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She picked up her clutch from the top drawer of her desk and stood, ignoring the swimmy feeling in her head brought on by sheer exhaustion. That would teach her to stay up past her bedtime reading. “I’ll see you boys tomorrow. Good day.”
With a lifted chin, she breezed past them with energy she didn’t feel, and walked out the door, leaving them to sit and ponder her exit and reach whatever conclusions they reached. Frankly, she didn’t give a damn.
Chapter Sixteen
“I think it’s sweet.”
Sabrina was flabbergasted. “Jan! How could you agree with them?” Sabrina had called her friend the moment she’d stepped inside her apartment door and, the moment she heard her voice on the other end, launched into a twenty-minute rant about how unbelievable and outrageous the whole encounter with the Hargreaves had been. The audacity! The nerve of them to assume they had that right!
“What do you want me to say?” Janet asked, clearly confused. “I’ve known you forever, and I know how you get. Sometimes you run yourself into the ground for that job.”
Sabrina scoffed. She did not. She knew her limits.
“Yeah, yeah, you know your limits. You can handle yourself. Blah, blah blah,” Janet mocked, having heard the spiel enough times to predict it. “Look, you know that saying ‘work smarter not harder’? That’s where you’re at right now. And you know damn well you could have had that shit done today if you’d been in the right frame of mind, but you weren’t, so you were busting your ass on stuff that should have been a breeze any other day. So…work smarter! Those guys saw what you were doing and they pointed it out, and that’s what you’re really mad about. Not that they care about your well-being, but that they showed you your weakness, and you resented it.”
Sabrina wanted to argue. In fact, she had a jumble of words ready at the tip of her tongue, but none of them made any sense, because Janet was right. She did resent them. She wanted to be superwoman at everything she did, and shehated itwhen she came up short.
So the person she was really mad at was…herself.
“You’re right.” Sabrina sighed.
“I know I am.”
Shaking her head, Sabrina didn’t know how to continue arguing with her friend, and frankly, she didn’t want to. Besides, shewasright. She’d just admitted it, so it couldn’t be taken back, even though it would likely give her an even bigger head than she already had. Ha!
With a private smile, Sabrina decided to just let it go. It had been her plan all along anyway. She would stew, complain, and complain some more, and then she would shelve it and move on. Guess it was time to put that last part into practice.
“Anyway, how was your day?”
Janet sighed down the line. “Work is work. Can’t complain.”
Or she could, but she chose not to. Janet enjoyed her job as much as Sabrina did, and on most days, there wasn’t a lot to say because they were in their happy zone, satisfied with life. But like today, there was always a day when that didn’t hold quite so true. That was when they turned to each other and vented all of their grievances until they felt purged of negativity and ready to face another day.
“Yeah…”
“So…” There was a hint of curiosity in Janet’s voice, and the by the sound of it, Sabrina knew what was coming next. “Have you, ya know…wocka-wocka’d yet?”
“Wocka what?” Sabrina burst into laughter. Let it never be said the woman didn’t have a way with words.
“You know…tossed the ol’ hot dog down the hallway. Brought the plane in for a landing? Come on, ‘Bree, work with me here!”
Sabrina was doubled over in laughter, unable to catch her breath long enough to utter a single word. Oh, she knew what Janet was getting at, but half the fun was hearing her beat around the bush to get there.
“Oh my God…you can’t…even…say it,” she wheezed out.
Janet’s response was predictably huffy. “I can, but I choose not to. It’s called having class!” Call it what she wanted, but Janet was slowly giving way to her own laughter. Apparently, it was contagious.
“How are you even dating anyone?” Sabrina asked as she wiped tears from her eyes. “You talk like my grandma!”
“Hey, them’s fighting words!”
“Then why don’t you come over and try it,” Sabrina taunted, knowing she would never do any such thing. They rarely got together during the week, both of their schedules too demanding. The weekends weren’t much better, which left them grabbing for time together in the interim, hence the spontaneous dinner the previous week.
Janet issued an indignant sniff. “Whatever. You know tonight is pizza night. You don’t mess with tradition.”
Ah yes, pizza night. Janet had one cheat night a week, too, and she always ordered a pizza and indulged in old Patrick Swayze movies. On those nights, it would take a forklift to pry her away from the couch.
“So…” Janet continued. “Has anything happened yet or not? You’re the only one dating right now, so I’m living vicariously through you. It’s basically your civic duty to tell me everything.”
