Page 13 of September
“What? It’s the truth. It’s an honor to be able to share that experience with a woman you really care about. Do you really care about Wendy?”
“I think I might be in love with her,” Adele said, sounding all breathy. “I mean, Iamin love with her. We were friends before we got together, you know?”
“And do you think she feels the same way about you?”
“She said as much.”
“She told you she’s in love with you?”
“She said it during. She told me she loved me when she was touching me.”
Gwen nodded and asked, “And that scared you, didn’t it?”
“Well, yeah. I mean, we’re eighteen. She’s amazing, but we only just started dating, and I have plans, Aunt Gwen. I wasn’t supposed to meet someone and fall in love yet. I need to focus on school and a career, not girls or boys.”
“So, that’s what this is really about,” Gwen said as she nodded again. “You’re scared, Adele.”
“Who wouldn’t be? She’s beautiful, funny, and smart. And she has plans, too, but then we’re in her dorm room, and we’re taking that step, and she’s taking another one that I’m not ready for because it’s not supposed to happen yet.”
“Oh, sweetie. You’re in love.” She cupped the back of Adele’s neck. “I’ve been there. It’s not easy, but let me tell you a little secret.”
“Please. I need all the help I can get.”
“It’s easier just to embrace it; give in to it. Tell her how you feel. If you’re not ready to say the words yet, that’s okay. Just tell her that, if you can, and apologize about the whole thinking-that-she-might-be-faking-it thing. Maybe share that you’ve done that with Tucker, if you want her to know that, and so that’s why you went there. Then, just be a good girlfriend to her, okay? Don’t run away from her and come back home. Go to her and tell her that you’re sorry.”
“I just got here,” Adele said.
“I know. You can stay all weekend, as far as I’m concerned. Just call your girlfriend while you’re here, then.”
“I’ve never been in love before. I wasn’t with Tucker or any other guy.” Adele shrugged a shoulder.
“It’s amazing, isn’t it?”
Adele smiled and said, “Yes. And terrifying.”
“That too,” Gwen said on a laugh and rubbed Adele’s neck, remembering when she was just a baby and Gwen held her for the first time.
She’d been thirteen years old, holding her goddaughter, and she knew even then that she would always do anything she could to protect her. That included being honest with her: love was both amazing and totally terrifying.
CHAPTER 5
She had a lot of work to do, which meant she had to do some of it this weekend. Juliet supposed this was what came with a promotion, but it seemed like no one was helping her get caught up on what Jordana was working on at the time of her firing, and she was lacking a lot of information that she needed to do the job. At least, thanks to her friendship with Molly and Finley, she had been able to get access to Jordana’s emails, which Juliet needed because her former boss had owned the schedule and the program planning.
There was a folder labeled ‘confidential’ that she didn’t even think about clicking on because while she suspected there was nothing in there about Jordana’s relationship with another employee, there might have been performance-related emails about her peers or something else that she shouldn’t be seeing since she wouldn’t be taking over as a manager, so she focused on the emails related to scheduling and spent much of her Saturday morning organizing her calendar for the rest of September. She had classes of her own to teach, but Jordana had a store opening that would take her to northern Louisiana for a few days. Juliet could get her own classes covered by one of the trainers who had a light schedule this month, but the other trainer had time off in a few weeks, so that created some issues.
Finally, after her third cup of coffee, Juliet felt like she had September worked out. October would have to wait until the upcoming week since she still didn’t have all the information she needed about the programs from her new boss. The raise was nice, but it wasn’t as much as she could’ve gotten had she been managing the other two trainers. Molly had confirmed as much without saying it directly. It could’ve been a twelve-percent raise instead of a three-percent raise, but in her offer letter, they had mentioned that she was still eligible for her annual performance-based raise, which would be between three and five percent, so that was something.
Juliet ate a sandwich for lunch at her kitchen table and tried to plan her budget and finances, taking into account this new role but also assuming she wasn’t getting another raise because she was always conservative in her financial plans. Traveling all the time was deceptive. She would still have to pay rent on her apartment even if she wasn’t there most of the time. She’d still have her cell phone bill and car payment. She didn’t want a company car. It would probably be the one Jordana had after it got fixed, and it wasn’t anything fancy. It was older than the car she had bought for herself two years ago, anyway, and Juliet liked her car. On the trips where she had to drive, she would take the gas money instead and reevaluate once she’d been at it for a while. Her other expenses would lessen. She wouldn’t use as much water, electricity, or gas at home, but they wouldn’t go away entirely. She would have a sixty-dollar a day per diem when she traveled, which was what she had now, and it wasn’t always enough to get a full breakfast, lunch, and dinner, depending on where she was traveling to. She had gotten accustomed to eating breakfast and sometimes lunch at the store, using her thirty-percent discount, which gave her an opportunity to do it up right for dinner later sometimes.
Juliet added everything up and took her new raise into account. With the money she’d have left over, she could save it, which was what she knew she should do, but she looked up at Carly, who was asleep in her bed under the window, her dog’s favorite spot in the apartment, and she smiled at her. Carly had gotten her through a tough breakup this year. She was always there for Juliet when Juliet got home from a long day at work. She would listen to her vent about her colleagues and the classes she taught, expecting nothing in return. She deserved the best, and if Juliet was going to be gone for days at a time now, she didn’t want to have to rely on Molly or one of her neighbors, who always fawned over Carly when they went for their walks.
Juliet needed to find a dog sitter sooner rather than later. Today would be preferable, but she deemed that impossible. She could ask Molly to watch Carly this week, if needed, and find someone for the next trip. Molly loved Carly and would gladly volunteer to take her to her place or, at least, stop by and check on her and walk her a few times a day. She thought about calling her up now but decided that she would try to find someone else first while on a break from doing work. She searched and found a few links for local people and companies that offered the services she would need, which would be more than just walking the dog. Carly needed to be fed, given water, walked, and played with, or she’d be miserable. She was a hyperactive little thing who had a ton of energy, and she needed someone who could keep up with her. Juliet loved that about Carly, though, because her enthusiasm was infectious and made her bad days better.
After not finding anyone suitable online, she pulled out her phone and put something on TV, not paying much attention to it as she downloaded the various apps that were mentioned on the many links she had found. One by one, the apps appeared on her phone screen, and she clicked on the first one she had downloaded, which had a rating of four point seven out of fivestars in the app store. Juliet wasn’t about to allow some stranger to take care of her dog if they had a low rating. She could only see the available pet sitters if she created an account, so she used an email address that she hardly ever used in case these people liked spam and logged in.
Entering her location and her needs, Juliet found that she had fifteen matches. When she added that she would prefer a woman to a man, which was a filter because some dogs didn’t like men or women and would react negatively to them, that got her down to eight people. Deciding that she would need someone on the younger side because of Carly’s high energy, she eliminated a woman in her early seventies, whose profile said that she preferred to take care of cats, anyway, and that left her with seven options.
She checked the profiles, ratings, and reviews of five of them before she got to the sixth, which was a woman who looked to be about her age. She looked familiar somehow, but Juliet couldn’t place her from the small profile picture, which showed the woman and a dog playing on the grass. Her reviews were outstanding, and her rating was four-point-nine, which made Juliet wonder who had given her less than a five.
