Page 21 of September (New Orleans #9)

“I know. And I’m sorry. It’s the best I can do right now. On the weeks when you’re driving from place to place, I can probably get them to pay for a hotel for the weekends. That way, you wouldn’t have to come back here and drive back up. It would save you some drive time.”

“I can’t. I have a dog at home. If I’m going to be gone every week, I have to at least be home on the weekends.”

“Can someone take care of her for you?”

“I think she would just become their dog by then if I’m literally gone the whole time. Is this how it will always be? I know what you said about the job description, but I didn’t expect to be gone all the time, especially right away like this.”

“I’m sorry. We didn’t know about the Andrew situation.

It happened after, and we had no choice.

He said some pretty explicit things to the VP of operations.

Between you and me, I knew he and Jordana were very close, but now the gossip has started that they might have been more than just former colleagues and friends.

He didn’t say that, and neither did she, but the way he reacted felt more like a jilted lover than an employee who lost his boss. ”

“I get that. And I think I can figure out October, but I don’t know if I can do this much travel forever.”

“I understand. Once we get his replacement trained up, things will go back down to seventy-five percent at most, and there will be months where it’s only one week or two.”

Juliet nodded and said, “Okay. Well, I guess I should go take a look at the schedule and get my travel booked.”

“Yes. And thank you, Juliet.”

Juliet stood up, and without telling him that he was welcome, she left the office and discovered that Molly wasn’t at her desk when she arrived back at her own and was probably getting the same news that she’d just gotten.

Juliet pulled up the team calendar on her computer and checked her October travel schedule.

She would be a little all over the place, going north first, then south, and then northeast and southeast. It made no sense, but the classes would have been handled by her, Andrew, and Jordana, so if only one person was teaching them now, they had to adhere to the existing schedule since people were already enrolled in their classes, and having one person change their schedule was easier than hundreds of people having to do it.

“Did you hear about–”

“Yes. And because he’s, apparently, an idiot, I now have to be gone the entire month of October and most, if not all, of November,” she interrupted Molly when she walked over.

“Shit. Really?”

“Yes, really. What did you know?”

“About him being fired? Nothing,” Molly replied as she sat down. “I wasn’t on any of the emails he sent, and I didn’t hear the shouting match there was, either. I must have been in a meeting.”

“Was Andrew involved with Jordana?”

Molly leaned forward, nodded, and said, “I only found out about it from him after Jordana was fired. I guess they’d dated at the other company and stopped when he got here, but they started up again about a year ago.

He had no idea that she was sleeping with someone else.

He thinks there’s a distinct possibility that the baby might be his and not the other guy’s. ”

“Why do I feel like I’m suddenly living in a soap opera? She was his boss.”

“I know,” Molly said on a sigh. “Had he told me earlier, I would’ve told him to knock it off. It wasn’t smart. Now, he’s lost his job, too, and if that baby is his, neither of its parents has a job right now. On top of that, Jordana left him for the roaster guy.”

“There’s a reason I try to stay out of this office crap,” Juliet noted as she stared at the screen in front of her.

“What am I going to do about Carly? I’ll be getting home late Friday night or Saturday morning and leaving either Sunday night or Monday morning, depending on how long the drives are between locations. ”

“I can help if Gwen isn’t always available.”

“I know. And thank you, but it’s not about that. It’s that I won’t get to see her or spend time with her. I hate that.”

“They told me they’re hiring Andrew’s replacement, so it won’t be forever.”

“It’s still months; months with her staying with other people the majority of the time and only seeing me one or two days a week. She’s a rescue with abandonment issues. She needs to know I’m not going to leave her.”

“You’d never do that. You’ll figure this out,” Molly said.

“Maybe I can take a day off and do a store visit or something where you are, bringing her with me for a midweek visit. Or, you can try to find a hotel that lets you have pets there. More and more do that now with emotional support animals and service animals.”

“She’d be stuck in a hotel room from six in the morning until after five at night.”

“Want to grab a drink after work, and we can try to figure out how to do this?”

“Maybe.” Juliet sighed. “Can I let you know?”

“Sure,” Molly replied with a sympathetic nod.

“You know what else sucks, though?”

“What?”

“My crush on Gwen.”

“Why does that suck?”

“Because if I’m gone all the time, when can I possibly take her on a date if she says yes when I ask her?”