CHAPTER TWO
After the explosion, no one had been allowed back into the building. She had never worked in a building with a bomb exploding near it. When she’d heard the boom, she had nearly wet herself.
When Mr. Holliday had finally allowed her to stand up and she saw no one was injured in the blast and the building wasn’t damaged, she had been relieved, but she now considered the job too dangerous. She swore to herself she would never buy Reese another pair of shoes as long as she lived.
Jocelyn couldn’t wait to get to her sister’s row house. Jocelyn knocked on Reese’s front door. She heard the thump of crutches as her sister hurried to the door.
“Who is it?”
“It’s me, Reese. Open the door.”
Reese opened the door and Jocelyn, who still had trash in her hair from the bomb fallout, rushed in and sat in the nearest living room chair. “I need a drink.”
Reese got her a glass of white wine. Jocelyn readily accepted the juice glass filled with white wine. “I need to steady my nerves. Do you know what happened today?”
Reese held up her hand to stop her. “Tiffany has already called me. She told me about the bomb going off in the Dumpster.”
Jocelyn said, “It was a good thing the bomb was contained by the Dumpster. Thank goodness those things are made out of heavy steel.” She wiped her brow with hand. “Whew, when the blast went off, trash blew straight into the air. People fell to the ground quicker than pancakes being flipped in a skillet. When I recovered from shock, I saw the ground was covered with trash.”
Jocelyn took a large gulp of her wine and continued. “I was so terrified when I heard the blast go off. I just knew when I finally looked up part of the building would be gone. But the only thing destroyed was trash.” She reached up to swipe her hand over her hair and pulled a piece of brown banana peel from her hair. She demanded, “What the hell have you gotten me into Reese?”
“I’m sorry you had such a scary experience on your first day covering for me. Will you still help me out until I’m better?”
Jocelyn frowned and out of nervous habit her left eye started to twitch. She took several more gulps of wine. “I’m not sure, but if I do, you’ll need to buy big trash cans, because I’m never going near any of the company’s Dumpsters.”
Reese refilled Jocelyn’s glass, “I don’t blame you. Nothing like this has happened at the paint company since I got the contract. I can’t imagine who would do something like put a bomb in a Dumpster, and for what reason?”
Reese, afraid that continuing to talk about the bomb would make Jocelyn too frightened to continue working for her, changed the subject, “So what did you think of Mr. Holliday? He’s such a serious man. I have rarely ever seen him smile.”
Jocelyn replied, “He reminds me of my ex-husband.” Jocelyn’s lips frowned whenever she began to think about her ex-husband. Her left eye started to twitch nervously.
“When I married my ex, I thought he was the best thing that ever happened to me. I couldn’t believe my luck when he asked me to marry him. But the jerk married me because I made a good salary. The ‘dirt bag’ expected me to take care of him.”
She took another big gulp of wine. She could barely control her twitching left eye now. Reese refilled her glass again with more wine.
Jocelyn said, “But all of that’s in the past. I’ve been burned more than once; it won’t happen again.” She shook her head back and forth. “I’m not taking any more chances with any more men.”
Reese added, “Yeah, the only ones you can really trust are the ones in your dreams. When you’re alone in your bed, you can close your eyes and dream about falling in love with a gorgeous, caring, handsome hunk. But in real life they can be real jerks.”
Jocelyn said, “You’re preaching to the choir. I’m through with romantic relationships. The only man I would consider having a relationship with is Brad Pitt.”
Both sisters sighed. They both loved Brad Pitt. They had watched him as girls when he played the lead in Troy; he was their perfect image of male beauty.
“Well I guess you won’t be with anybody anytime soon because he belongs to Angelina Jolie.”
Jocelyn started to feel more relaxed. She said, “Just my luck, he’s taken.”
Jocelyn’s eye had stopped twitching. She looked down at her glass. She hadn’t realized she had drunk two whole glasses of wine. She would have to catch a cab home.
When Jocelyn finally got up to leave, she asked Reese about the decked out, brand new, white Escalade with white leather seats she’d seen parked in front of the house. Reese lived in a blue collar neighborhood. Most of the people living there owned Fords, Chevrolets or Hondas.
Reese replied, “Um, that’s mine. I got it last Tuesday.”
Jocelyn yelled, “Reese, are you crazy? Where did you get the money for a new SUV? Did you win the lottery or something?
“No. It was a spur of the moment decision.”
“What about your finances? You know it has to go back don’t you?”
Reese said sheepishly, “It’ll go back tomorrow. I just couldn’t help myself. The dealer asked me if I wanted to test drive it for a couple days. Last Tuesday, I saw my sorry ass husband with his new slutty girlfriend.”
Reese gritted her teeth and continued, “She’s young, pretty and slim. She was wearing a fitted white tee shirt and a tight white leather skirt. Here I’m struggling to take care of our kids and he’s out dating again. When he saw me, he had the nerve to bring the girl up to my face and sneer, ‘meet my former old lady.”
“What did you do?”
Reese said, “I didn’t want to get arrested. So before I did something I’d regret, I just turned and walked away. Somehow I ended up at the car dealership.”
Jocelyn knew the car Reese currently drove was held to together with duct tape and bubble gum. She knew Reese needed another car, but was unable to afford anything nearly as expensive as the new SUV parked outside her house.
Reese’s eyes begged Jocelyn for understanding. “You know I’ve really needed a new car for some time. Honestly, I was just there to look. I sat in one, got a whiff of that new car smell, and started to feel better. Trying to deal with my separation still causes me a great deal of stress. Well, you see the end result of meeting my husband and his girlfriend parked outside.”
Jocelyn questioned, “Can you afford the monthly payments?”
Reese answered with a straight face, “Well I can afford a quarter of a monthly payment.”
Jocelyn had never cared for her brother-in –law, Clarence. If she had been a man, she would have punched out his lights a long time ago. When she was first introduced to him, the three of them-Reese, Jocelyn and Clarence sat in Reese’s apartment talking while they each drank beer. The more Jocelyn talked to him the more, she disliked him. He couldn’t take a joke. He was controlling and he wasn’t the brightest bulb in the box.
Every time he wanted something from the kitchen he had expected Reese to immediately jump up and get it. He had expected her to cook his dinner and hadn’t bothered to help her clean up after their meal was finished.
Despite her family’s objections, Reese had married Clarence and took her wedding vows seriously. She refused to leave him no matter how controlling he was and no matter how disrespectful he was to her. Her family encouraged her to leave him. She always ignored them.
After Reese married Clarence, he controlled all their money. Reese wasn’t allowed to purchase anything without his permission. He had to approve her clothing choices and even went so far as to dictate what she cooked for family meals.
Jocelyn and the rest of her family were glad to see him leave. In the past, when Reese and Clarence attended family gatherings, everyone had to control their tongues and tempers when he was around to keep the peace in the family.
At one family gathering, Clarence hadn’t been aware his mother-in law was close by. Jocelyn’s mom overheard Clarence call Reese a “stupid slut.” Their mom, nor
mally a very peaceful woman, had grabbed a nearby beer bottle and aimed it for Clarence’s head. Jocelyn had grabbed the beer bottle from her mom’s hand, just moments before she released it to throw it straight at her son-in-law’s head.
Jocelyn was glad she no longer had to be nice to the man she detested. She had helped Reese in the past whenever she needed it. But she had no idea how to help Reese get over being hurt by a husband who was determined to do whatever he wanted to do regardless of how much it hurt his family.
Later that night Jocelyn got a call from Reese. “I just got a call from my no good, soon to be ex- husband. He claims someone sent him a bouquet of balloons today. The card with the balloons read, WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND. “He asked me if I knew who had sent him the balloons. I told him it wasn’t me. Jocelyn, did you do it?”
Jocelyn replied, “No, but I did mention the problems you’re having to Dee.” Dee was Jocelyn’s youngest sister. All of the sisters had enjoyed playing practical jokes on each other when they were younger. They were infamous in their extended family for playing practical jokes.
“She asked me if I knew the name of the flower shop on State Street. I looked up the name and gave it to her. I mentioned to her they deliver anywhere in the city within twenty-four hours. You send them an email and they will attach it to a card. You can write anything on it.”
Reese said, “Well, I think I’ll give her a call before I go to bed. If it was Dee, she did me a large favor.” Then Reese started to giggle before she hung up.
Jocelyn was happy to hear her sister laugh, but she went to bed wondering how her sister had steered her to other subjects while she had been at her house. They had never gotten around to discussing the danger of Jocelyn continuing working at the Holliday Paint Company.