12. Hannah
12
Hannah
Jason kept to himself more than Hannah expected. He tagged along with her on her dog walks the next evening, but holed himself up in his room looking at bids and making calls most of the time. When Friday night came, she proposed they go to the movies or the mall, but he declined so quickly it gave her whiplash. That was fine. She was giving him a break until Monday when she planned to enact her plan.
In her mind, she was building a list of ways to softly break through his physical aversion to people. Since most of the experiments would happen at work, she wanted to be careful not to overwhelm him. He trusted her, after all. When he had told her that, her heart had filled with hope that one day there might be a future for them—outside of just being friends. Desire was the first step toward change.
On Saturday morning, he shoved cleaner and rags into her hands as soon as she came out to the kitchen.
She groaned. “What are you doing?”
“Cleaning. The bathroom is driving me crazy, and we should clean up last night’s popcorn mess. ”
“Mess? Don’t tell me you didn’t like my blueberry-flavored popcorn.”
“Oh, I liked it, but you convinced me to leave the mess and watch a movie with you. And I did. But now, you’re going to do something I want to do.” He grinned and held up his own bottle of cleaner.
She groaned and followed him into the bathroom. “Fine,” she grumbled.
He played some music on his phone, and the two of them worked in grumpy silence. By the time they were through with the bathroom and kitchen, she was wiped.
She laid her cleaning towel on the counter and stretched. “Looks good, but this is way more than the ten minutes I allow for cleaning every night.”
“Ten minutes?” He snorted. “That’s barely enough time. Look at this place. It looks tons better, and I can move around comfortably.”
She bit her lip, trying not to be annoyed. It was easy for him to become uncomfortable, but the mess didn’t bother her. And she was used to living alone. What she had thought was a good idea was quickly becoming overbearing. It was just... different. New. And new could be good. Eventually.
“Well, I better get ready,” she said, glad she had an honest reason to leave.
“Wait, what about the front room?”
Her eyes widened as he started toward the front room with his rag. “I have plans, though.”
He spun around. “Another job?”
“No, my taekwondo class. Want to come?” She hoped he wouldn’t, but it felt rude not to ask. She needed a break from her house, and sadly, from him. It had only been four days, and already she felt as if she carried a weight on her chest. If she felt this after just a few days, what did that say about their ability to maintain a real relationship in the future? The thought depressed her, and that’s why she needed to leave and get some perspective.
“Oh, I forgot you had those classes. No, that’s okay. Have fun. And...” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a large bill. “I’ll go shopping while you’re gone. If you want to send me a list of things we need, I’ll get them all. Let’s fill your fridge and cabinets. I feel bad mooching.”
She brightened as she thought of all the yummy meals she could make. “Okay, but I might not make it back until close to dinnertime.”
“It’s all right. I think I can pull something together. I need to head to my house anyway and do some cleaning. I picked the construction company last night, and I want to make sure everything’s ready for them Monday morning.”
Without ever seeing the inside of his house, she could just imagine how clean and organized it was.
“Okay, sounds good. See you at dinnertime. Maybe six.”
She gave the house one last look and then went to her room to change. Her house really did look better, but he’d eventually get frustrated with her lack of maintenance. Even her bird had been more irritated with the extra guest in the house.
She sighed and pulled out some clothes for class. A break away would be nice.
One thing her parents had done well was keep her involved in activities. With all of her pent-up energy, she needed multiple outlets. Sports, dancing, martial arts—whatever her parents could find to occupy her mind and body and keep her away from the house.
Over the years, she’d developed a love for martial arts. It was when she felt the most control over her body and mind. Instead of reacting, she was forced to think through a process and decide on the best move.
When she was younger, she’d competed and won many competitions, but as an adult, she went to taekwondo to keep her centered.
Sabum, the same instructor she’d had for years, was the calmest, most steady human being she’d ever met. He calculated every answer; took his time making decisions, sometimes to the point of painfully deciding whether to advance her to a new group; and was the person she had adopted as a grandpa.
He always greeted her with a warm embrace, inspired her, and sent her away motivated with a challenge.
And today, she needed some centering. After a good stretch, she faced him on the floor. No one else was qualified enough to compete with her, and she thrived on challenges.
“Having a rough time lately?” Sabum asked as he waited for her to get in position.
“Yes, you could say that.” She hated that having Jason in her house was rough, but his constant need to change things was getting to her.
“Do we need to get anything out before we work?”
She shook her head and cleared her mind with one deep breath. “No, I’m ready.”
Monday morning, Hannah woke before her alarm, and was ready for the day before Jason got out of the shower. “See you at work,” she sang.
He’d helped her arrange her closet the night before, and she was still sore from lifting mounds of clothes. Sure, her house looked amazing—unrecognizable. Even her bird’s cage was clean. How he’d gotten Tweety out without freaking the bird out was beyond her, but it had happened, and she couldn’t be too upset. But still... it reminded Hannah of when her parents had constantly come down on her for not being enough.
She was grateful she could focus on helping Jason with his issues instead of thinking about her own. Helping others was second nature to her and always fixed her mindset.
Her PE classes crawled by, and she regretted planning so poorly—a basketball skills workshop instead of something more active—but it was what it was.
After work, she dressed in a hurry and headed to the office. As always, Jason was holed up in the office. Perfect. Slowly, she was going to draw Jason out of his shell.
Instead of greeting him first, as she always did, she stashed her things in the break room. Then she started Plan A: Keep Jason out of his office... all day. She had enlisted Rueben’s help, and he’d given her an idea to do employee evaluations, ones Rueben usually took care of himself. Over the weekend, she’d arranged meeting after meeting with each receptionist for their annual review. But conveniently, the conference room had been scheduled by a group of doctors, leaving only the small meeting room with three—and only three—chairs. Things would get cozy real fast.
Having sent all the emails she’d needed to on Sunday night, she prepped the evaluation sheets for Jason and started arranging the three chairs in the smallest meeting room on their floor.
Rueben peeked his head in. “Everything in order?”
She nodded and looked around the small room. “Maybe this is a bad idea. We don’t want to break him on the first day.”
Rueben sighed. “I know this feels like we’re being the villain in his story, but in a real job setting, there would be two chairs in here, not three. And there would be no question of if he was able to carry out his job. ”
She raised a brow. “Good point.”
“Make sure the receptionists are prepped and understand their parts to play.”
She gave him a mock salute. “Yes, sir.”
Every twenty minutes, he was schedule to meet with a receptionist. Over the course of the next two days, Jason would meet with each one, spending time hearing their concerns and evaluating their performance based on the data sheets Hannah had printed out.
She found Brandy making copies in the back room and sidled up next to her. “Ready for your evaluation meeting?”
Brandy’s face brightened. “Yes. I’m surprised Jason volunteered to take them over. I guess soon he’ll be doing them anyway.”
It had been more of a volun told situation, but whatever. “Me too. Now remember, we are trying to get him used to physical contact. Make sure to shake his hand and sit in the chair right across from him.”
She grinned. “I can do that.”
Hannah eased out a breath and headed to the break room to grab her things. She had hoped Rueben would be gone by the time she returned, but there he was, still talking—loudly too.
“I can’t do it, Rueben,” Jason said.
“It’s not a choice. It’s part of the job you elected to do. You think I can come back to do your job for you after I’m retired? I have two more days. After I leave, you’ll be taking over these responsibilities anyway. We’re just getting a jumpstart.”
Jason worked his jaw and stared at his desk. She tried to catch his eye, but he was determinedly not looking her way. “Fine.”
“Make sure to shake their hands, give them more positives than negatives, and then hand them their evaluation sheets on their way out.”
Jason looked up then. “It’s been months since I’ve added notes to the evaluation sheets. You said you were going to put the finishing touches on them. Shouldn’t you be the one telling them?”
“You said it yourself—you wrote the bulk of everyone’s evaluation, and you interact with the office staff much more than I do. Just speak from your heart. You know how hard our receptionists have worked. Come on, Jason. You can do this.”
Jason looked down at his desk, and Hannah quickly slid the completed evaluations across the desk toward him. The stack bumped his fingers, and he glared at her.
“Sorry,” she said, biting her lip.
His face softened a bit, and he nodded once. Then he picked up the stack of papers, straightened them on the desk a few times, and headed for the door. “I’ll be in the conference room. Give me about twenty minutes to prepare.”
“Actually . . .” Rueben started.
Jason’s jaw clenched as he put his hands to his sides. His hand holding the papers started to fold into a fist, but he must’ve been worried about the papers crumpling because he opened it nearly as fast and re-flattened the performance reviews . “What is it?” he asked through gritted teeth.
“We have the small meeting room. There’s a meeting already being held in the conference room.”
Jason looked up at the ceiling and then straight ahead. “Fine.”
“And all the chairs are being used, so there are only three chairs in the meeting room. Right, Hannah?”
“I’ll be in there too,” she added quickly. “If you need me.”
His face showed hints of betrayal, and then his expression hardened. “I think I’ll be fine alone. I guess I’ll just have to trust that everything will be okay.”
His words punched her in the gut, and she felt immediate guilt. She could only hope this hadn’t broken his trust altogether.