Chapter 14 #2
“Dress up. Nice. It’s not every day you get to take the person you’re in love with on a first date,” he called after her, ignoring the fact that raising his voice made his head feel like it was going to split wide open. Some things were just worth it.
Josie was still smiling. It had been hours since she’d confronted Carter at his apartment, since she’d found all the courage she needed to just say to hell with it.
People would talk, and she would let them.
If they were talking about her and Carter, it was because they didn’t have enough going on in their own lives to keep them entertained. Not even Doris could dampen her mood.
At that thought, Josie looked up and caught Doris giving her the stink eye from the circulation desk.
Okay, maybe Doris could dampen her mood.
But really, that wasn’t important in the overall scheme of things, because Doris could dampen anyone’s mood.
With her beady eyes, too stiff hair, turned down mouth, and the general air of discontent that hovered around her, Doris was a walking and talking depressant.
Taking another book from the cart, Josie re-shelved it where it belonged.
It was an annoying aspect of her job that re-shelving books was all she was permitted to do.
She had a degree in library science. She had ideas for programs to make the library better, to bring people there, and make it the center of their community.
But as long as Doris reigned supreme, none of that would ever happen.
Picking up another book, Josie glanced at the cover. It was a torrid romance novel, the couple on the front locked in a heated embrace. That would be her. Tonight. It had been almost a week since she’d been in Carter’s arms. And she needed him.
“For Pete’s sake, Josephine! How long does it take you to re-shelve a book?”
Josie looked up to see Doris at the end of the stacks.
The weight of disapproval in her stare was tangible.
At any other time, Josie would have backed down immediately.
She would have apologized and promised to do better.
But the truth was, there was nothing wrong with the rate at which she was re-shelving books.
There was nothing wrong with her job performance at all.
She was actually more qualified to be head librarian than Doris, which was most certainly a big part of the problem she had with Josie.
“I’m sorry, Doris. Am I not scurrying quickly enough for you?” Josie asked, her voice saccharine sweet.
Sarcasm was apparently lost on Doris. “No, you’re not. You’re dawdling and taking your own sweet time about this, and there are more carts to be re-shelved!”
Josie looked pointedly at the circulation desk where Doris’s sister-in-law and her cousin, both library employees, were poring over the donated magazines and divvying up the best ones between them.
“And there are more employees who can get to them…or do I need to approach the county commissioner about the fact that your relatives are part-time employees who act more like patrons?”
“I can’t fire you,” Doris said. “Not without their approval, but I can make your life a living hell every moment that you’re here.”
“And that would be different, how? You’ll give me dirty looks?
You’ll pawn all the crap jobs off on me while your family stuffs their faces and read the latest tabloids?
Oh, I know. You’ll remind me every day that I’m not wanted here, and you’ll do whatever you can to get rid of me!
” Josie was shouting by the time she reached the end of her list. “But you already do those things, Doris. Every day I come to work, I stand here, re-shelving books like a trained monkey while your idiot cousin, who’s never read an actual book in her life, is in charge of acquisitions.
You haven’t offered any new community events that aren’t a stale rehash of what you’ve done for the last seventeen years. ”
“Get your things and go home,” Doris snapped. “I can’t fire you, but I can suspend you. And if the commissioner doesn’t like it, now I have witnesses to your unprofessional behavior. And don’t think you fooled anyone here. We all know you’ve been carrying on with Carter Hayes!”
“You’re right,” Josie said. “I have been carrying on with him. In my house. His house. In his truck. Wherever and whenever we can! But I haven’t done it here at the library, Doris, so you can’t use that against me.
What I do on my own time, in my personal life, has no bearing on my ability to do my job here.
The only thing that keeps me from being an asset to this library is the fact that you’re such a nepotistic jackass you won’t let me be!
And you go ahead and suspend me. With pay.
I’ll be filing a formal complaint with the county commissioner about the hostile work environment you’ve created here, and I’ll be formally requesting an audit of just how library funds have been spent. ”
Josie marched past Doris. As an afterthought, she turned around and thrust the steamy romance novel at her. “You should read that. It might improve your disposition.”
Gathering her purse and her coat from behind the desk, she ignored the curious stares and all the whispers from all the people who had somehow gathered in the library’s central hall while she’d been all but shouting at her boss.
One day, she thought, I will learn to control my temper and my mouth.
But she was glad she hadn’t done it yet.
Doris needed to be told off, among other things.
As she walked out, Josie realized exactly what she’d done and all that she’d said.
It would be all over town. She had to warn Carter, but first, she had to get to the county commissioner’s office before Doris twisted everything around on her.
Before she did anything, though, she was going home to change into something that didn’t induce depression.
If she never put on another pair of those god-awful khaki pants as long as she lived, she’d be a happy woman.
One of these days, she thought, I will learn to just keep my mouth shut.