Page 62 of Love & Other Disasters

Twenty-Two

The next few weeks were a weird contrast of pretending she didn’t know J.P. at work and spending nights with him. She divided it in her mind as the uptight, suit-wearing, Bulova-watch-sporting, Jordan Harper, boss, and the more relaxed J.P. who showed up at her door without a suit and rocked her world, her maybe boyfriend. They stuck to their agreement, no personal talk at work, not even alone in his office. It was all professional. She did steal glances his way and caught him doing the same.

Jordan continued to change the department, and Violet’s job title changed to Staff Accountant. He also moved Monique and Bonnie to other positions with new titles. He’d explained over dinner one night that it was to realign the department in keeping with most traditional medium sized companies. Around Monique and the others, she tamped down her guilt about the insight she had into his process because most nights he talked it through during their meals, but she couldn’t tell them anything. She finally had a life, and she couldn’t talk about it.

A few Saturday’s after their regular sleepovers began, he surprised her by revealing he planned to go to her parents’ with her for dinner.

“Why are you surprised by this?” he’d asked. “It’s been a few weeks. They already think I’m your boyfriend, and now that we’re official.”

“You’re my boyfriend?” It came out in the form of a question. His expression changed. Since when was J.P. the boyfriend type?

“Do you not think so?”

“I mean… J.P. we haven’t talked about that yet. It’s only been a few weeks, and I didn’t want to presume anything.”

“Fair point, I’d assumed that since you were a good girl that you’d want a commitment to do what we’re doing.”

Violet’s blood set to boil. “That’s so insulting.”

“What?” his face wrinkled in confusion.

“The good girl comment. That’s insulting.”

“But you’re not one to sleep around. You said so yourself.”

“I’m not something infallible that you put on a pedestal. I’ve made mistakes, and you are well aware of that, and I’ll do so again. But the worst part of your statement is the assumption that any woman who hasn’t made the same choices as me is a ‘bad’ person, and that’s crap.” Her heart thudded in her ears.

J.P. stared at her flummoxed for a second, but he was quick on his feet. “I’d thought it was a compliment and didn’t mean it like that. And I’ve never considered it with that perspective.” He scooted toward her and held out his hand. She put her hand in his, and he kissed her knuckles. And her heart palpitated, almost like it could flutter from her chest. She’d been so angry at him, how could he turn it around with a few words and a gentle kiss?

The trees outside turned orange, red, and gold. Jill hadn’t spoken to Violet since the incident, which was odd because the entire ordeal had been Jill’s fault, and Violet wasn’t mad at her. But the opposite wasn’t true. Jill should direct her anger at Geoff and not Violet. The whole incident had opened a rift between them, and the longer Jill avoided her, the worse it became. At least she was still visiting their parents, just not for the Sunday dinners in which Violet was present.

“Hey,” Monique appeared over their adjoining cubicle wall. Today she’d confined her curls to a knot on top of her head. “Something’s different about you?”

“My sister still won’t speak to me. It’s just… I don’t know. The longer it stretches out, the worse it gets. I mean she can’t avoid me forever, can she?” Violet had told Monique the story of what happened—leaving Jordan’s name out of it. Her friend couldn’t believe that Violet had spent the night in a jail after sneaking into and out of a cult compound.

“She’s obviously embarrassed,” Monique said. “Probably feels like an idiot.”

“We’ve never been close, but she’s not even texting to demean me about my boring life, her favorite past time.”

Monique shrugged. “Maybe she got back together with cult dude.”

“Don’t even joke. Seeing that nasty smug face across a dinner table again…what a nightmare.”

“Especially since you’ve seen his junk.”

“Ugh,” she groaned. “Thanks for the reminder.” The mental image of a naked Geoff still haunted her nightmares.

“But, that’s not it, your sister,” her fingers tapped out a rhythm on top of the cubicle wall. “Even with that, recently you’ve seemed… happy.”

“Happy?” Violet looked up at Monique so fast the room whirled around for a beat. “I’m always happy.”

Monique laughed, “No, you weren’t. You struck me as resigned to the world, but lately it’s been different. You seem lighter.”

“I lost weight, thanks,” she quipped, removing her glasses and cleaning off an imaginary smudge with the hem of her shirt.

“I’ve noticed it, too,” Bonnie said, popping up from the cubicle behind her.

Not her too. Violet had to quiet them before anyone else overheard. It wasn’t the talk she needed around the office. “There’s nothing to notice,” she whispered. “I’m just happy to be doing something different.” Both women stared at her.

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