Gail coughed like she was going to choke on something, while Phil shot a very disapproving look in the twins’ direction. I just smiled and nodded because I wasn’t even sure why I was here.
Gail extended her hand to me and smiled wide. “Thanks for visiting us again, Mr. Quinn.” She signaled to the other lady. “This is Vicki Morris the clinical director. She oversees the therapists that provide mental health counseling services for the students.” Vicki barely acknowledged me and kept looking inside the room with her lips drawn in a thin line. Whatever was going on in there, Vicki was not a fan. This had to be the shitty coworker Julia had been venting about the other day.
I smiled at both of them. “It’s nice to be back. I had a nice time when I was here.”
“Today we have our Leadership Academy, being led by Julia Ortiz, who oversees our after-school program among other things.” Gail said that for the others’ benefit as my heart raced. I stopped to look at her as the others walked through the door. I took a moment to take stock of what I was feeling, a trick my therapist had shown me when I first started working with her. She’d said when I was feeling something intense, to think about what caused it and what happened to my body. Usually the feelings she was referring to were anxiety, or stress, sometimes even anger—but this was different.
My body was taut with awareness. My eyes tracked her movements as she glided across the room smiling at the teens and their parents. I knew the Leadership Academy was one of the programs they offered for the kids. They worked with the students and their families to promote civic engagement, develop leadership skills, and help them get college ready. But I couldn’t really envision what that meant when she told me about it. I didn’t know how she managed it, but she looked in charge and approachable at the same time. She seemed to be one hundred percent focused on each family that she stopped to talk to, and they soaked up her attention like plants in the sun.
Gail gestured to where she was standing with a teenage boy with purple-tipped hair and a short woman who was beaming as Julia talked to her son. “Let’s go say hi.”
Gail’s voice must’ve caught Julia’s attention, because she looked up and we locked eyes for a second. I saw a little bit of reluctance there, but there was warmth too, and her lips—which were a deep cherry red today—tipped up when I lifted my hand to her.
She was dressed in a knee-length gray skirt that hugged all her curves and a white button-down shirt that was also tailored exactly right. Her hair was up, and she’d done it so that her curls were spilling on top of her head. It seemed a little more formal than you’d necessarily need to be for a day of working with students and their families, but she’d dressed to impress. Mission accomplished.
She came to a stop a few feet from Gail, me, and the rest of the group. She greeted the twins and Phil with a shake, then extended her hand to me. “Mr. Quinn.”
I dipped my head as I held her palm in mine, my head full with memories of kissing her.
“Fancy seeing you here.” Her voice was light, but there was just a tiny bit of tension there. I wanted to tell her not to worry, that everything would be fine. But I couldn’t say that. Not with Phil looking like he was chomping at the bit to say something shitty.
“I’m looking forward to seeing you do your thing.” She smiled at me, but it was not the smile I got to see when the Exiles were around. She was nervous.
“How much personnel do you have in this place? How many people do you need to run a program for teens?”
Phil’s booming voice made Julia jump. And if I didn’t already know I was in over my head with this woman, the almost overwhelming urge to pop Phil on the mouth would’ve been evidence enough.
Julia recovered quickly though. She whispered something to the mom and kid, who looked spooked, and smiled at Phil like he hadn’t just been rude as hell. “We serve around two hundred kids a day with a staff of about twelve, so we’re pretty lean. We try to strike a balance in providing excellent care for our families and using most of our resources toward programming itself. We do a cost-benefit analysis for all our operations. I’d be happy to go over those with you, sir.”
Phil grunted like a jerk, his face red, probably from having a woman look him in the eye while she reamed him out. Then he walked away without even responding. Julia kept the polite smile fixed on her face, but her eyes told me the exchange had thrown her off.
Once again, the urge to do something about it, to fix things for her, was almost overwhelming. But me interceding or making too much of a thing about the program would only make Phil suspicious or angry. Neither Julia nor I could afford to have the man set his sights on us more than necessary. I was not the hero in Julia’s story. The sooner I let that sink in the better it would be for both of us.
I thanked Gail again and went to sit with the twins, as Julia made her way to the front. She quickly got the room to quiet down and got started.
“Buenos dias, familias.” The entire room answered in an enthusiastic “Bueno dias, Señorita Julia.”
“Today we have some visitors who are here to see you guys do your thing. Are we going to show them how amazing our families are?”
There was a resounding yes, and then some laughter. Soon after that she launched into a presentation that was interactive and fun. The parents and the kids participated, coming up to help her and demonstrate the skills they’d been learning from the program on how to manage stress and communicate better.
Julia had complete control of the room the entire time and seemed to be aware of each and every one of the strengths and challenges of each family. They asked questions openly and seemed completely focused on their tasks. The hour flew and by the end even Phil looked invested in all the work the families and the kids were getting done.
As things were slowing down, Julia thanked the parents for taking time off their jobs to come and work with their kids and encouraged them to keep it going at home. The families walked out together looking happy and relaxed. I noticed almost everyone came up to Julia to thank her as they walked out.
We made our way out without stopping to talk to her again. It was Thanksgiving the next day and I almost stopped to ask her if the offer to hang out from the day at the game was still standing. But just as I was considering it, Phil bumped my shoulder with a pointed look and I remembered where I needed to keep my focus on.
Chapter Fifteen
Julia
I was getting the stuff from the academy packed away in record time. If I could get out of the building within the next five minutes I might be able to avoid running into Vicki, who was probably still trying to figure out how to convince Gail she did her job. She’d shown up only five minutes before our guests did and had no clue how to answer any of the questions Phil or the Twins had asked.
I heard Gail before I saw her. “Thank you for today, Julia.”
I turned around with the plastic bin full of the materials we used and smiled at her. “You don’t have to thank me. It’s my job.”
Gail shook her head and came closer. “You did a lot more than your job description calls for today. It was very clear to me and to our visitors.” No, that was not electricity going up and down my spine at the thought of one visitor in particular, aka Rocco Fucking Quinn. I tried to figure out how to respond to Gail’s comment without throwing Vicki under the bus. I settled on redirecting the conversation.
