This Changes Everything, page 6
Worry could turn into care and then care into love. That wasn’t so far a stretch.
She’d accept his apology, but she wouldn’t back down.
He didn’t want to remember that night when their lives had changed, but she would and she’d remember this one as a new night. A night where she was reborn as a woman who didn’t want to be overlooked by him anymore.
She wanted to rise to a challenge, to take an idea and see where it led her.
Chapter 9
They still hadn’t said anything.
Joshua sat in front of his cousins as they sat around his kitchen table and waited for their response to the baby on his lap and the explanation he’d given them, but Tilly and Frank stared at him dumbfounded.
He’d called in sick on Friday since he was not going to take Olivia with him to work again and didn’t have someone to look after her. He’d spent the morning shopping for diapers, formula and bedding, he spent the afternoon trying to calm Olivia down when she got her little hand caught in a toy that he’d bought for her. He made a note to return the toy and file a complaint. After getting her to calm down, she went on, with childish, adventurous glee, to show him how much his apartment was not childproof by nearly toppling a plant, pulling down a lamp when she grabbed hold of its cord and bumping her head on his coffee table. He’d been so busy chasing after her that he forgot to pick up his car.
So he invited his cousins over for dinner hoping to get some help with the situation. He’d ordered a pizza that was getting cold. They were his only tie to his father’s side of the family and unaffected by his mother’s constant misery. They’d both inherited the family’s dark brows, but Frank got all the height, while Tilly barely reached five feet. She made up for it by piling her long hair in a high braided bun on her head.
He was desperate to have someone believe him. And he knew they did; however, their stunned silence was starting to get to him. Was it too much to ask them to help him find someone to look after Olivia while he was at work? He was willing to pay.
“Well?” he finally said.
Frank blinked.
Tilly shook her head. “I don’t know what to say.”
“A baby at a bus stop,” Frank said amazed.
Olivia happily slapped her hands on the table, rattling the dishes.
“Who did your sister have looking after her kids?” Joshua asked, moving his chair back so Olivia couldn’t reach the table.
“Mom did it mostly.”
“Do you think you could convince her?” Joshua said hopeful, although he and his aunt weren’t close. “She’ll only have to look after her on the weekdays, while I’m at work. I’ll pay a competitive rate and—”
“I can ask,” Tilly said, “but I’m not sure.”
“Or if you could do it...” He suggested knowing she worked from home as a freelance web designer.
“I’m no good with babies.”
“She’s not that hard.”
“Couldn’t you take vacation time?” Tilly said.
Joshua shook his head. “I was about to get fired, I can’t take a holiday right now.”
“You’re really going to keep her?”
He could feel Olivia getting antsy so he grabbed her pacifier from the counter and gave it to her before he returned to the table. “I don’t have a choice. It’s only until the new year.”
“The woman just left her?” Frank asked again.
“Yes.”
“And the police don’t believe she’s not yours?”
Joshua nodded.
Frank frowned. “Think the mother will change her mind and come looking?”
“I doubt it. She left a note and a birth certificate. The only address on it is the California hospital where the baby was born.”
“You’re lucky she’s black.” Frank started to laugh. “Imagine you going around with a white baby.”
Joshua frowned seeing no humor in the situation. “Then I wouldn’t be in this mess.”
“What do you mean?”
“It would have been easier for people to believe that she wasn’t mine.”
Frank quickly sobered. “That’s true.” He picked up a pizza slice.
“That’s not the point. If your mother won’t help, do you know of a reliable service I could call?”
“I think it’s a risk,” Tilly said. “What if they want more information than you can provide?”
“I can bluff my way through anything.”
“What will you do at your job in the new year when you don’t have her anymore?”
“I’ll say my girlfriend missed her and we agreed she’d take care of her.”
Tilly feigned a shiver. “You are a good liar.”
He wasn’t offended because it was true. He’d make his boss and the others believe what he wanted them to. “It’ll work.”
“Why do you care? I thought you’d started hating this job anyway.”
“I never said I hated it.”
“You said you were unhappy.”
“I’ve changed.” Especially now that he knew Karen hadn’t seen his report. He was eager to see how she would respond to what he’d written. “I want to stay there.”
“What if you grow attached to her?”
He shook his head then handed Frank a napkin when a mushroom dropped on his light blue shirt, smearing it with tomato sauce. “I won’t.”
“Three week’s a long time.”
“I won’t.” He frowned at Frank who was making the stain worse by rubbing it. “Dab it and—”
“You never know,” Tilly said.
He shifted his attention back to her. “I won’t.”
Tilly looked at Olivia with new interest. “You know you could use her in another way.”
Joshua held up his hand, the expression on his cousin’s face made him uneasy. “I’m not interested.”
“Go to the park with her. Single dads can attract a lot of attention.”
“I don’t care about attention. I care about keeping a roof over my head. Feeding myself, you know the basics and a job does that.”
She looked around the kitchen where he’d covered all the electrical outlets, mopped the grey tiled floor and locked the wood cabinets. She opened her mouth to say something when her gaze fell on an invitation sitting on the counter. She reached out and picked it up. “You haven't even opened it.”
“I know.”
She turned it over. “It looks like a wedding invitation.”
Joshua nodded. “Because it is.”
She looked at him surprised. “And you’re not opening it?”
Frank nudged her with his elbow. “Leave him alone. He’s got enough on his mind.”
“But isn’t he even curious?”
“I’m not going so there’s no need,” Joshua said.
She flashed an impish grin. “Can I open it?”
Joshua shrugged. He didn’t care about her curiosity. He knew who the invitation was from—Randall’s sister. She was getting married next fall and wanted him to be there. He didn’t know why. He didn’t know why she and her family continued to keep in touch. Why they continued to invite him to dinners and barbecues. He didn’t know why they felt obligated. Part of him wondered if they wanted him in their lives to remember Randall by, but he knew he was a poor substitute. Randall was light and he darkness. He hoped by his silence they’d learn to leave him alone.
Tilly opened the envelope and whistled. “Ooo...looks expensive.” She waved the invitation. “Why aren’t you going to this?”
“Why would I go?” He watched Frank reach for a second slice of pizza pleased it wouldn’t go to waste since he’d lost his appetite.
“Because you were invited? Isn’t this Randall’s sister?”
“Yes.”
“Then you have to go.”
“No, I don’t. I’ll hardly know anyone.”
“Knowing the bride is pretty much enough and her parents. If you don’t RSVP soon you’ll miss your chance.”
“I won’t.”
“You might change your mind.”
“I don’t know why she’d want me there.” He didn’t know why he’d kept the invitation instead of throwing it away.
“She likes you.”
Joshua snatched the invitation from her. “Are you willing to help me or not?”
“Do you know why you were about to get fired?”
“The president hates me and there were supposedly complaints about my personality. That I’m condescending and not a team player.”
He’d learned to keep to himself. It was easier, safer, less painful that way. Do your job and leave. That had been his motto. He’d learned that lesson well.
“When people don’t know you, you can come off a little...standoffish.”
“I don’t really care. All that matters now is I have a chance to prove myself. Maybe get a pay raise or promotion, then it will be over.”
Tilly thought for a moment before she said, “I’ll do it if you go to the wedding.”
“I’m not going,” he said in a bored tone. “Try again.”
“At least RSVP.”
“I’m not going.”
“Why do you have to be so stubborn?”
“If you won’t help me, I’ll just—”
“She’ll do it,” Frank said. He stood. “Come on, let’s go.”
Tilly left with her brother, annoyed. She’d been so close to getting Joshua to come out of his shell and her brother had ruined it. Somehow she felt that going to Randall’s sister’s wedding was important. “What’s the rush?” she asked her brother as he hurried to the parking lot. She wrapped her coat tighter against a swift cold wind. The trees around the complex were dotted with white holiday lights and large red ribbons wrapped around light poles.
“This is a great opportunity. Did you hear how much he was offering?”
Tilly rolled her eyes. “Everything isn’t about money.”
“It is when the rent’s coming due.”
“This month’s been paid.”
“Actually it wasn’t.”
Tilly stopped walking and glared at him. “What do you mean?”
Frank kept walking to her blue Prius.
She ran up to him and spun him around. “What do you mean?”
He had the grace to look sheepish. It was an expression he used well. It had gotten him out of trouble numerous times. It was that expression that had gotten her to believe it would be a good idea to share an apartment with him since he was finishing his graduate degree and their father had lost patience with him staying at home and not working a full-time job. Instead, he was working as a freelance grant writer. “I had a bill I needed to pay so I borrowed the rent money hoping I’d be able to cover it later, but then I didn’t get as many jobs this month as I’d hoped to and—”
Tilly held up her hand. “This is the last time I let you take care of it. From now on it’s direct deposit.” She sighed. “You really are a mess sometimes.”
Frank didn’t argue as he got inside her car. He picked up the book he’d left on his seat. It was some self-help book Tilly had been going on about called, Being Real, Staying Real. She was a devotee of the author’s podcast too, which talked about the power of inner fortitude and changing your life through good thoughts. He tossed the book into the backseat. Who cared about things like that when your life was broken? He felt bad. He felt bad most of the times. Bad that he wasn’t a better brother to Tilly, that he’d disappointed his parents, that he always seemed to be short on cash. But he was tired of feeling that way and visiting Joshua had given him an idea. An idea that could change everything.
Frank could barely contain his excitement once he closed the door to his bedroom. This was his chance to make serious money. He walked past his desk that was littered with the corpses of unopened late bill notices. He wasn’t a religious man, but the opportunity Joshua had given them could make him a believer.
He looked out his tiny window at the shopping center across the street. He hadn’t been able to buy his sister anything for two Christmases in a row, but this year would be different.
This was going to be the best holiday ever. He was so excited he could hardly keep himself still. He saw all their problems ending. He pulled out his cell phone and said, “Guess what? I’ve got a baby for you.”
Chapter 10
Incredible.
Karen sat on her living room couch unable to believe what she’d just read. Joshua’s report was better than she could have imagined. How had this missed her? Why hadn’t his supervisor let her know? His ideas were incredible! To think that she’d almost lost a goldmine like this? From now on she’d let everyone know they had a direct line to her; she couldn’t let an oversight like this happen again.
She set his report aside and briefly looked over his performance review again. Something had to be fixed. None of the numbers could accurately depict what he brought to the company. She’d deal with that later, first she had to choose one of these projects and see how she could implement it. Some were too outlandish, others outrageously expensive, but she felt that with an adjustment they could move forward on a smaller task.
She hoped that he would be amenable. These next three weeks would be crucial.
That Monday she met with Joshua in her office instead of the conference room. She felt a change of scene would make him less...on edge. She was wrong. He still entered the room like a warrior ready to do battle, she knew she would have to work extra hard to get him to relax and trust her.
But as she watched him take a seat, she had a sense that there were few people he trusted. He wore a crisp white shirt under a green sweater and dark blue jean and looked about as domesticated as a crocodile. She wondered who had managed to get past the wall she sensed surrounded him. She swallowed hard and rubbed her hands together. She’d once been bold enough to convince him to leave a larger company that turned plastic bottles into luxury bags and accessories, and join her much smaller company that created their own materials; she would become that ambitious woman once again.
There was too much on the line for them to be at odds with each other. They needed to work as a unit as soon as possible.
“I see you were able to get a sitter today,” she said hoping to break the ice.
“Hmm.”
“I heard your team gave you a little party.” She set a small, fuzzy brown teddy bear on the desk. It wore a red shirt and had the name ‘Olivia’ stitched on its stomach with green thread. “Here’s my contribution.”
“You didn’t have to.”
“I know.”
He nodded but didn’t touch the toy. “Thanks.”
She inwardly sighed. He was still as distant as ever. “I’ve spoken with your supervisor and told him that you’ll be working with me for the next several weeks on a special project. You’ll report directly to me with any questions or concerns. No one else must know what we’re doing.”
“Okay.”
She’d expected him to protest about the secrecy or ask questions about the project so his ready agreement flustered her. She’d prepared for a fight that didn’t come. She glanced around the room, briefly wishing she had a window from which to gaze out and collect her thoughts. But instead she was surrounded by four walls and had to face a man’s dark piercing gaze. She cleared her throat. “Right...okay.” She lifted her tablet and looked at some of the notes, before she had the image transferred to the blank left wall so that he could see them too. “I was looking over your report and I must say that it’s impressive.”
He nodded.
“However, only a few of your ideas would be feasible at this moment.”
He nodded again.
Karen hesitated unsure of his impassive features. It was strange having him so amenable. “Don’t you have anything to say?”
“No.”
“You don’t disagree?”
He kept his gaze on the image. “You haven’t said anything that I disagree with yet.”
“Okay.” She circled two ideas in red. “I’d like to work on one of these two. I thought it would be only fair that you choose which one you’d like to do first.”
He pointed to one. It involved developing an alternative source for one of the solvents currently being used. “I don’t like our dependency on this product. A main ingredient is a particular leaf and I’ve heard rumors of a tiny infestation that may be in the region where it is grown. If it spreads and wipes out this particular leaf we will have no alternatives to turn to. However, there is another leaf that has similar properties that we should explore.”
Her heart leaped with joy. She’d wanted to work on that one too. She liked the idea of a preventative measure instead of waiting for the worse to happen which seemed to be the way Marshall liked to handle things. “Great. We’ll get started on this right away.”
“But I also think there’s something else to consider.”
“What?”
“Rapid growth.”
She leaned forward not sure she’d heard him. “I’m sorry?”
“Last year during the holidays we almost didn’t make our production quota because we had more orders than expected late September into the holiday season. I fear we’ll be making the same mistake this year. I’ve spoken to the marketing division and they are doing a major push this year, however I think we’re reaching beyond our capacity instead of fulfilling the orders for our main clients first. I don’t think we should be focusing on gaining more for the following year.”
He had surprised her again. She’d known Marshall had wanted to expand marketing, but she hadn’t been aware of any particular plans that had already been put into place. She felt ashamed that she hadn’t had a handle on all that was going on in the company. She’d been so busy focusing on managerial issues and putting out little fires that she hadn’t paid attention to the health of the business as a cohesive unit. As long as they were making a profit, keeping to their mission and hitting their targets, she let Marshall take the lead without question.
