Chapter 11
Bette was irritated. She shut her office door behind her as men streamed past to give herself a moment of peace. "Why is she such an ass?" she asked herself aloud.
Bette thought they had put this pettiness behind them last week when they were fixing up her office. It had been a pleasant afternoon. They had gotten along well. They even laughed together. It had been good. But then Kerrie, always irritable Kerrie, had to come to work with an attitude. She was so flip-floppy. It wasn't Bette's fault that she was behind.
A soft knock sounded on her door. She shut her purse up in one of the filing cabinets and called out. "Come in."
Bette wasn't surprised when Kerrie's graying brown head popped in. "Hey, you ready?"
"Yep." She grabbed her phone off her desk and turned to find herself face to face with Kerrie's chest, clad in a dark green polo and a hint of white undershirt poking out of the unbuttoned collar. She slowly looked up, licking her suddenly dry lips. The rude woman certainly had an effect on her, going by the tug of pleasure below the waistband of her panties. Jesus, Bette, you're getting turned on by arguing with her.
Kind, brown eyes met her own. "I'm sorry about the attitude. I feel like all I've done since we met is be rude to you and then apologize. I know it's not an excuse, but I really hate times like this. We're going to have to make a decision that will impact these men, and it's hard not to feel it on a personal level. Someone's probably going to be sent home, and I hate that for them."
The sincerity in her voice and compassion in her eyes quickly melted any iciness that lingered between them, being replaced with deeper aching. Bette was a sucker for owning up to one's actions, and Kerrie didn't seem to have any issue with doing that. She also never thought of what the consequences would be if someone broke the rules. Sitting in the morning meeting, it surprised her that someone would just walk off campus.
Bette found herself nodding as she placed a hand on Kerrie's arm, feeling a muscle twitch underneath. "You're right. We do seem to continue getting off on the wrong foot. Let's try again. I promise to try not to get in the way. I just need some guidance."
The words were falling out of her mouth before she even realized that she had forgiven Kerrie. But there was something about the woman that she had a hard time resisting. She believed that if they were able to iron out a few wrinkles, they would work well together. They just had to figure out how. "How about this? You can give me small tutorials on what I need to do, and while I'm figuring that all out, you can do work. That way, I'm not taking a large chunk of your time. You said that chores needed to be done today?"
Kerrie nodded. "Yeah, they do."
"How about after the meeting with Wilson, you give me a quick rundown on it, and I'll work on that for a while? That should give you time to get some things done. There are still a few things I need to do around this office anyway."
Slowly, Kerrie nodded, clearly warming up to the idea. She smiled. "That works. I think that's a good idea."
Bette reluctantly removed her hand from Kerrie's warm arm and motioned to the door. "Well, why don't we get this over with then? It doesn't sound like it's going to be fun."
Kerrie shook her head. "No, no, it's not going to be fun at all, but it has to be done."
Wilson's office would have been large had it not been for all the junk it was currently housing. Stacks of papers and books, filing cabinets, and bookshelves crammed full. Even the windowsill was covered in stress balls and two dead cacti. There were two chairs, one new with still polished silver legs and the other wooden, which was beaten to hell and had a sizable chunk of yellow cushion missing. Kerrie insisted Bette take the newer one.
Wilson looked like he was three days from retirement. An older man with nearly white hair and black-rimmed glasses sat behind a desk topped with more stacks of paper, books, and close to half a dozen drink bottles filled with various amounts of what looked like coke, but to Bette's horror, turned out to be spit bottles for tobacco. She tried not to cringe when he popped the lid off one and spit the brown liquid in the bottle. "So, looks like we got a little problem over the weekend, huh?"
"Yeah, unfortunately. Did Luke fill you in? "
Bette had noticed that Wilson hadn't been at the morning meeting. In fact, she had yet to see him attend one. Bette was quickly getting the impression that Wilson didn't do anything he didn't have to do, which could explain some of Kerrie's burdens.
"He did. I pulled each of mine up here separately while you were at the morning meeting. From what I understand, your client went to the store and brought the alcohol back. My two took advantage of it."
Kerrie nodded with a sad sigh. She didn't look surprised. "I noticed he was a little distant when we met. I don't know if this is self-sabotage or what. He has a lot riding on this program. Are you keeping yours here?"
"Yeah, but I did bust them back down to red tag, and I'm going to call their POs. They know they can't mess up again, or it's automatically an incomplete of the program."
"So, they got drunk but can stay?" Bette interjected, looking between them.
Wilson nodded. "Yeah. We offer them an environment that is supposed to be safe and free from substances. They're addicts, and I can't blame them this fresh into sobriety that they had a moment of weakness. Kerrie's client physically left campus, which is an automatic ticket out of here, but also brought the substances in. If mine had been with him, then it would have been another story. We try to give grace where we can, but some things you can't overlook."
"It's not something we want to do, but we have to protect the others. This just isn't his time to complete the program. He'll be allowed back, though, after 30 days. Granted, he's on legal, so it'll probably be much longer."
Bette's heart went out to the young man named Jones. She attended his meeting with Kerrie. It felt weird sitting there watching as the young man was reduced to tears while he tried to find the words to explain why he had done it. He was maybe around 24, not much older than Zoe. His sandy hair was stuck up everywhere because he repeatedly ran his hands through it, and he couldn't sit still. He fidgeted for his life as he begged to stay, but Kerrie was firm yet gentle. He had put the whole house at risk of relapsing. He aided two of the Sparrow men to falter. Bette could tell Kerrie hated it; she was sending him back to county lockup. His parole officer had made it clear that if he didn't complete the program, he was to take the bus back and turn himself in. It had been a condition of his release that he knew and agreed to. Bette couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking on the short walk to the store. Did he think about serving nine more months in jail as he opened the door to the beer bunker? When he handed the cash over to the store worker, did he think of his fiancée, who had begged him to accept the offer to go to rehab? At any point on the walk back, arms loaded with a case of beer, had the image of his daughter flashed across his mind?
By the end of the meeting, Bette felt like she had been the one to break the rules. It had taken everything in her not to start crying and throw her arms around him. He was not that old. He was hardly an adult. She wanted to mother the baby-faced guy. Shake his shoulders while she chastised him. Stand in front of him to protect him from the outside world. In the end, she simply gave him a sad, glossy-eyed smile and half a hug before he went with Luke to Sparrow to pack up his things.
"Here," said Kerrie in a soft voice as a box of tissues appeared in front of her.
Grabbing a few, she sniffled as she dabbed at her eyes, hoping to prevent her makeup from smearing. "That was rough."
Kerrie nodded, placing the tissues back on the corner of her desk. "Yeah, it was. You did good, though. I was a mess the first time I sent someone home. Blubbered like a baby for three hours. Felt like I had sent the man to his death."
"I guess I see now why you were such a dick this morning," joked Bette in an attempt to lighten the mood. She was barely keeping the tears from rushing down her face.
Kerrie barked out a laugh, nodding as she sat down. "Yeah, I guess so. Honestly, I've just had a lot going on. I thought I'd finally get some peace this weekend, but I ended up having to spend all of Sunday working on my rental."
Bette's ears perked up. "Rental?"
Taking a sip of her coffee, she nodded as she leaned back in her chair. "Yeah, the kid that was renting from me lost his job, so I have to get it spruced up before finding a new tenant. I hate painting, and he didn't treat the walls with a lot of respect. Marks from furniture were all over."
Bette bit her lip and thought about her conversation with Zoe. She really wanted to move out, but money was tight. Should she ask how much it was a month? She wasn't going to be that picky about what it looked like. It was just her. It wasn't like she needed anything big or fancy. No, no, now wasn't the time. She had to be smart. She didn't even get along with Kerrie half the time.
"Well, how about we go over the chore stuff before I put the incident with Jones into the computer? It'll take me a while to write everything up and get all the ducks in a row. Paperwork around here isn't light," Kerrie snorted, rolling her eyes.
"That sounds good."