kind of insubordination!”

             
“Don’t bother,” Jo said. The anger had finally dissipated and she was suddenly so tired she just wanted to curl up on the floor and go to sleep. With a sad shake of her head, aware that what she was doing would have consequences, she said, “I quit.”

             
Jo brushed past Becca and strode to the stairs, aware of the stares following her as she went.

             
There was nothing new about that.

             
Jo tossed a handful of paper into the trashcan and turned her attention on the shelf of books behind her desk. She had come in early this morning to avoid running into Becca and anyone else with an opinion about Jo’s abrupt resignation. Unfortunately, she hadn’t avoided Sandy who was at that moment sitting on the couch trying to come up with some new reason why Jo shouldn’t leave BerCo.

             
“You can’t leave me at Becca’s mercy, Jo. You know she’ll transfer me back to the secretarial pool. I spent six years down there, I don’t want to go back.”

             
“I’m sorry, Sandy,” Jo said, for what had to be the hundredth time. “But I can’t take back that scene yesterday.”

             
“Sure you can. You just apologize to Becca.”

             
Jo turned and looked hard at Sandy. Sandy’s eyes immediately fell.

“Okay, maybe you can’t,” Sandy said. “But maybe if you went to Kathleen—”

“And everyone will know that I backed down and Becca still comes out smelling like a rose. I can’t do that, either.” Jo dropped a couple of books into a box on her desk with a thud. “I made my bed, Sandy.”

“What about your mom and your rent?”

“I don’t know.” Jo sighed.
She’d spent last night thinking about just that. “I’ll figure something out,” she said even though she had no clue what.

Jo had gone home yesterday afternoon on a cloud that quickly burst as soon as reality began to seep in. Standing up to Becca, not once but twice, felt really good. But it was a small victory that had left Jo without a source of income. And, without any savings, it left her in a bad situation. If she tightened her belt, she’d be okay for a month or so. Unfortunately, the last time she had looked for work it had taken her five months to find a job. And there hadn’t been a recession then.

But to be honest, it wasn’t quitting her job that had haunted Jo as she spent the night tossing and turning restlessly in bed. It was that her phone had rung a dozen times after she got home, but none of the calls were from Mark. Then this morning, when she called his cell, he didn’t answer. Instead, Jo left a message asking him to come by her office as soon as he arrived.

Jo glanced at her watch. He should be there within the hour.

Maybe then she could find out what happened yesterday. Jo had thought that Mark would call when he found her office empty at lunch. When that didn’t happen, she began to worry that he had heard about the confrontation with Danielle and was angry with Jo. Jo tried to imagine what about the things she had said to Danielle he might not have liked, but no matter how many times she ran it over in her mind, she couldn’t imagine how it would upset him. Unless Danielle had twisted Jo’s words, made it seem that Jo had been the aggressor. Jo didn’t know Danielle well enough to assume she would do such a thing. But she didn’t know she wouldn’t, either.

“Jo,” Sandy said, drawing Jo’s attention back to the present. “Why don’t you at least let me help you finish up in here?”

“It’s fine,” Jo said, tossing another short stack of books into a box. “I’m almost done anyway.”

“Are you sure you won’t reconsider staying?”

“I was wondering the same thing.”

Jo and Sandy both turned in surprise. Kathleen was standing in the doorway, surveying the scene with an unreadable expression. Sandy quickly jumped to her feet. “I should go,” she mumbled, brushing past Kathleen and giving Jo a quick thumbs up before she disappeared.

“I tried calling you a few times,” Kathleen said as she came into the room, looking around the room slowly and examining the three boxes that held five years of Jo’s life. “I guess you were too busy to answer.”

“I’m sorry,” Jo said, running her hands over the thighs of her jeans to wipe away the sweat that had suddenly accumulated there. “Yesterday was a pretty chaotic day.”

“I’m sure it was,” Kathleen said.

“I should have told you myself about my decision to quit,” Jo continued, “but I wasn’t really thinking very clearly at the time.”

“I understand that.” Kathleen took a seat in one of the straight back chairs in front of Jo’s desk. “I was told the scene with Becca was quite entertaining.”

             
Jo dropped the last of the books in her last box and moved it to the floor, not only so she could see Kathleen’s face from her place behind the desk, but to give her a moment to consider her answer. Jo settled in her office chair and laid her hands on the blotter, studying her poor, over-chewed fingernails as she finally said, “I’m not proud of what happened yesterday. I was upset when Becca confronted me. I should have handled it differently. For that, I apologize.”

             
Kathleen inclined her head slightly. “I appreciate that,” she said. “But I didn’t come here to chastise you for your behavior.”

             
Jo looked up, her eyebrows raised to show her mild surprise. “It was incredibly unprofessional.”

             
“Agreed.” Kathleen leaned forward, her hands clasped on the desk before her. “Now, can we forget all that for a moment?”

             
Jo nodded.

             
“Good,” Kathleen said. “Now, what can I do to convince you not to quit?”

             
Jo sat back and studied Kathleen’s face. “You want me to stay?”

             
“You are a good worker, Jo, I’ve told you that. And here recently you’ve begun showing yourself to be an asset to the company. Your work on the daycare proposal was inspired.”

             
“But that was you’re idea. I just helped you flesh it out.”

             
“You did more than that. You gave up your Saturday to come in here and help me with something that wasn’t even within your purview. Not only that, but I am confident that without your ideas for funding the center it would not have gotten the go ahead from the guys upstairs.”

             
Jo began to protest, but Kathleen held up a hand to silence her. “I’ve always known that you are passionate about your job, that you put the interests of the people over the interests of the corporation, and that’s exactly the kind of mentality that makes our department work so well. I can’t afford for you to quit now, just as you are beginning to live up to your full potential. So tell me, what will it take to make you stay?”

             
What would it take? Jo wondered to herself.

             
A few minutes after Kathleen left, Jo was standing in the middle of her office, studying the boxes she had spent the last hour packing. Before she could decide what to do next, there was a knock on the door.

             
“What now?” Jo asked the empty room before recalling that she had invited Mark to stop by this morning. But when the door opened, it wasn’t Mark who stood there.

             
“JoJo!”

             
“Jack.” Jo laughed, unable to resist the pure happiness she could see in his expression. And the dark bags under his eyes. “How’s it going, Daddy?”

             
“It is the most exhausting, frustrating, lovely, amazing thing I have ever done in my life.” Jack pulled out his cell phone as he walked into the room. “Isn’t she beautiful?”

             
Jo studied the dark haired, blued eyed beauty that was Jack’s tiny infant daughter. “Beautiful,” she sighed as Jack moved up behind her and flicked the screen to reveal another and then another photo of Michelle Elizabeth. “I can’t tell you how happy I am for you, Jack.”

             
“She’s perfect, isn’t she?” he asked as he studied the pictures along with her.

             
“She is.”

             
When they came to the end of the picture gallery on his phone, Jo turned and handed it back. “How’s Kyra?”

             
“As exhausted as I am.” Jack slid the phone into his pocket. “She said to tell you thanks for the blankets and the spa day you sent her. You’re the only one who sent her a gift that had nothing to do with the baby, you know?”

             
“I figured she would need some pampering when the newness wears off. Tell her there’s no rush, though. The coupon doesn’t have an expiration date.”

             
“I’ll tell her.”

             
Jo studied Jack’s face for a long minute. “If you had asked me two years ago if I could imagine you as a husband and father, I would have had a really good laugh.”

             
Jack smiled. “Yeah, me, too. But Kyra…she changed everything.”

             
“I really am happy for you, Jack,” Jo said. “You’ve done a lot of growing up. You deserve this.”

             
Jack groaned. “Don’t go getting all sentimental on me, Jo,” he said in a voice grown husky. “You know how I hate that.”

             
“Yeah, I do.”

             
Jack grunted. Then he held out his arms and Jo willingly moved into them. Jack was her oldest friend, maybe her only friend. And he was as familiar as an old blanket. Even now, even when his life was moving in a different direction from Jo’s, he was still her confidant, the older brother she never had. Somehow she felt that even if, for some reason, they were separated by distance and time, it would still be this easy between them.

             
As though he could hear her thoughts, Jack pulled Jo closer, squeezing her tightly for a brief moment. It was like those bear hugs her father had given her as a child. It told her everything was going to be alright. Nothing bad could ever happen that wouldn’t somehow work itself out if given enough time. Suddenly, standing there in Jack’s arms, Jo felt at peace with everything in her life.

             
That was, until he let her go and she turned to see Mark’s horrified expression as he watched from the doorway.

             
“Mark!”

             
Mark turned and walked away as though he hadn’t heard her voice, a look of such profound disappointment in his eyes that Jo felt a knife slice and twist in her heart.

             
Jo rushed through the door, Jack completely forgotten as she rushed to catch Mark. He walked faster than she could have imagined and she was nearly out of breath when she finally caught him with his hand on the stairwell door.

             
“Please, Mark, wait. Let me explain.”