Jessa stripped her dress off and put on a pair of sweatpants and a hooded sweatshirt before sitting down at the small table and powering on her laptop.
“Spill,” Megan said as she sat back and looked at Jessa expectantly.
“Well, we ended up going to his parents’ place for dinner. He was worried they’d show up at his place if we didn’t.”
“Wow. So you met the family?”
Jessa nodded and took a sip of her latte. “I did, but I already kind of met his parents in the lobby the other day, and I’ve, of course, met Jackson. So it was really just his other two brothers and niece.”
Megan raised an eyebrow. “Look at you thinking logically.”
“Ha. Hilarious.”
“So then what?”
“We went back to his place and had the best sex of my life.”
“Hell yeah, girl.”
Jessa waved a hand in the air. “Now, enough about that. Tell me what happened with work. What am I walking into?”
Megan sighed. “Layoffs are happening. Apparently, we are dropping something like twenty employees.”
“What? Seriously?”
“Yeah. The company isn’t doing well at the moment, I guess. So they’re making ‘necessary’ cuts,” Megan said, doing air quotes.
“That’s unfortunate.”
“Yep. And guess who got volunteered to do them?”
Jessa sighed. She knew what that meant. She and Megan would take on the bulk of it, despite there being several other human resource representatives across the country who worked for the same company. They each managed different regions.
Laying people off was the worst part of her job. Most of it she could handle just fine, but telling a person they were no longer employed was sad. She never knew how the employee would respond, and that made it harder.
A video call on Megan’s computer rang through. Her eyes widened as she shot a look to Jessa.
“It’s Brian.”
Brian was their boss and liked to check on them periodically to make sure they were doing their job. Or at least that’s what he called it. Jessa thought it was more because he had a thing for Megan. While he never crossed boundaries, it still was obvious to her.
Megan had already gotten dressed for the day, but Jessa looked like a train wreck with unbrushed hair that had been tossed on her head and a clean face with mascara residue below her eyes.
Jessa rushed to the bathroom to look a bit more put together while Megan answered the call. She could only partially make out their conversation until she came back into the room.
“Is Jessa with you?” Brian said.
“Yes, she’s right here.”
“I need her to be a part of this call. I have an assignment for the both of you.”
Jessa moved around the computer and sat in a chair where she was in sight of the camera.
“Hey, Brian.”
“I’m going to need the both of you to pack your bags and head to Arkansas,” he said, skipping the niceties.
Megan and Jessa both stared at the computer screen.
