Page 20 of September (New Orleans #9)

“S he thought I was into you?” Molly asked.

“And I thought that she might be into you ,” Juliet said as they walked back from the store to the office, coffees in hand. “She brought you up a couple of times, and I thought that she might have been trying to get information out of me, like if you had a girlfriend and–”

“I really just wanted to hang out with Carly. But if she was trying to get info about me from you, doesn’t that mean she was really trying to get information about you ?”

“That’s a confusing sentence,” she said before taking a sip of her favorite drink that they only sold this time of year.

It wasn’t a pumpkin spice latte. Southern Roastery sold those, of course, and Juliet thought they were okay, but her favorite drink this time of year was a caramel apple latte, light on all the syrups.

She loved the hint of tart apple and sweet caramel but still wanted the coffee flavor to make its way through.

She even had them make it with an extra shot just in case they went overboard with the syrups, but she rarely had a problem with that here since this was the store closest to the office and had corporate team members going through it every day.

It was an honor to be selected to work at this location.

They never had to hire externally for it.

If someone left, someone else applied internally, and as a result, Juliet always got the best cup of coffee.

“You meant me, right?” Juliet asked. “You’re asking if she really wanted info about me because she likes me ?”

“Yeah, you.” Molly laughed a little and added, “She likes you and wanted to see if I was the competition.”

“You really think so? Because I’m not sure, and I’m totally crushing on her right now.”

“You are? That’s great,” Molly said. “You haven’t been even remotely interested in anyone since that ex-girlfriend of yours just up and left. You’re over that, right?”

“I’m very over that, even though I didn’t think I would be at first. It was just hard to understand why she’d suddenly think it wasn’t working, and she wasn’t at all willing to stay and talk after she dumped me.

It was like it was totally over for her, and she didn’t want to hear my side of the story or fight for us at all. ”

“Maybe she thought you’d convince her to stay.”

“How could I? She had most of her stuff packed and in her car already. She had a place to stay lined up, too. She’d clearly been planning it for a while and hadn’t even bothered to clue me in that she was unhappy.

That was the hardest part for me: not that I loved her and missed her like crazy at first, but that she was just done with me.

I had some self-esteem issues after that, and it didn’t take long at all for her to move on.

I could see that all over social media, and that hurt, too, but I think it was because it felt like she had a head start, and I had no idea.

She’d probably been processing our breakup for months, while I was still fully in our committed relationship.

She found someone pretty much right away, but I was still stuck on the fact that I hadn’t known.

I just felt behind and like an idiot because I knew things weren’t perfect, but I didn’t suspect she’d up and leave. ”

“You’re better off for it,” Molly said.

“I know. And I’m glad that we never bought anything together.”

“Carly.”

“Well, I meant property or something that we would’ve had to split up or argue over. She didn’t really want Carly, and Carly’s not property to me.”

“She’s the cutest, and I need a visit, with puppy kisses included.”

“You usually request to hang out with my dog when you’re not feeling so great,” she pointed out. “So, what happened?”

“Nothing. I walked into the parking garage, preparing to head home, but I happened to be there at the exact moment Finley and India were leaving, so I had to see them kiss at India’s car.”

“I’m sorry, Molls.”

“They keep it pretty PG at the office, but I guess that doesn’t apply in the parking garage.

India kind of went all-in there, and her hands were under Finley’s shirt, so now I have to live with that image in my head for the rest of my life.

Finley, thankfully, pulled away after a few seconds, but I’ve been left thinking about how that kiss probably led to them doing something else that night because it was more than clear what India wanted in those big brown eyes of hers. ”

“Maybe you should take some time off or something; go to a beach or do one of those lesbian cruises.”

“Can you honestly picture me on a lesbian cruise? I have a massive crush on a woman, and I hardly talk to her unless it’s about work stuff. If I’m on a ship for a week, I won’t even work up the courage to talk to one person in that time.”

“That’s what the events and drinks are for. Drinks loosen you up. Events give you excuses to talk. You can at least get a break from seeing Finley and India at the office all the time.”

“Since we both know I’m not going on a lesbian cruise anytime soon, let’s get back to you,” Molly replied. “You’re crushing on Gwen, the hot dog walker. Wait. That sounded weird. She doesn’t walk hot dogs.”

“She is hot, though, isn’t she?” Juliet asked before taking another sip.

“Gorgeous. She’s a little older than you, right?”

“Thirty-two. Not a big age difference. I’m almost twenty-eight. So, four years, basically.”

“That’s about the same for Finley and me. I’m turning thirty in a few months, and she won’t turn thirty-five until next August.”

“But you and Finley aren’t together, Molls.”

“Neither are you and Gwen, Jules. One of you would have to ask the other out for you to be doing anything more than flirting. At least, your crush is single.”

“Yeah,” Juliet replied and pulled open the office door, letting Molly walk inside before her. “And I’ll get to see her soon because I have another trip planned, and she’s watching Carly.”

“Not to take away your chances of seeing Gwen, but you know I can always watch Carly for you, right?”

“I know, but I can’t ask you to do that for every trip. I mean, what would I do when you inevitably go on that lesbian cruise and meet the love of your life at bingo? Do they have bingo on lesbian cruises?”

They laughed as they entered the elevator and were still talking about how shy Molly could meet a woman during the swim aerobics class or at a casino.

Maybe they’d meet when Molly went down a water slide and landed in the woman’s lap at the bottom.

Neither had ever been on a lesbian cruise, so they had to make things up a bit, but it was pretty entertaining.

“Juliet, can I talk to you for a minute?” her boss asked the moment Juliet sat back down at her desk.

“Sure,” she replied and looked at Molly to see if Molly knew what was going on.

Molly gave her a confused expression, and Juliet tried to replay her work trip in her mind to see if something had gone wrong, getting her in trouble. She couldn’t think of anything as she followed him into his office and sat down.

“So, how was the trip?” he asked.

“Good. We lost two right off the bat, but the manager made a couple of calls to the people they interviewed prior, and he’s got two more coming in. They’ll join one of the new-hire classes since they missed the opening class.”

“Great. Great,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “So, I wanted to talk to you about October.”

“I haven’t finished the schedule for October yet. It’s a little complicated.”

“I went ahead and did it for you since I realized it’s a lot to expect when you’ve never had to do it before, and Jordana is not here to walk you through it. I’ve added the finished schedule to the team calendar.”

“Oh, okay. Thank you,” she said.

“I also needed to let you know that we had to let Andrew go. He’s no longer with the company as of about twenty minutes ago. I imagine Molly is being told that now, too. We had someone else in HR take care of the termination paperwork since Molly and Andrew have always been pretty close.”

“Andrew? What? Why?”

“He was close to Jordana, and he’s been making some comments and sending inappropriate emails around the company.

He confirmed to us that he knew about the affair and was upset that Jordana got let go because of it.

There’s more to it, but that’s the PG version of the story.

Pretend I never told you that, please. Anyway, we had to part ways. ”

Andrew was one of the other trainers who had been on Jordana’s team.

He was pretty close to Jordana. They’d come from a previous company together where she’d been his boss there, too.

Molly and Andrew weren’t particularly close, but they’d hung out a few times outside of work, so it was entirely possible that people at Southern had assumed they’d dated or were dating, since Molly being gay wasn’t widespread knowledge.

She wasn’t in the closet, but she didn’t blast her sexuality around the office, either.

“So, what does this do to October?” she asked.

“Well, I got it to work, but it’ll be tight. You’ll have to do a store opening Monday through Wednesday, and then a sales class Thursday and Friday. You’ll drive Wednesday night. It’s like that pretty much the whole month.”

“Every week?” she asked.

“Yeah, sorry. I haven’t fully figured November out yet, but the first couple of weeks of that month will be the same.

We’re going to find a replacement for Andrew, but that will take some time.

Then, they’d have to go through their training.

If someone from one of the stores gets the job, they won’t have to do the full ninety days of training.

They can skip the two months in the store, but they would still have to do the one month in the roastery like you did. ”

“So, I’m basically traveling a hundred percent of the time for at least the next few months?”