I met Julia’s eyes across the table, wondering if she knew why our boss wanted to meet with us. She shrugged, the motion making her shirt slide off her shoulder. She was wearing a mint green shirt over a tank top, tied loosely at the waist, with some kind of a flouncy skirt. She’d lined her eyes in dark green, and her lipstick was bright red. It’s funny how I used to find her style too girly, but now I thought she looked adorable.
“Sure thing, Gina.”
I turned my attention to our executive director Allison, who was introducing our new Chief Financial Officer. I knew they’d hired someone because Gina mentioned it in our lastsupervision meeting, but she hadn’t been authorized to share the information yet.
“Everyone, this is Gretchen Langley, our new CFO. She comes to us from a long stint working at the county. Let’s go around and do introductions.”
To my surprise Gretchen was much younger than our past CFO. She had light purple hair which made her look more like a barista than a member of the agency’s executive team. She was dressed conservatively in a blouse, blazer, and pants, but the row of earrings along the shell of her ear and the hint of a tattoo peeking out from her wrist told me she was not the typical CFO. Interesting.
After the meeting Julia and I followed Gina to her office.
“Take a seat,” she said, nodding at the two guest chairs across from her desk.
Julia and I exchanged a glance, then did as we were told. Gina sat behind her desk, an unusually serious look on her face. She leaned forward on her elbows and took a deep breath that I knew instantly didn’t bode well for us. I just wasn’t sure why.
When she didn’t say anything Julia spoke up. “Is this about the proposal we sent to Madison Phoenix for the tech employment program? Did she decide to pass on it? She seemed really enthusiastic about it at the gala.”
Gina shook her head. “No, we haven’t heard back from Phoenix Software yet. I called you in here because I’ve had a complaint. About both of you.”
“A complaint? About what?” I asked.
Gina took another deep breath. She was a good boss, and I could tell that she really didn’t want to have this conversation. Neither did I, and I wasn’t even sure what we were talking about yet. Next to me Julia was jiggling her leg nervously.
“An employee went to HR with an allegation that you two were…,” she paused and looked up at the ceiling like she was asking God for strength. “Having sex in a supply closet.”
Julia inhaled sharply.
“We weren’t having sex,” I said quickly. “Just making out.”
Julia’s head swung in my direction, and she bulged her eyes at me, like she couldn’t believe how stupid I was. The leg jiggling intensified.
“Um, well that’s not really much better,” Gina said. “I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how unprofessional that was, especially with both of you being in leadership.”
My mind went back to yesterday…
***
I was coming back from the restroom when I saw Julia walking down the hallway towards me. My heart immediately picked up in a way I did not want to analyze too closely.
“Hey, what are you doing here?” I asked.
She worked at a different location, so I rarely saw her at work other than if we were in a meeting together, and those were usually online.
“I came to check on one of our clients who’s been struggling in the program,” she said. “I thought I’d pop down and say hi.”
I hadn’t seen Julia since Saturday. We’d both had things to do on Sunday, which was fine, we didn’t need to spend every single weekend day together. We hadn’t done anything together since then either, and now that it was Thursday I was incredibly happy to see her.
Without a word I grabbed her wrist and dragged her through the closest door – a supply closet.
“What are you doing?” she asked breathlessly.
“I want to kiss you.”
I walked her backwards until her hips met the shelves running against the wall.
“Should we go to your office?”
I shook my head. “Too far. Can’t wait.”
