Page 98 of Happy Harbor
“Please, Josie.”
Happy Harbor must’ve given her some kind of infusion of empathy because she stopped dead in her tracks, sucked in a breath, blew it out, and turned back around. “Fine. I’m staying at the Russell Hotel. I’ll meet you in the lobby coffee shop at five thirty.”
She didn’t wait for Sandra to respond. She made her way to the bathroom, shut the door, and locked it. Somebody would have to use it at some point, but until then, she was making it her new home.
* * *
Josie sat in the coffee shop until 5:32 p.m. before she stood up and headed toward the door. Unfortunately, Sandra was jogging toward her before she could get out.
“I’m so sorry I’m late! You know how the Atlanta traffic is. I even left thirty minutes early.”
Josie turned around and went back toward the table she had been holding. “No problem,” she said in the most monotonous tone she could conjure.
Seeing that Josie already had her coffee, Sandra walked up to the counter, placed her order, and then came to sit down.
“I really appreciate you agreeing to meet me here.”
“To be honest, it’s just morbid curiosity.”
“First, I want to say I’m so sorry about how things ended. I don’t think I handled that situation as tactfully as I could have.”
“No? Throwing me out on my keister with no warning wasn’t the right move to make?”
“I’m sorry. But you have to admit, I had just cause.”
“Are you just here to rehash the whole thing?”
“How are things in... what is it called... Happy Harbor?”
“Things are great.”
“That’s such a funny name. Happy Harbor? It sounds like some fictional town.”
“Well, sometimes it feels that way.”
“I looked it up. It seems rather... small.”
“Have you been cyberstalking me or something? Get to the point, Sandra. I have dinner plans.” Her luxurious dinner plan was to go up to her room, order the biggest hamburger she could find, and watch whatever on Netflix would put her to sleep. Often it was true crime documentaries.
“It was always your attitude and personality that got you in trouble, Josie. Your work ethic and skills were never an issue. I just hate to see you floundering away in some small Southern town. Your experience is going to waste.”
“Why do you care? You didn’t care what happened to me that day I walked out of the office. Do you know how embarrassing that was to walk past everybody with my box of stuff?” That didn’t actually happen since she snuck out the back entrance, but Sandra didn’t need to know that.
“Like I said, I could’ve handled it better. I want to talk to you about something.”
“What?”
“I want you to come back. I want you to take back your old job, and I’ll even give you a fifteen percent raise.”
Josie stared at her like she didn’t understand what language she was speaking. She tilted her head to the side. “Excuse me?”
“I had no idea how our sales numbers were going to plummet when we let you go. To be honest, we’re on the verge of closing in the next few months if we can’t get it together.”
“Seriously? You have an entire staff of people who can bring in money. Me leaving would not bring down a whole company.”
Sandra sighed. “The clients like you. They want to work with you. They don’t want to work with any of the people who are currently there or anybody we’ve tried to replace you with.”
Josie felt a sense of satisfaction. “Oh, really?”
