It Takes Two, page 22
There is no teasing or sarcastic edge in her voice when she says it.
“So, regardless of the reason, I’m glad you’re finally loosening up.” Liza actually gives her a brief smile when she looks over at her. “It’s cool to finally get to know the real Jazzy.”
The real Jazzy…
Is this the real her? The person that she’s really been all this time?
Or is this the new her? How she’ll be from now on? Not quite so shy and scared and quiet and awkward?
It’s a crazy thought, but somehow, it doesn’t seem so impossible. Glen has noticed it too, he’d said. How different she has become, but in a good way. And she does feel different. She doesn’t worry, or feel that heavy weight of defeat crushing over her every other day like she used to, especially when she first moved here. Things have been better for… a while now.
“Thank you, Liza. I know that wasn’t easy for you.”
“Oh, laugh it up.” Liza shakes her head, taking a chug from the glass of champagne in her hand as Jazzy giggles. “But no more monologuing from me, that’s all you’re gonna get. From now on, Glen is back to being a little shit to me.”
Regardless, Jazzy throws an arm around her anyway, hugging her close for just a couple seconds, which she assumes Liza will groan and pull away from. But she doesn’t seem to mind.
Chapter 24
Summer is over in the flash of a second, and Jazzy soon finds herself beginning her third year of college. The first day goes well, she likes all of her classes, and she is relieved her internship is out of the way, even though she is sad it’s over.
Susan hasn’t emailed her about the possible job opportunity at the renovated library yet, but she figures she has a lot on her plate and Jazzy’s job opportunity probably isn’t the first thing on her mind. So she returns to the student bookstore, where of course the first official day of the semester is busier than ever.
There are a bunch of new people that got hired on, but Eugene is thankfully still here, so she and him mostly stick together amidst the madness.
“You look different,” he comments as they work as fast as they can to load the piles and piles of new shipments into order in the back room.
“I do?” Jazzy laughs.
“Yeah. Like… bubblier. You talk a lot more. And your hair’s shorter.”
“I decided to keep it short,” Jazzy grins, running a hand over her musty-blonde hair. “I figured it brought me enough good luck over the summer to be worth keeping.”
After a couple hours of unboxing new books, organizing orders, and scanning, and bagging, and making transactions, Jazzy and Eugene are able to have fifteen minutes in the break room to get off their feet.
At least Jazzy thinks it will be a break, until about five minutes into their discussion about their transition into third year, Eugene brings up the writing exam that Jazzy had somehow managed to completely forget about entirely while being so focused on her internship.
“Oh, God… I haven’t even been studying,” she tells him worriedly after having almost fallen off her seat.
“Well, there’s a place online you can study,” he tells her as he munches on a chocolate granola bar. “But I’m really not sure how much you can, like, study writing. Specifically, how to be good at it.”
Jazzy can confidently say that, despite her avid reading, she has never been good at writing.
“Hey, don’t worry. There are two times you can take it, you can take it at the beginning of this semester, or the beginning of next semester, just after winter break.”
She decides the latter would be a better option for her since she could have the chance to study or practice all throughout break.
When she gets back home to the familiar and comforting sight of Glen in the kitchen making them dinner, she looks through her emails to see Susan did contact her with information about this new library.
Of course it looks amazing. They look like they offer every book and resource in the universe. The hours are a little more demanding, but the pay looks like it will be more than worth it, as she expected.
She talks to Glen about it again and he tells her she should do whatever she feels is going to be right and it will all work out.
“The hours will be longer,” she points out, looking over at him as he sets their plates of corn beef, green beans, and potatoes on the small dining room table. A bigger dinner than usual for them. “Longer than I’ve had before.”
“Sometimes you have to work a little extra hard to get where you really want to go,” he tells her. “Remember when I sometimes had to work seven days a week when we were filming?”
“Yeah.” She looks back down at her screen, “I know… It’s not like I don’t want to do it, it’s just… I don’t know. I’ve never had a job like this before. It wouldn’t be full-time, but it definitely won’t be part-time either.”
“Jazz.” Glen’s hand drops down across the table on top of hers, drawing her attention back up to him. “You can do it. I know you can, you freaking love every second you spend working at the library. And if you don’t end up liking it, you can always quit. I don’t know much about the librarian world, but I don’t think they’d badmouth you to every place in the state.”
Glen’s words, as always, at least make her feel a bit lighter about the whole thing. She takes a look at the application but still doesn’t fill it out just yet, wanting to eat dinner and forget about all of this for the night…
… Only she can’t, and she stays awake for hours in the night wondering about it. She can’t even remember the last time she didn’t get a full night’s sleep, which she realizes is crazy. She honestly can’t even recall where she even put her sleeping pills last.
After laying there restless for hours, trying and failing to lull herself with the gentle whisper of music playing from Glen’s CD player set up by the window, she quietly sits up and reaches to get her laptop to look at the email again.
She knows she should just do it. Normally she would convince herself that she probably won’t get the job anyway but at least she will know that she tried. But Susan practically guaranteed her this job if she applies. And it won’t look good to wait so long. She has to look eager.
And she is eager. Things are different now. Glen is right. She can do this.
So she begins filling out the application, and it doesn’t take long for Glen to wake up and roll over toward her, squinting in confusion at the bright light.
“Sorry,” she whispers as she turns the screen away from him.
“What’re you doing?” he asks so sleepily that the words hardly come out intelligible.
“I’ll be done in just a moment,” she promises.
“Christ, Jazz, it’s three am,” he grumbles as she tries to finish pulling up her resume to attach to the application.
She assumes Glen will just go back to sleep, but he’s still awake by the time she finishes, and he pulls her over toward him as soon as she has put her laptop away and gotten back in bed. As usual, the feeling of his body snuggled up firmly against hers helps her to go to sleep, along with the knowledge that she has made a decision, finally.
***
“I promise I will come home only slightly late for dinner,” Jazzy calls back as she heads down the hallway toward the door. “Then we can watch a movie, or Say Yes to the Dress.”
Glen feels way worse than he should watching her leave. And the apartment rings with silence and the painstaking reminder that he needs to continue his job search.
He doesn’t know how it has become so difficult all of the sudden. Well, it’s always been difficult, to be fair. He sometimes went months without any work at all. But now, it’s as if he suddenly can’t fit himself into anything he comes across.
Usually he’s a lot more open-minded, but now everything he finds doesn’t have the right hours, or doesn’t pay enough, or isn’t the right path he wants to go down. He didn’t even know he had a specific path he wanted to go down. But he thinks maybe he should get one.
All of the sudden, everything has to be so… perfect. Thank God he still has checks coming in from his last job, or else he’d really feel like an asshole moving himself into Jazzy’s place and promising to pay half the rent, then not having any money to do so. But this can only last a couple more months at most before he really needs to have something coming in. And even when he spends six hours every day searching and emailing and applying until his brain is tangled with job descriptions and hours and pay rates, he feels like he’s really done nothing at all every day.
At least Jazzy is doing okay. He loves how excited she is about this, even if he can’t help but feel disappointed in himself for not stepping up to the plate on his side. She at least knows what she wants. He’s not even sure anymore. And Jessica’s words come back to haunt him every moment.
“Having a clear path might be something to consider.”
After Jazzy gets home from her late shift at the bookstore, Glen turns the TV onto that wedding dress show she likes, thinking they’ll just relax the rest of the night. But Jazzy plops herself right down onto the couch with her laptop, immediately engaged with something.
“Homework already?”
“No. There’s that writing exam coming up soon. I want to start studying.”
Glen tries to remember anything about a writing exam coming up, but he can’t bring anything to mind, so he just shrugs and lays back on the couch, his attention turning to the show.
It must be really important, though, because she doesn’t look up once from her computer in almost two hours. Glen on the other hand becomes enthralled in a world of white, bling, veils, and intrusive friends as the manufactured drama plays out before him. He’s never been much for reality TV, but he will at least admit the dresses are nice. And two hours and four episodes pass in what feels like barely a minute, which he imagines is a frightening hole to go down.
He wants to crack a joke about how much he loves the lace gowns they show, but figures Jazzy is busy and wants to focus on whatever she’s studying for. But after a while, a different question comes to mind that he can’t help but ask before he can think better of it.
“Why do you like wedding dresses so much?”
For a moment, only the sound of the bride-to-be on the show talking about how she met her fiancé fills the quiet in the room as Jazzy slowly gazes up from the screen of her laptop to look blankly at the screen, cocking her head slightly.
“I don’t know. They just… they make me feel good, I guess? When I’d watch the show all the time when I was little, I used to keep all my favorite dresses in mind and then pretend I was wearing them on different days of the week when school would first start again after summer break. Now, I guess… they just sort of remind me of that time. Of summer, and being little.” She laughs to herself. “Even though that’s kind of bizarre. I think a wedding dress should probably be a reflection of being grown up rather than take you back to your childhood. Don’t you think?”
Glen isn’t sure why he asked, or why he suddenly likes the feeling he gets when she talks about it now. All he knows is that as he watches the screen, he suddenly can’t help picturing her wearing one of those satin gowns she likes, with her hair done up and a powdery veil down the back of her head, looking like her beautiful, smiling self.
“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never really thought about it before.”
But maybe he has? But that’s crazy. He’s never wanted anything like that before. Marriage has always been like something from an older age to him, something that people his parents ages did and was naturally going out of style. But the image hits him so unexpectedly and with a feeling he has never felt before, that now… he doesn’t know what to think.
He brushes the thought away quickly when he realizes just exactly what he is picturing, and instead just lays down completely on the couch and rests his head against Jazzy’s shoulder as she returns to typing away.
Chapter 25
The interview goes perfectly.
Jazzy only needs to practice with Glen a couple times before she is more than prepared to march right in, and ride the wave of confidence the entire time.
The manager is about the same age as Susan, though with dark spiky hair, purple rimmed glasses, and an entirely different demeanor. She seems nice enough, but looks as if her mind is running in a million different directions at the moment. So Jazzy decides to approach the interview by finding ways to assure the woman that she is self-sufficient and can help with anything whenever she is needed. And after about fifteen minutes, the woman stands up and tells her she will contact her within the week after she checks a few of her references and they can go over her schedule.
Jazzy can hardly wait to get back home, jumping into Glen’s arms the moment she does.
“I knew you’d get it,” he tells her, after kissing her firmly on the lips. “Jazmine Elliot: Transmission Assistant.”
“Circulation Assistant,” she corrects.
“Right.” He nods, setting her down, but still holding her close to him. “Assisting in the circulation of the library. Arguably, probably the most important job.”
“But what about you?” she asks after she has pulled away and begins putting away the groceries she had gotten on the way back. “How did your day go?”
When she turns and sees Glen’s face, she pauses.
“Well… it turns out I have some news too.”
Jazzy doesn’t even have to hear his next words. Glen reads like a book.
“Oh, my God, Glen!” she exclaims as she runs right back into his arms. “You’re kidding! Who called back?”
“No one, actually. It was Jessica who called me, my old boss. They just greenlit a television series that got sold to the production company a little while ago, and they’re short a PA. And thankfully, I made a good impression last time.”
“Of course you did.” Jazzy laughs, embracing him once again, feeling his chest shake with laughter as he holds her close in their celebratory grasp. “Because you’re amazing.”
“I was starting to get a little jealous of how good you’ve been doing lately,” he jokes after they’ve pulled apart again. “I thought I was about to turn into a full-time stay-at-home boyfriend.”
“Glen, there’s nothing to be jealous of,” she tells him with a sigh of disbelief, her arms reaching up to hang over his shoulders. “I’m doing exactly what you taught me to do.”
Glen’s eyes raise up, an impressed grin on his lips as he looks her over while her fingertips run through his hair.
“Maybe it’s time I take tips from you now.”
She laughs, shoving him away playfully. “Come on. Help me put these groceries away. And then we should go celebrate. We haven’t been out in forever.”
She goes about putting the bags of fruit and vegetables into the fridge, only to find Glen’s arms around her once more, this time sweeping her completely off her feet and into his arms. “Glen!” she protests, though is unable to contain her smile as he carries her toward the bedroom.
“I think we should celebrate now,” he argues, and she yelps as they both collapse onto the bed, laughing as he leans away, his hands trailing down her sides over the fabric of the form fitting dress she had worn in an attempt to look professional, but appropriately stylish to her interview. “Because this look is really doing something for me.”
Jazzy shoves herself forward, grabbing Glen by the shoulders and twisting herself until he is lying beneath her, her legs hugging tightly around his hips as she leans over him.
“I think it’s more than the look,” she whispers, her lips reaching down to press against his. He kisses her back hungrily, his hands scraping up and down along her back, as if desperate to dig straight through the gentle black-and-gold-patterned cotton.
“Definitely,” he agrees, his breath whispering through her hair as her lips trail down his chest, lifting his shirt away to touch her mouth against his heated skin. It’s the last either of them speak for a long while.
***
Jazzy heads to her final shift at the bookstore after classes on Wednesday. She already called and put in her two weeks’ notice, and she is only working a half shift, but she wanted to come in and say goodbye to Eugene and reminisce about the good old days before she leaves for good.
“Seriously, you’ve helped me out so much,” she’s telling him as they hang around the cash registers waiting for customers. “I don’t even know how to thank you.”
“Well, I’m glad I could help,” Eugene replies, sounding surprised at her expression of gratitude. She knows he probably didn’t even intentionally give her all that advice over the past year, but she definitely took it anyway. “I sure am gonna miss you around here. With you and Zoey gone now, who is going to put up with me?”
“I’m sure someone will come along,” Jazzy assures him. “And you can give them all the great advice you gave me.”
“Oh, yes. Still bunked up with your conveniently-hot roommate?”
“You bet.”
After her shift is over, she goes across town to the library to officially start her training. She falls in love all over again with the place the moment she walks inside. It is not only beautifully furnished with shelves reaching all the way up to the high ceilings filled to the brim with books of all different sizes and colors, but also with a cozy, welcoming light, and decorated with circles of couches, tables, and rich-colored lamps that all work to ease the chill from outside.
The work won’t be anything too difficult. She will help run the front reference desk, and when she is not checking out books or helping people with questions, she will be scanning back in returned items, and handling reserved and requested materials. The classification as a high-end library thankfully turns out to only mean the facility is nicer and there is a dress code. But thankfully, Glen has already helped her prepare for that with her previous shopping spree to dress far above her pay grade back when she was only a page.
Toward the end of her first shift, the coworker she is shadowing takes her to the final part of the library, an entire floor downstairs that leads to the basement she had no idea was even there when she first walked the initial rounds.
