He couldn’t seem to drum up logic to the contrary, so he picked up his phone from the passenger seat and dialed Michael’s number.
As soon as Michael said, “Hello,” Adam’s words fell out of his mouth.
“Did you give Janae my number?”
Michael sighed like the ornery stick-in-the-mud Adam had always known him to be.
“Yes,” Michael growled. “I texted her right after she left.”
“Can you give me her number?”
“Nope,” Michael answered without the slightest hesitation. “I can ask her if it’s okay. If she says yes, I’ll send it.”
“Your propensity for always doing the right thing is annoying at the moment. Funny how all that truth and honor went out the window when it came to bringing Vanessa down here and falling for her.”
That pulled a hearty chuckle from Michael. “Have you seen my woman? I’d take someone out and bury the body just to be in her presence.”
Adam joined in Michael’s laughter. Like Sheldon Cooper said, “It’s funny because it’s true.” Adam’s friend adored Vanessa, and he would do anything to keep her by his side. Adam envied what they had. Not enough to try to find it for himself, of course. His divorce was the first step in him learning how to center his wants and needs when it came to choosing the proper path for his life. It might sound selfish, but he wasn’t willing to let anyone disturb his peace or his vision for what lay ahead.
It had taken him years of therapy to crystalize what he wanted in his life. He wanted to come home, be with his parents and his friends, and reestablish himself within their community. He wantedto solidify his job as superintendent to give the kids in town their best chance at creating a bright future for themselves.
“Yeah, but is that all you want? Can you dig deeper?”
His therapist’s words always popped up to challenge Adam when he tried to backslide into his old habits of keeping things superficial so he wouldn’t have to think too much about some of the rougher layers of his soul.
He wanted to be his own man in his father’s presence. He wanted to stand his ground and not let his father’s pushy personality overshadow Adam’s desires as they always had when he was a child. He didn’t want to keep running just to be himself. He wanted to be at home in the literal sense, but in his heart and head too.
“Listen,” Michael began again. “I saw how you were looking at her. Please tell me you’re not out to play that ‘hit it and quit it’ game you’ve been running since your divorce. I’m not gonna stand by and watch you dog Janae.”
“Mike,” Adam spoke on an exasperated huff. “It’s not even like that.” Adam sighed into the phone, slightly annoyed with his friend. “You know the school board has given me one academic year to turn things around or I’m out of a job.”
Just saying that out loud made his stomach sink. He couldn’t fail at this, not when his father was already harping on his same old song about Adam leaving the NBA for teaching. He had to show his father and himself that he was his own man and was the most qualified person to make decisions for himself. God, he couldn’t let his old man be right at this late stage.
His voice quieted, hoping his friend would understand just how serious Adam was taking his job situation, just how much succeeding at this challenge meant to him.
“I’ve got too much to prove to them and myself to stir up nonsense with Janae or anyone else for that matter. Women problems are a distraction I don’t need right now. Besides, I’ve been by myself for a good while now. I’m not looking for the grand love affair youand Vanessa are sharing. I just want… companionship, a friend, someone to hang out with and chill.”
The silence on the line stretched out for a long moment, making Adam wonder what was going through his friend’s mind.
“Just make sure you’re clear with her about your intentions, Adam. I don’t need the trouble of one of my best friends hurting one of my woman’s best friends. We clear?”
“As crystal,” Adam replied.
Janae sat at her kitchen table with a freshly brewed cup of coffee, soaking up the quiet and stillness the moment allowed her. The sun hadn’t yet risen, and the darkness of the room comforted the disquiet in her head.
As a nurse anesthetist, there was never quiet during her workday. It didn’t matter whether it was the day or night shift, there was always someone paging overhead, there were always beeping machines that monitored patient vital signs, and the chatter of her coworkers.
Constantly being in the middle of noise and movement, she cherished these moments on her days off when she could sit in the dark in her kitchen and just soak up the silence for a bit.
As if the universe couldn’t stand to see her calm and relaxed, her phone began to vibrate on the table.
She took another sip of her coffee, refusing to turn the phone over so she could see the caller ID. At this hour of the morning there were only two possible callers: work or… her mother.
One more sip and she took a long, fortifying breath and then turned it over. It was as if Evelyn Tate could sense when Janae was having too peaceful of a moment, and felt it was her personal duty to ruin it.
When she saw her mother’s name flashing across the screen she shook her head and let it go to voicemail. She’d had an amazing night of peace and she would do her level best to keep that Zenenergy going. She wasn’t about to let her mother ruin her blissfully serene moment.
Instead, she slid her sleeping iPad in front of her, tapped the screen to wake it, and then opened up her crossword puzzle app. She was only a few minutes in when she heard a door shut upstairs.
