Chapter 9
Friday again. Coffee break time.
Jo Ann turned off the electric typewriter and slid her chair back from the desk. The week seemed to have flown. Whizzed by without her. But despite her disoriented state, she realized that today was a week. A week that she had been living with Laura ... as her lover.
The awareness chilled her and Jo Ann tried to think about something else. She had been avoiding the truth, she knew. Avoiding it and making excuses to herself for her unnatural actions. Yet, she knew of nothing else to do ... nothing else she felt she could do. Laura had saved her, when she needed to be saved. She couldn't just run out on the woman now. Trapped or otherwise, Jo Ann felt that she had to stay. At least until something better came along.
The deep, resonant voice on the other side of the glass door reached her ears and urged Jo Ann quickly to her feet. A great deal of time during the past week had been devoted to avoiding Stan. She had done a pretty good job of it, too, Jo Ann reminded herself proudly. Another two hours and she could put him out of her mind for an entire weekend. Or at least not have to see him every hour.
"Bastard," Jo Ann muttered to herself on her way to the employees' lounge. Stan had done a pretty good job of staying cool himself. She didn't mind that he had stopped saying good morning to her and that he practically ignored her when they were within speaking distance of each other. But when he started farming his dictation out to the other girls in the office, Jo Ann knew that the tension was obvious to everyone. Luckily for her, the other girls had the tact not to ask any questions. But they were talking, Jo Ann knew. Gossiping and speculating as to the probable reasons behind her losing favor in Mister Wyatt's eyes.
The hell with them, Jo Ann decided, pushing open the lounge door and stepping inside. If the situation got too uncomfortable for her, she would just quit and get another job. Laura would take care of her until the money started coming in again. Yes, Laura would take better care of her than Stan ever had.
The atmosphere in the lounge grew abruptly thick with strain as a noticeable silence pervaded the room. Jo Ann stood off in a corner, sipping coffee and trying to ignore the furtive glances of the other girls from her department. What were they staring at, she wondered, feeling an uncomfortable warmth burning her cheeks. Those idiots must be having a field day, she told herself, hoping her extreme discomfort didn't show.
The chubby redhead from the desk next to hers sidled up and threw Jo Ann a long, sly grin. "Don't look now, honey," she murmured, "but the lion just walked in."
Jo Ann followed the woman's gaze right into the stone-faced expression on Stan's face. He turned away quickly, without so much as acknowledging her presence. Yes, this has been one helluva week, Jo Ann thought, tossing her half filled coffee cup into a wastepaper basket and striding out the door into the hall. Thank goodness, it would soon be over.
The long white envelope with the official Sterling Record Company imprint on it was waiting for her when she got back to her desk. Jo Ann glanced down at the letter, wondering what it was doing there and what it said. Maybe someone upstairs was requesting another list typed, she thought, remembering Laura's last minute request the previous Friday. But why hadn't the order been sent on an inter-office memo slip?
Jo Ann read the letter twice before slamming it down on the desk blotter. This must be some kind of a lousy joke, she thought, picturing the smug look that sometimes appeared on Stan's face when he considered himself victorious. Unable to believe what she had seen, Jo Ann picked up the letter and read it for the third time.
She had been right. It was her week's notice. She had been fired. But why?
Too angry to think, Jo Ann stormed out of the room and marched back toward the lounge. If Stan Wyatt thought he was going to get away with that crap without so much as a peep out of her, he was very mistaken. Armed with an overpowering sense of righteous wrath, Jo Ann burst into the employees' lounge and searched the room for Stan.
He was leaning against the wall on the far side of the room, talking to a pretty young brunette from another department. Oblivious to the looks on the faces of those around her, Jo Ann crossed the room and tapped him on the shoulder.
Stan's smile froze when he turned around and saw Jo Ann. "Yes, Miss Mason?" His tone was as official as the letter he had written her.
"Don't Miss Mason me," Jo Ann snapped, shoving the crumpled letter at him. "What's this supposed to mean?"
"I think your notice is self-explanatory," Stan said without changing his expression. "You don't have to worry. You'll get an extra week's severance pay."
"You know what you can do with that," Jo Ann snarled and turned her back on him.
Just in time to see Laura walking into the room.
"Hi, there," Laura smiled cheerfully as Jo Ann approached her. "Another week all gone. Isn't it great?"
Jo Ann walked past Laura and out of the room. She couldn't talk. Not even to her friend. All she wanted was to get as far away from everything and everybody as she could.
Storming back into her office, Jo Ann grabbed her bag and her coat and marched out. The hell with the letters, she thought, glancing back at the unfinished work on her desk. Let Stan give it to that girl he had been talking to in the lounge. She was through.
The afternoon was warm, but Jo Ann didn't stop to appreciate the weather. Without taking note of her direction, she started to walk. It seemed as though the energy of her fury could carry her on indefinitely. So what, Jo Ann told herself. Nobody would miss her if she got lost ... least of all herself.
By the time she had calmed down, Jo Ann found herself standing at the corner of Fifty-Seventh Street and Fifth Avenue. Glancing down the block, she caught sight of the Fifty-Ninth Street circle and the park beyond. A faint wave of nausea rolled through her stomach. Why had she walked that way, she wondered. Was it because Stan's apartment was so near? Force of habit?
Whatever the reason, Jo Ann didn't bother to wait to find out. Hailing a taxi, she hopped quickly inside and gave the driver Laura's address. It was time to go home ... or to whatever it was that she shared with Laura. As long as there was quiet, that's all that counted.
The apartment was dark and empty when Jo Ann turned the key in the lock and opened the door. Tossing her coat over the first chair in her path, she moved to the bar and poured herself a drink. Suddenly she felt directionless. A living thing without purpose or meaning. And all because of Stan Wyatt.
She would show him, Jo Ann encouraged herself as she leaned back further into the soft cushions of the couch and slipped off her shoes. She would find another job and get along just fine without him. Nothing to worry about and no reason to be upset. Jo Ann took a sip of her drink and wondered if her courage would last an hour.
It was two hours before she heard Laura's footsteps outside the door. Glancing over at the little clock on the kitchen table, Jo Ann noticed that it was already past seven. Strange, she thought. Laura usually got home by five-thirty.
The senseless expression on Laura's face announced her condition before she did. "Hiya, baby," she drawled, hurrying across the room to plant a wet kiss on Jo Ann's cheek. "Did you worry about me a lot?"
"I knew you were late," Jo Ann said, grateful that Laura had moved away. Just what she needed tonight ... Laura drunk, on top of everything else.
Laura took off her coat and yawned loudly. "What time is it?"
"Ten-past-seven." Jo Ann glanced at her watery drink and decided against finishing it. Somebody had better stay sober tonight, she thought.
"Good, then we still have time to make the party."
"What party?" Jo Ann wondered if this latest idea was a figment of Laura's drunken imagination or just one more thing she had missed during her foggy week.
"Leslie's party."
"Who's Leslie?"
"You remember." Laura sat down heavily beside Jo Ann and placed a possessive arm around her shoulders.
"The girl we met last week when we went shopping for your clothes."
"Yes, I remember," Jo Ann admitted sadly. The vision of that prune-faced woman with the dirty trench coat was one she had felt happy to put out of her mind as soon as Leslie was out of her sight. And the thought of seeing her again, just a week later, was no more appealing than it had been when they first met.
"Do we have to go?" Jo Ann asked.
"Why ... did you make other plans?" Laura looked as though she were about to be furious.
"Hey, what's eating you tonight?" Jo Ann moved off the couch, not in the mood to be browbeaten. "First you walk in here polluted and then you start looking for a fight."
"I'm sorry." Laura lowered her eyes and slouched. "I saw you stamp out of the office today and I got shook."
"Why should it bother you?"
"You know damned well why," Laura's tone rose again. "I saw who you were talking to in the lounge."
Jo Ann grasped the essence of Laura's annoyance and shook her head. Stan Wyatt ... the taboo subject. Just the mention of his name was enough to set Laura off these days.
"Why do you have to keep thinking of him as competition?" Jo Ann asked. "I told you there was nothing between us anymore."
"Then why'd you go looking for him in the lounge this afternoon?"
Jo Ann whirled, her own fury blocking out the fear of Laura's. "Because, if you must know, he fired me. That's why." Jo Ann walked back to the bar to find the bottle she had started on earlier.
"Gee, baby, I didn't know." Laura was suddenly all apology and repentance. "I just thought that..."
"I know what you thought," Jo Ann snapped, tired of arguing, sick to death of trouble. "If you can't trust me ... well, that's just too bad. I refuse to worry about you getting drunk every time you see me talking to some guy-"
"All right, all right. Forget it." Laura moved a little closer and kissed Jo Ann on the ear. "Let's call a truce, huh?" she asked, taking the bottle out of Jo Ann's hand and turning her around.
Jo Ann yielded patiently to the sour tasting kiss and wondered what she was going to do with Laura this evening. From only a week's experience, she knew that if they stayed too close to each other for any length of time, they would be sure to wind up in bed. And at the moment, she just wasn't in the mood.
"You want some supper?" Jo Ann pushed Laura gently away after a reasonable amount of time and forced a smile. "You must be starved by now."
"No, I don't want anything." Laura's shoulders drooped slightly and she sulked back to the sofa. "You go ahead and eat without me, if you're hungry."
"For heaven's sake, let's not have one of those nights," Jo Ann whined, reaching for a cigarette and wondering if she had the control not to lose her temper again.
"Okay," Laura suddenly brightened. "No more arguments. Come over here and we'll make up."
Jo Ann felt a sense of imminent doom as she went to Laura and sank down into the woman's arms. This was what Laura needed to feel secure, she knew. A body in bed. Jo Ann's body, to assure her that no man could take away her girl.
The kiss was long and Jo Ann felt nothing. Searching frantically for an excuse to get out of Laura's arms, she wondered if she might not have done better, after all, to have remained in the hotel. Suddenly, it seemed that everything had a price. Even Laura's friendship.
"I tell you what." Jo Ann's burst of inspiration set her smiling again. "You go inside and shower and we'll go to that party, if you want. Okay?"
"How long will it take you to get ready?" Laura sounded agreeable.
"Give me half an hour," Jo Ann said. Anything to get out of the apartment and avoid a scene with Laura, she thought. Even an evening with Leslie and god only knew how many others like her.