Page 28 of July (New Orleans #7)

“Y ou’re really not coming with us?” Juni asked.

“I can’t, but I want to. I have to go to work.”

“You work at the school,” Juni said.

“And I work at the museum, too, remember? You saw me there the other night.”

“Oh, yeah,” Juni replied. “Why do you work there and at the school?”

Willa had no idea how to answer that question honestly, so she just patted Juni’s shoulder and gave her a smile, deciding not to burden a ten-year-old, who probably wouldn’t understand it anyway, with the problem in this country of not paying teachers enough to actually live and not giving them the supplies they needed to do their jobs on top of it.

“I like it,” she said, only half-lying.

“Can we go to the museum today?” Juni asked Jill, who had just walked into the living room.

“You wanted to go to the park.”

“I know. Park first. Then, the museum to see Willa.”

“Sweetie, I’ll be working in the gift shop. I won’t be able to tour the museum with you,” Willa said, trying to get Jill out of having to go to the museum.

“Oh,” Juni replied.

“And we’re taking it easy today, remember? You just got better,” Jill added and sat down on the couch next to Willa. “Can you go get whatever you want to take to the park with you so we can get going?”

“I’m bringing my tablet,” Juni said, running off.

“You’re bringing–” Jill shook her head. “To the park? Why?”

“She’s basically been raised as an only child, so she prepares to be by herself everywhere, is my guess,” Willa said.

“But what’s the point of going outside if she’s playing on her tablet the whole time?”

“Babe, you’re really cute when you’re trying to figure out kids. Trust me, you’ll never get there. No one ever has.”

Jill leaned over and kissed Willa quickly, but then her phone rang from its spot on the table, so she picked it up.

“It’s my grandma,” Jill said and answered the call.

“Hey, Grandma.” She paused. “Okay. Yeah, thank you. We’re going to the park today, but she wasn’t feeling well last night and wanted to call Mom,” Jill said in a hushed tone in order to prevent Juni from overhearing.

“Are you sure?” Jill paused again. “I can try, but then, she’ll just wonder why Mom isn’t calling her back, and I’m trying to keep this from her for as long as I can. ”

Willa rubbed Jill’s thigh because it was all that she could do, really. She felt helpless right now, and she hated it, but just as that thought entered her brain, Juni came rushing back into the living room, ready to go.

“Hey, let’s go out front and wait for your sister. She’s on the phone,” Willa said, springing into action and feeling like she could do this one thing to help now.

“Yeah,” Jill said into the phone. “Juni, I’ll be right out, okay?”

“Okay,” Juni replied.

Willa walked her outside and checked her own phone.

She needed to leave soon if she was going to get home in time to shower and change before work, but she couldn’t just leave them here like this.

Thankfully, ten minutes later, Jill came out of the house ready to drive Juni to the park, and Willa helped Juni get into the car, closing the door behind her.

“I have to get going, but is everything okay?” she asked, wanting to hold Jill.

“My Grandma is going to call her again. She actually has the friend’s number, too. She says she’s going to keep calling until my mom finally gets her shit together and comes home. She also suggested I have Juni try to call her and leave a message to see if the guilt gets to my mom.”

“But like you said, Juni would start to wonder.”

“I know. My grandpa actually got on the phone and said that Juni needs to know what’s going on soon because if they can’t get my mom to come back, I’ll have to go to court for her, and Juni will know then anyway.

He also pointed out that when her dad died, my mom didn’t tell her right away.

She gave it a day or two and told Juni he was out of town for work until my grandparents got there. God, she might be thinking that…”

“Babe, I’m so sorry,” Willa said. “I’d hug you right now, but–”

“It’s okay. And I know you need to go. Call me later?”

“I will. Have fun at the park, okay? Try to take, like, an hour and just not think about any of the bad things. Just enjoy being with your sister.”

“I’ll do my best,” Jill said.

When Willa got into her own car and drove away, she felt like she was leaving her heart behind, which was ridiculous because she would see Jill later that night, most likely, or, at least, the next day.

Having arrived home not long after that goodbye, she showered, dressed for work, and quickly left for her shift.

Driving to the museum wasn’t usually the best idea, so she took the bus instead because it would take more time to find a parking spot on a busy Saturday and walk than it would to just let the bus stop several times.

On the way there, she checked the email again, making sure she had read it right the previous night.

They wanted to interview her for a teaching job in Baton Rouge.

Even though it was Saturday, Willa decided to respond to their request for her interview availability today instead of waiting for Monday so that they would have a response first thing and could get her scheduled.

She didn’t want to lose this chance at a job she could really love.

By the time she got to the museum, she’d already calculated how she and Jill could make the distance work.

Baton Rouge could be an hour and a half to two hours away on a good day.

With traffic, it could be longer. Willa didn’t think she could make that commute every day.

For a while, yes, but not forever. She didn’t know if Jill would ever move there and leave New Orleans behind, but that was for them to worry about really, really far into the future.

They weren’t even a couple yet. She would find a reasonable apartment there and save time and gas money, but it would be an easy trip for them to make on the weekends and maybe once during the week or something.

If she were to leave New Orleans by five-thirty in the morning, she could make sure to be at the school by seven-thirty to get ready for the day.

That assumed she got the job, of course, but she’d rather be prepared because she’d seen the look on Jill’s face when she’d mentioned Savannah.

It had been a good look, Willa decided. It meant that Jill cared enough to be thinking about what would happen to them if Willa got a job somewhere else.

If things got serious with them, Willa suspected she’d put off her job search out of state until they could sort out the situation with Juni and Jill’s mom.

She already knew that Baton Rouge was too far away, and they’d only just started dating.

“Hi,” she said to her boss after clocking in.

“Hey, Willa. The new schedule is up if you want to take a look. I’ve made the adjustments we talked about.”

“Okay. Thanks,” she replied.

Willa walked over to where the schedule was hanging up and found the row with her name on it. Instead of eight hours today, she’d only be working six, and on top of that, her entire shift tomorrow was cut.

“Um… Is this right?” she asked.

“Sorry?”

“The schedule? You said four hours a week.”

Her boss walked over to join Willa at the bulletin board and said, “Yeah.”

“That’s six hours in two days. You shortened my shift today and cut my four hours tomorrow.”

“You worked two hours extra this week.”

“Yeah, I was covering for someone else,” Willa argued. “At the last minute. That shouldn’t count in the cuts.”

“Sorry, but we’re looking at total hours each week. Since you worked those two, they needed me to cut another two, so I cut the end of your shift off today. I’ll be closing instead, if it makes you feel any better.”

“It doesn’t,” Willa replied. “I need this money. It’s the only reason I work here. You know that.”

“I know. And I’m sorry, but it’s out of my hands.” The woman shook her head. “I’m missing my daughter’s soccer game tonight because I have to stay to cover the end-of-day rush on my own.”

“You’re on salary with a guaranteed paycheck.

The rest of us are not. If we don’t get hours, we don’t make enough money to work here.

If I drive here, there’s no museum lot for my car, and I don’t get to park anywhere for free, so that costs money.

Even the bus fare to get here costs, so the fewer hours we work, the more expensive it is to even get to work.

I realize that’s always the case, but the fewer hours I get, the more that bus fare costs to get here, you know? ”

“Willa, if I could change it, I would, but the next step is to let a part-timer go. I’m trying to wait on that because I know one of our part-timers will be going back to school in about a month, so that means we won’t have to let anyone go.”

“I know you’re in a tough spot, but I just…” She sighed. “I don’t know. It just doesn’t seem worth it. I could be at the park with my girlfriend right now, enjoying my weekend, or even grading papers at home with a cup of coffee.”

Willa had just called Jill her girlfriend, which wasn’t entirely accurate because they’d yet to have that conversation, but she wasn’t going to take it back now or try to explain what they were to her boss.

It was interesting to her, though, how it had happened so quickly.

She’d never felt so at home with someone so soon after meeting while still having those new-relationship butterflies that Jill made her feel all the time.

Then again, she had never pictured herself staying over every night when they had only gone on one real date outside of the house and waking up next to someone with the sound of cereal crashing to the kitchen floor and not only not minding but smiling when it had happened because it had given her a chance to be there for Jill, letting her sleep for another hour or so.

Now that she was in it, though, Willa didn’t want to go back, only forward with Jill.