52. Jenna
JENNA
“ T hings truly are dire.”
“Look, it will make my mom happy. This is her first wedding, and who knows? Maybe I will have a spiritual experience.”
“You mean hallucinate as you puke your brains out in a yurt from eating berries you foraged? You better tell McCarthy where you’re going just in case he needs to pay fifty thousand dollars to airlift you out of the remote tundra,” Hannah says.
“Also, your purse sold. You can go on a nice vacation instead of the wilderness retreat.”
“It’s not really my purse. I have to give the money back to McCarthy.”
“Girl…”
“It’s wrong to keep the money.”
“He doesn’t need it,” Hannah says .
“I know, but it’s bad karma. As soon as I heard it sold, I got another creepy message. It’s a sign.”
“You really are spending too much time with your mom.” Hannah adjusts her laptop bag. “And now that you somehow have picked up yet another stalker, I don’t think going to the wilderness with just you, your mom, and the senior-citizen brigade is a safe idea.”
“Granny Mavis is bringing a rifle.”
“Shoot. You should have brought her to this meeting.” Hannah waves to the VW bus that’s parked on a side street.
I pep-talk myself as I wait in the lobby of the Prism offices. “No crying. We’re not going to cry; we’re going to ask for what we deserve. Channel your inner self-absorbed billionaire.”
“Jenna?” the receptionist calls. “Right this way.”
The CEO, Bethany, and the VPs are waiting upstairs in the big conference room, all lined up on the far side of the table.
“Thank you for meeting with me.” I’m wearing my polite PR face. “Good to see you all again.”
They don’t respond. I take a seat with my back to the door and busy myself setting out my notebook and pens.
“Let’s just jump right in. As I mentioned in my email, I was unfairly terminated due to harassment by Stuart Bethany’s husband that was not addressed and was allowed to continue.
This resulted in a hostile work environment.
Now, I don’t think we should involve lawyers, since there’s already bad press floating around about this organization, but I would like six months of compensation, or unfortunately I will have to get legal representation.
I’m hoping we can handle this between us, however. ”
“Excuse me?” the VP chokes out. “You think you’re suing us? No. You’re not suing us. We’re suing you.”
“We’re losing clients to your company,” Bethany rages at me.
“What company?” I shriek. “I don’t a have a company.”
“You have one registered,” one of the VPs says, shoving papers at me.
“I… What?”
He shows me the printouts from the Washington State Secretary of State. “That’s your Instagram handle as a business.” He taps the name.
“The CEO of OmniSoft was going to sign a contract here, and now he says they’re going to your firm after what you did with McCarthy. You’re poaching our clients!” the VP yells.
The CEO holds up his hand. “Ms. Whitney, as you can see, tensions are high…”
There was a reason why this man started a successful PR company.
“We’d like to offer you a buyout of your company. Partner with us. You’ll have a team, resources…”
“No, we’re suing her,” Bethany demands.
“You can’t sue me. I don’t have any money!” I screech. “I told you from day one I wasn’t after your husband. I told you Rex was a piece of shit, and I told you McCarthy was a loose cannon and I needed a team to manage him.”
“So this is your fault.” The VP turns to Bethany.
“You can’t fire me. I’m about to go on maternity leave.”
“I want a settlement,” I interrupt.
“You’re taking all of our clients. We don’t have money for a settlement, so lawyer up,” the CEO shoots back .
“Dammit, fine. Never mind.” I swear, leaving the conference room.
I don’t have money for a lawyer. Now someone has stolen my identity. Again. And I’m being stalked. Again. My life is a disaster. Again. Actually, not again. It’s worse because I had to move back home.
“You started a company?” Hannah, who is waiting in the stairwell, grabs me. “Arty says he’s going to go work for you.”
“What?”
“You have office space.” Hannah is accusatory. “I’m your friend. I can’t believe you told Arty but didn’t tell me. Even Cameron knows.”
“I don’t have a company, Hannah,” I tell her slowly. “I don’t know what’s going on. Clearly someone stole my Social Security number. I’m not getting my tax refund this year, either, which is really making me rethink my moral high ground of giving McCarthy his money back.” I slump against the wall.
“Or maybe this money is completely cursed.” I pull the cash out of my purse. “And I need to go to the RDC offices immediately. Of course, if I did have a business, you’d be my business partner, but I don’t. There’s some mistake.”
Hannah softens. “Your life is a mess. But on the bright side, you should start a company.”
“I went to bat for you!” Arty and several other employees are waiting in the office lobby. They clamor when they see me.
“I can bring the ArchiSoft account.” One girl waves her phone at me. “See? They say they’ll come with us!”
“I think there’s been a mistake.”
“No mistake. We’re just going to go with it!” She fires off a response.
“Everyone, sign up here if you want to jump ship to Jenna’s new firm.” Hannah holds out a tablet.
“I don’t have a firm…”
The receptionist seems harried, especially when Arty opens the front door for a well-dressed older woman.
“There you are, Jennifer. I’ve been trying to reach you. I don’t understand. You young people insist that you don’t like to talk on the phone, then you don’t answer any emails I send to your text messages.”
I pull out my phone.
“You see?” The chairwoman peers over my shoulder. “I’ve sent you several messages.”
“That was you?”
“As you can imagine, we are in need of a PR person.”
My smile is a little strained.
“Since I believe I was one of the first people to message you, I should get first priority at your new company. I certainly expect to be prioritized over McCarthy and RDC, all things considered.”
Even though I want to scream, “Why do you trust me with your business?” I immediately jump into PR mode. “Don’t worry, Madame Chairwoman. I have a number of ideas to turn around this bad press.”
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you and McCarthy planned this whole thing.” She looks down her nose at me.
“No ulterior motives here. McCarthy slipped his leash, and things went a little sideways. He’s a difficult man to manage, but we’re back on track. ”
“What the fuck?” I whisper to Hannah when we’re back in Cher, trundling toward the address of the office I apparently have.
“McCarthy set all this up for you.” Hannah is giddy. “He’s trying to get you back.”
“It won’t work.”
Not even when he’s waiting in the lobby of the office building, looking like he’s stepped out of every cheap-wine-induced fantasy I ever had. McCarthy inclines his head when I march up.
“So, this is some con to win me back?”
He looks down at me from that impossible height. “Hardly. Neither is it an apology for ruining your old job. I set this up for purely selfish reasons because I need to continue the good PR. I’m back in good graces with Salinger. Also, I don’t want his girlfriend hiring you away.”
“Away to where? Does it have benefits? PTO? What about pet insurance?”
“Focus, Cupcake.” He rests two fingers under my chin for a second.
“Before I forget…” I croak the words out and fish out the envelope of money from the consignment store before I can tell him I want to have his babies and that I made a mistake. “I sold your purse.”
He gives me a quizzical look.
“You know.” I jingle my Stanley cup at him.
“It’s yours, Jenna.” He shrugs.
“I don’t want it. I told you I don’t want expensive gifts. I cannot be bought.”
“I’m not trying to buy you.” His mouth screws up. “I don’t want you working directly for me because if shit goes down, I need to be able to throw someone under the bus. ”
“Oh.”
“It’s just business.”
He’s acting like he didn’t just tell me he loved me three days ago, like he’s just a client like any other.
“Well, then.”
He hands me a lease agreement. “Not to mention, I need tenants in this office space. My lender, a.k.a. Salinger, is up my ass about occupancy ratios. The rent is $7,500 a month. It comes with a tenant fit-out budget, though.”
I suck in a breath. Maybe I would like a boyfriend to subsidize my existence.
“I know you don’t like favors, so the rent is market rate. Unlike you, I’m not running a charity.”
When I follow him upstairs, Hannah, Zephyr, and the senior citizens are already settling into my new office, admiring the view and the amenities.
“Are you sure you won’t be sued for taking clients?” Zephyr asks Hannah.
“We’re not stealing clients,” I tell Hannah. “We’re offering them an alternative.”
“I’ll help stock up your breakroom,” Zephyr offers. “Fresh veggies are a wonderful employee perk.”
Truman sees McCarthy and goes crazy, wagging his tail. Buddy is next to him, sniffing.
“Is Jenna making you work?” McCarthy kneels down to pick up Truman.
“If you want to, you can take him for, like, a doggie playdate or something.”
“You want to come to a real house with central air?” McCarthy coos to Truman, who licks his face.
Not to be outdone, Buddy slobbers all over McCarthy’s ear .
It tugs at my heartstrings to see McCarthy with both dogs. He’d be a good father. And I told him I didn’t want anything to do with him.
“I’m going to hire you. It’s a long-term, very lucrative contract.” McCarthy stands up and brushes off his pants. “I think you can manage as long as you don’t blow your budget on sprinkles and doughnuts.”
“Is this a trick?” I demand, part of me hoping he’ll get down on one knee and tell me this is his grand gesture and he wants to spend the rest of his life with me. The other part is like, “Jenna, get a grip and act like a professional.”
“You’re good at your job. I’ve been recommending you. Obviously.” McCarthy holds out his hand.
I stare down at it.
“Do we have a deal?”
“A deal?” I croak.
Not to offer marriage. Just to shake.
I move my Stanley cup to my other hand and swallow the lump in my throat. “Yeah. I mean, yes, deal.”
“Just leave the signed paperwork with the leasing office.”
I stare at him as he walks out.
Hannah rests her chin on my shoulder. “Why aren’t we going after him? You’re almost thirty. The independent-woman shtick is fun for a little bit, but you know, what about your life goals? At this rate, your mom’s going to be on family number two before you even start a family.”
“He doesn’t want me anymore.” I sniffle. “Did he really lose interest that quickly?”
“To be fair, you told him to get lost and give you some space,” Hannah reminds me, sipping her coffee. “You can’t be mad when he respects the boundaries that you set. ”
“I wanted him to stomp all over my boundaries.” The tears well.
“You’re addicted to the drama.”
When I’m back in my childhood bedroom, putting out old pots and pans to catch the water that’s leaking through the roof, I realize…
“Hannah’s right, Truman. I don’t want the happily ever after. I just want the drama of a toxic guy.” Truman runs and hides under the daybed when a big fat drop of water lands on his nose.
“Maybe I wasn’t in love with McCarthy or any of my exes. Maybe I just liked being the main character in my own life.”
Cue existential crisis.
“Guess I really do need that retreat.”
My phone beeps, making me jump. I don’t think I’ll ever get over the fear that it’s another crazy message. Fortunately, it’s someone wanting to know if I have an opening at my PR company.
As I text them back, I can’t help the feeling that something is outside my window… watching me.