“It is.”
They chatted for another couple of minutes, and Jess committed to starting work on Monday, October 30th, before a client walked in and Aaron had to go. Jess hung up the phone and sat smiling on her bed, no longer needing a nap. She knew they were both joking about the associates thing, but it felt important. Getting up, she made her way downstairs to pour herself a coffee. She was going to enroll in an LSAT prep course and start shopping for a new wardrobe. Classy, business attire. For the first time in a very long time, Jessica Halloway felt excited about something.
Now the only question was, how was she going to break the news to her family?
12
“In my defense, I was left unsupervised.”
~ Lee St. John
The rest of the afternoon was spent in a state of near-euphoria for Jessica. She hummed to herself while she picked out a few pieces of office attire on Zara and at H&M, promising herself that when she was officially an attorney-at-law, she’d let herself browse the high-end stores. She’d pretty muchhaveto buy expensive clothes in order to be taken seriously. But for now, she’d snag some classic looks at bargain prices.
When her shopping was done, she joined a Reddit forum for Seattle-area law students, then searched for an LSAT prep course, and checked for recommendations in the forum. Taking out her credit card again, she signed up for a premium course that had both an in-class component and on-line learning, at a whopping cost of fifteen-hundred dollars. Her heart pounded as the mouse hovered over the PAY NOW button and she knew that once she pushed that, there was no going back. The money would have to come out of the college fund. Mike would be furious. The kids too. But she had to do it. She just did.
She pushed the button, then waited for a second for the house to start to shake or the sky to cloud over. But nothing happened. Everything was exactly the same. Except that it wasn’t.
Slightly shocked at the pace at which she was doing this, she got straight to work on the on-line material, a thrill shooting through her as she started the introductory video. There had been no monkeying around, no asking her mom, Diana, Rachael, and Mike for their opinions. She was just jumping in with both feet this time around. Because this time, after years of being stalled, she knew in her bones that she was finally on the right track. Deep down, she knew that if she didn’t act quickly, she would allow someone (probably Mike) to talk her out of it. And if there’s one thing she knew she couldn’t afford to do, it was to give up again. She’d done that once and wound up being miserable.
Her next move was the one that would be the worst—she picked up her phone and called Evelyn. Her boss answered with, “Are you calling to say you miss work so much you’ll be in tomorrow?” Evelyn laughed while Jess closed her eyes tightly, her skin clammy.
“Actually, something big happened this afternoon, and I’m afraid I have to give you notice.”
“What? Give your notice?” she asked. “Jessica, what on earth are you talking about?”
“I was offered another job, at a law firm.”
“But you don’t know anything about the law,” Evelyn protested.
“But I’ve always wanted to,” Jess told her.
“Is this about the money? Because if you want a raise, I don’t appreciate you trying to strong-arm me into paying you more. You could’ve just asked and I would have given it to you.”
“Wait. What?” Jess asked, temporarily distracted by this news. She would’ve given her a raise this whole time? Then she should’ve done it. Shaking her head, Jess got back to the reason for her call. “It’s not about the money. I’m planning to go back to school to study law, so working in the field will be a big help. I’m sorry to leave you in the lurch, but my new job starts as soon as I’m recovered so I won’t be able to come back in.”
“But not two hours ago, you told me you’d be back at work soon!”
“I know, and I’m really sorry. I wasn’t expecting this opportunity to fall into my lap, and I know if I don’t take it, I’ll always regret it.”
There was a long pause, and when Evelyn spoke again, her voice was shaking with anger. “I have never been so disappointed with someone in my entire life.”
That was saying something because Evelyn’s second husband had turned out to be a drug addict who cleaned out her bank account before leaving. Jessica’s stomach churned.
“The fact that you would just abandon me, after all these years together…”
Another woman’s voice in the background caused Jess to strain her ears, but she couldn’t make out what the woman was saying.
“What? Why?” Evelyn asked.
“Because I’m a paying customer and I want to talk to her.”
It was Betty.
“Here, someone wants to say something to you.”
“Jess, did I hear this right? Are you finally going to stop wasting your brain?”
Jess laughed. “I am.”
