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Instead, I let him open the door for me. We walked together down the sidewalk, and he kissed me on the cheek at the house, an unspoken promise in the air.
The best was yet to come.
26
Henrietta
Confession: I felt betrayed.
As I droveto the office Monday morning, I couldn’t stop thinking about the bomb Tyler had dropped on me. Had Janessa really lied to me? We’d worked together for eight years, and at this point, I’d considered her a friend. A close colleague at the very least. Would she really have felt threatened enough to lie?
There was really only one way to find out.
When I reached the apartment parking lot, I put my car in park and began searching through my contact list. One of the benefits of never updating your phone? I had every single contact from as far back as I could remember.
Midway through the Fs, I found Frannie’s number. Hoping she hadn’t changed it in the last few years, I pressed call.
“Henrietta!” she answered. “Long time no talk.”
I could hear her car running in the background. Maybe she was driving to work. “I’m sorry about that,” I said. “Have you been doing alright?”
“Great, actually! I ended up marrying that contractor I met on the SoCal build, and we have a kid now. I’m on my way to drop her off at daycare as we speak.”
“Congratulations!” I told her. I hadn’t been invited to the wedding, but then again, that didn’t surprise me. The events of her leaving Blue Bird had been really hush-hush. “I was wondering... whatever happened back then? Do you mind sharing why you left?”
She was quiet for a moment, and I half expected her to tell me to fuck off. I wouldn’t blame her one bit. I needed to be a better friend that way. I was about to apologize for interrupting her day when she said, “They didn’t tell you?”
“No,” I answered. “Well, Janessa said it had something to do with that contractor. What was his name?”
“Jeremy,” she answered.
“Right.”
“Janessa’s full of hot air, but you know that,” Frannie said. Her daughter cried, and she shushed her for a moment before saying, “I kept showing up to work late because I was so nauseous in the mornings, so they let me go. If I would have known the reason for my ‘stomach bug’ was morning sickness, I would have sued them for all they had.”
I shook my head, processing it all. “I’m sorry they did that to you. Being pregnant sounds miserable.” If I got pregnant, I’d only know the signs because of my sisters-in-law, who way overshared.
“It is, and then you get the best gift ever at the end.”
I smiled at the love I heard in her voice. “So it wasn’t against the rules for you to date Jeremy?”
“Corporate only cares what you do on company time. They don’t give a shit who you’re dating off the clock.”
“Right.” My jaw tensed. So Janessa really had lied to me, just to get Tyler.
“Hey, I’m at the daycare, but if you’re ever in Chula Vista, let me know. I’d love to get some drinks with you, catch up sometime.”
“I’d love that too,” I replied honestly. “I’ll talk to you later?”
“Sure thing.”
We hung up, and I gripped my phone tightly as I lowered it from my ear. I felt sickened, betrayed. If Janessa had so easily lied to me about Tyler, what else had she lied to me about? I thought back over what I once believed had been a friendly working relationship, rethinking everything.
She’d only been looking out for herself. And maybe it was time I did the same, starting with enjoying this wedding week and spending the weekend with Tyler. I had felt so guilty for submitting my time-off request for Wednesday through Friday since it meant Janessa would have to drive from LA to Emerson.
But now, I didn’t feel guilty at all. In fact, the only thing I regretted was having to call and remind her that I’d be off work. I went into the office, putting my sack lunch in the fridge and then checking voicemails.
With my blood at a simmer instead of a boil, I dialed her number on the office phone. It rang a few times before her perky voice came on the line. “Hey, Hen! How’s it going this week?”