I shake it off and climb in, silently thanking the fact that I no longer work at Station Two.
“Hey, I’m fucking starving. You want pizza?” Don asks.
I nod. He’s been much more pleasant since he laid everything on the table a few weeks back. And since I know Janine is having dinner with her mother tonight, I’m down to go grab a slice before heading home.
****
Janine
“You’re not actually wearing that to work, are you?” Janet didn’t bother hiding the disgust in her tone.
I glance down at the black three-quarter length blouse and black slacks I’m wearing. I paired them with cream suede loafers.
“What’s wrong with this?” I question. Every day since she’s here for the past two weeks my mother made some comment or quip about my boring work attire. I hated to admit that maybe she had a point.
“It’s all black.”
“All black is classic,” I defend.
“Yeah, if you’re going to a funeral.” She pushes off the couch and swings her long tresses over her shoulder, sauntering toward me in the silk negligee she opted to sleep in the night before. “Where’s the color? Where’s the pomp? The feeling of the outfit?”
“Work attire doesn’t needpomp.” I frown at the silliness of her suggestion and turn toward the coffee tin to prepare myself a cup of coffee to take with me to work. When I open the lid to find my coffee tin completely empty, I hold it up for her to see.
“Sorry about that.” She shrugs. “I guess I used the rest of it last night.”
“When did you make coffee last night?”
“When you were on the phone with your boy toy in your bedroom before going to bed.”
“He’s not my boy toy,” I mumble. “And who drinks coffee before going to bed?”
“Some people do, I suppose,” my mother answers. “But I made a cup and then went out last night.”
I frown, not knowing any of this. “When did you get back in?Howdid you get back in?”
“A few hours ago with the spare key that I made?” Moving to the gold and glass coffee table, she picks up the key to show me.
I had no idea she even made a spare key. It was on the tip of my tongue to ask her when she was leaving but she beat me to the punch.
“So, I’m thinking we should do a shopping spree. You know, get you some nice clothes that actually look good on you.”
“My clothes look fine on me,” I insist.
“Janine, don’t be so touchy. You were always like this as a little girl. I’m not saying this to be mean, I’m just telling you the truth. Maybe it’s the reason you aren’t married by now. No man wants to look at a woman in drab clothing all day.”
She eyes my outfit up and down.
“And everybody knows how desperate you were to have that Matthew marry you. I probably should’ve told you much sooner. But I see you’ve moved on. Good for you, but you don’t want to repeat the same mistakes as before do you?”
I blink away the tears that try to form in my eyes. “I’m going to work.” I snatch my over the shoulder bag off the counter, grab my empty coffee tumbler, keys off the wall, and slam the door behind me.
Nothing like being embarrassed, chastised, and called dull and boring by your mother before you’ve even started the work day.
****
Things just went from bad to worse today. I wasn’t in the office twenty minutes when Zeke comes hustling in, placing his stuff on the desk and telling me that we had to present our campaign idea to Digita in five minutes.
I don’t have time to gather my thoughts before I peer up and see Danny walking in with two men from Digita, heading toward his office.
