Chapter Five
Harlyn
It was ten minutes after one when Anabelle and Janene walked off the elevator and into the lobby where Colby and I were sitting as we had been instructed to do by Janene herself. Anabell was carrying a white plastic bag with what looked like leftovers, because of course someone that petite couldn’t finish an entire sandwich, assuming she ate carbs and what was in the bag wasn’t a salad. She was giggling over something Janene had said, I presumed. It was the same overzealous reaction she’d used in the conference room before lunch. I wanted to shove a sock down her throat and tell her to have a little self-respect.
Janene was chuckling too, like some stupid school girl, until she turned and our eyes met. I didn’t need a mirror to know that there was a scowl on my face. Much like my mother, I wasn’t good at hiding my emotions, they were always plainly visible if you looked in my direction. The difference between me and my mom was that I wasn’t one to tell you why I was upset, or alarmed, or even excited. I liked to keep all of the words that described those visible emotions tucked away deep inside. Most of the time it was because even I didn’t know why I was feeling the way I was feeling. I had no reason at all to care that Janene and Anabelle had gone to lunch together or that they were sharing some sort of inside joke but it was obvious to anyone in the reception area that I was clearly annoyed.
“Be back at one,” she’d said when she dismissed us for lunch and yet she was the one walking in ten minutes late.
I looked down at my phone to emphasize my point. I had returned to the office ten minutes early to ensure I was not late because no one wants to be late on their first day, especially when your boss specifically asked you not to be late. But my efforts were in vain and as they say, no good deed goes unpunished. I got to sit in a straight back chair for twenty minutes while I listened to Misty gab on her phone. She had been gossiping about someone she knew whose teenage daughter had just revealed that she was pregnant. She was loud and obnoxious. I wanted to tell her to shut up, but of course I wasn’t really mad at Misty. I didn’t care that she was telling some poor girl’s story at a loud enough volume I was sure the people two stories up from us could hear her. I hoped the daughter was ready for the world to know her secret because Misty was all about the details and she didn’t seem to care who heard her tell the story.
The very voluptuous Misty though also had a particular look for Janene when she and Anabelle walked in. It was one that I wasn’t sure how to read. It was part, I know what you’ve been doing, part nice job-she’s cute, and part you’re really messing with my day here. Janene looked from me to Misty and then back at me again as if to say, “this isn’t what it looks like,” even though we both knew it was exactly what it looked like.
“Sorry,” Janene said after she cleared her throat. “The line at the deli was much longer than we anticipated.”
Janene placed her hand at the center of Anabelle’s back and nudged her toward the chairs where Colby and I were seated. That small touch seemed a little too intimate to me. I couldn’t remember ever having a boss place their hand on my back to move me forward, or for any other reason, really. I always assumed it was common knowledge that HR didn’t like the boss putting their hands on any subordinate, unless of course that subordinate had granted their boss permission, but even that was a slippery slope most HR reps preferred to avoid.
That little move made me wonder if there was already something brewing between the two women. I watched Anabelle as she took a seat next to Colby. Once again, I found myself thinking that there was nothing remarkable about her features. She wasn’t unattractive, I would never say that, but she was plain and I couldn’t see what Janene saw in her. Maybe it wasn’t about the way she looked, maybe it was just the attention that Anabelle gave her and vice-versa.
I didn’t know anything about Janene’s private life. She and my mom may have discussed it, but it wasn’t anything my mom divulged to me. The exception being the occasional complaint that she wished Janene would settle down. She hadn’t been in an actual relationship in decades and mom hated that. Mom hadn’t been in a relationship either, not since she and Dad split, but she also didn’t date. It was almost as if she had sworn herself to celibacy when she got divorced.
Janene, on the other hand, seemed to have sworn herself to an over active sex life, to hear my mother tell it. I wasn’t sure how true any of that was, because again, my mother could be overly dramatic but if the way she was acting toward a woman she’d only just met was any indication, in addition to the reaction Janene had garnered from Misty, my mom probably wasn’t exaggerating by much.
It seemed impossible to me to live almost your entire life moving from one woman to the next without any real connection. In a way I was envious of the fact that she could live like that because I was not that person. I imagined that the coining of the term U-Haul lesbian was made specifically for me. I couldn’t be with someone if we weren’t in a relationship. It didn’t make sense. As a child of divorced parents that hated each other so much they had to live on opposite ends of the world, you would think I’d be all about the single life, but I wasn’t. I loved the idea of a commitment that held two people together forever. I wanted someone’s undivided attention for days and months and years on end. I knew at one time, Janene believed in that too. And it was sad to see that she had given up on that idea. What would Coreen say if she could speak from beyond the grave?
I hadn’t thought about Coreen in a really long time but I found myself trying to remember what she looked like to compare her to Anabelle. She’d died before I was born so I didn’t have any memories of her but mom had several pictures of the three of them displayed all over the house so I definitely knew of her existence. From the few stories my mother told about her friendship with Coreen and Janene, I knew that Coreen was quite athletic. She was on their high school volleyball team, and she played basketball too. She wasn’t blonde either, she was a brunette, like mom. I was pretty certain she didn’t look anything like Anabelle but maybe that was the point. Maybe Janene had a type and she liked to move in the opposite direction of that type.
“Misty, will you take them down to see Ted so he can issue them equipment and badges,” Janene said.
Misty was still watching Janene with a huge grin plastered on her face. “Sure thing,” she said.
Janene gave her a weak smile and then walked down the hall toward her office without another word to the rest of us.
“Can I drop this off in the breakroom before we go?” Anabelle asked.
“Of course, princess,” Misty said.
Anabelle’s face turned red as she stood and walked down the same hall Janene had disappeared down.
“You don’t mind waiting a little longer, do you?” Misty asked me and Colby. It was obvious she was being sarcastic. She rolled her eyes and shook her head.
Misty walked us to an office one floor down to see Ted, the RedPrint IT guy. Once we were introduced, Misty walked away like she was dumping off stepchildren that she didn’t want anything to do with anymore. I couldn’t help but wonder if she was going to seek Janene out and give her a hard time about her lunch date.
By the time we got through the four retakes Anabelle asked for because she wanted a good picture for her badge, I was ready to give Janene a piece of my mind too. What was it that she saw in the woman that made her think to offer her a job? The girl did not know how to have a conversation without batting her eyes and giggling. Ted ate it up just like Janene had, hence the multiple photo retakes. I knew if I had asked him to redo my picture he would have laughed and said: next.
I was so glad it was Friday and I only had to endure one day of this racket. I wasn’t sure how I was going to endure five days straight when the work week started over. I’d have to do some serious soul searching or witch crafting over the weekend to prepare for the week. As Colby and I sat and waited for Anabelle to get her picture right, I itched to call Caitlin and vomit my frustration. She would be the only one to understand how irritating the situation was for me.