Chapter 2 The Plus-One Problem
THE PLUS-ONE PROBLEM
LUCAS
“It was actually my restructuring of the audit that got me recognized for this position. I’m very proud to say that since taking over the role of regional director, our six locations have been at optimum safety regulation level, and we’ve received monthly commendations from industry leaders for our innovations. ”
For the bulk of the dinner party, they had avoided Brianna Bostwick.
Not being seated at the same table for dinner had brought an audible sigh of relief from Jess, but now that the dinner itself was winding down, the woman’s hyena-like laugh and shrill voice unintentionally carried over the sounds of other guests mingling and the ambient music.
Out of the corner of his eye, he glimpsed Jess’ newly promoted boss.
Platinum-blonde hair sitting precariously atop her head, teased up into some weird combination of Tammy Faye Bakker and Marge Simpson.
More makeup than a caller at drag queen bingo.
Bloodred talons playing with her wineglass stem.
Was she trying to look provocative? If so, she probably should have chosen something less trashy than the pink-and-black leopard-print dress that barely confined the canyon of cleavage on display.
Wishing he could rub his forehead to relieve the pressure of the major headache he had, he took a larger-than-usual swallow of his drink.
Was it too much to hope that the alcohol would numb him to where the conversation wasn’t so painful?
He’d rather be home spending hours crunching ACT data than listening to this shit. That at least would be useful to him.
However, he owed Jess a favor for being his plus-one at the teacher-of-the-year banquet three months ago, so here he was.
Shifting his attention back to the other couple Jess chatted with, his ears refused to let go of the conversation happening behind him. “Our previous regional manager really had no idea how to run the offices.”
He recognized the voice from introductions earlier in the evening.
It belonged to a balding, portly man who wore a poorly fitted suit, complete with a food stain on his tie.
He barely held in a snort of derision, although his shoulders still gave a slight jerk in response.
The guy was a total sycophant. Good grief, how did Jess put up with these people?
“He truly didn’t,” Brianna continued. “His boss actually called me directly and asked me to do a complete overhaul of our training manuals to bring us into compliance. They assigned me a team to assist, but they were less than useless.”
His ears perked up at the comment, which was a load of horseshit no shovel could ever hope to remove.
“No one could ever be bothered to come to a meeting I put together, and even when people said they would do things, they wouldn’t follow through.
They were always ‘too busy’ with their day-to-day work to complete the tasks they volunteered for, and despite being salaried employees, no one would work outside of office hours.
Incredibly unprofessional. I ended up picking up all the slack.
They were more than happy to let me do everything, but when the project was done, all they did was complain about my work.
I should have done this, or I should have done that.
If they could have been bothered to do even a tenth of what they promised, I would have been more than happy to give them a voice. ”
Ouch! A hand suddenly gripped his hard enough to leave bruises. Jess had obviously heard the conversation going on behind them, based off the death-grip she now had on his hand.
Another woman’s voice joined Brianna’s and Mr. Food Stain’s. “Why were they allowed to have their names included on the document if it was all your work?”
A theatrical sigh. Brianna explained, “I thought about letting my superiors know about their lack of contributions, but I didn’t want to create a problem in the offices. No one likes a snitch, after all. It was just easier to put their names on the project and let it go.”
Did this woman remember who was standing just a few feet away from her? Or was she so far gone in her own fantasy of self-importance, she forgot that the woman who actually led the team was standing nearby?
Based on his own experience as a high school English teacher turned high school principal, Lucas preferred to give people the benefit of the doubt.
Forgetting Jess’ presence was entirely possible.
Technically, she wasn’t supposed to be here.
A late cancellation prompted the territory manager to issue a last-minute invite to her and a plus-one so that the two-hundred-dollar-per-plate dinners didn’t go to waste.
However, he couldn’t help but wonder if the woman was selectively forgetting Jess was nearby, deliberately testing whether or not she would cause a scene.
Clearly, no scene was forthcoming when Jess’ lips tightened so far, the perimeter of her mouth turned white.
He gave her hand a compassionate squeeze.
He knew how difficult it was for Jess to hold her tongue.
This was one of the rare moments when he wished his friend wasn’t so polite and team-oriented.
“Very magnanimous of you, I thought,” Mr. Food Stain continued.
Brianna continued to push all her achievements and ideas, all of which, he was sure, were also bullshit.
The rewriting of that manual was actually the team’s work, and it was the current regional manager who had failed to show up for the meetings on the extensive project while refusing to put in any overtime.
He knew this as fact because Jess had spent hours in the evenings on online conference calls with her team for almost a year, working on the manual. He also knew that the team had decided to say nothing about her lack of assistance because it would have made her even more insufferable to work with.
All six of the practice managers had been under consideration to replace their boss, and this project was purportedly the central factor in their decision. Had the team known she would be able to snow all the high-up muckety-mucks and take credit for the manual, they might have changed their tune.
It was another thirty minutes before they were able to attempt an exit from the party. Lucas followed Jess as she made her way toward the territory manager.
She held out her hand. “Thank you for the invite, Mr. Trevino.”
“Arthur, Jess. How many times do I have to tell you to call me Arthur? You’re welcome.”
“This is my friend, Lucas.” She gestured to him, and the two men shook hands.
“A pleasure. I understand you’re the new principal at Tejeda Springs,” the man said. “When do students arrive?”
“Teachers arrive on Wednesday, and students arrive next Wednesday.”
“What a way to celebrate your last weekend as a free man, eh?”
Oh yeah. A dinner party with some of the most pompous people he had ever met at a restaurant where the food was so fancy and in such small portions, he was considering a frozen pizza when he got home.
He’d rather get a root canal than repeat this experience.
Irony at its finest since this was a group of people connected to an endodontic practice.
Lucas turned to see Jess finishing up a conversation with the territory manager’s wife, and he was just about to collect her when he felt sharp pressure digging into his forearm.
He looked down to see a set of talons gripping his jacket sleeve, and his gaze followed the hand and arm into the eyes of Brianna.
“I’m so glad I caught you. Lucas, is it? Jess never introduced us. I can’t blame the naughty girl though. I’d want to keep you all to myself as well.”
Internally, Lucas was rolling his eyes.
She tried to look at him through her eyelashes, but she was already a tall woman, and her five-inch heels put her right at Lucas’ six-foot-one stature. “Jess didn’t share with us that she was dating such an attractive and successful man.”
He was pretty sure she was attempting to flirt with him, but all the toothy grin did was remind him of a crocodile. Yikes!
“Jess and I are very similar in that we don’t share our private lives with people we don’t know well.”
She clearly didn’t get the hint because she kept going. “Have you been dating long?”
They weren’t dating at all. Well, not anymore. They’d tried to date when they first met, but it had fizzled relatively quickly. When they broke up, their relationship became a much stronger friendship.
“I’ve known her for just under three years.”
“Almost three years and you haven’t made it official? Sounds to me like maybe you’re looking for something better.”
What the fuck? Was this woman seriously coming on to a man she believed was here as another woman’s date? He didn’t bother to correct Brianna’s misconception over the relationship because he didn’t want her to push any harder than she already was.
“Jess and I are very happy with our current arrangement. If you’ll excuse me.”
Lucas made his way over to Jess. He could tell she was fuming over Brianna.
“Ready to get out of here?” he murmured.
With a curt nod, she preceded him out of the private dining room.
A rainstorm had started, so he dashed out to the car and brought it to the door so she wouldn’t get too wet.
Once inside, she let loose. “The nerve of that cunt,” she seethed.
"One of these days, I am totally going to lose my shit with that woman. "
“She’s not worth raising your blood pressure over.”
“I don’t know why I talked the others on my team out of exposing her bullshit over that training manual. I wish we had, but if I say anything now, everyone will think I’m making shit up to make myself look better because I’m jealous of her.”