Chapter 90: Goodbye Work

I woke a short time later, and couldn’t get back to sleep. David was snoring like nothing I’d ever heard, and I couldn’t help but chuckle. God, he was awful. I got onto the boards, and saw a PM from Jon. He was warning us about the press. Shit. I hadn’t even thought of that. He warned me that he drove by the house today, and saw them camped out. It took a full minute of wondering what the hell he was doing in Boston before I realized he meant my new house in Jersey. Oops.

Anyway, Jon was still on the board, and we exchanged PMs about the reporters, and made fun of the way David snores worse than a bear. I asked Jon if there were other things he did that were animal-like, and Jon said I would know better than him. Well, I wanted to see if I could get him to say it, but I couldn’t. BUT, I got the man to laugh (at least that’s what he said) and I didn’t think that would be possible.

We switched topics to Sam, and it isn’t good – her blood pressure is way too high. Jon is worried something awful. He hasn’t told her about any of the stuff that’s been going on this week, and Sam is sure gonna be pissed when she finds out. I was good and tired by that time, so bid Jon a fare-thee-well, and got my ass back to sleep.

* * * * *

Friday, Hath woke sore but happy. She was snuggled into David, and she smiled when she saw the little self-satisfied grin on his face. She groaned and stretched (thinking she was way too old to be sleeping on the floor), and the LJs made themselves known by pressing into her bladder. “Okay, kids, I get it,” she muttered as she carefully rose from the floor. David moaned at the loss of heat, and woke to see his Hath walking bare-ass naked down the hall to the bathroom. He waited until he heard the toilet flush and the shower start, and went down to join her.

Later that morning, Hath’s brother and friends came to take the truck. They got to the house just as the couple was leaving for the office. “We’ll be at work until lunchtime, then heading out. Are you stopping on the way?”

John nodded. “Yah, we’re stopping at Nanna’s for lunch. Ya want us to wait?”

Hath looked to David, who was grinning. She rolled her eyes. “Yes, may as well, D wants to stop for a mid-afternoon snack. We’ll be there around 3, can be back on the road by 4, and will hit the house around 7. You guys brought your gear for tonight?” They all nodded.

“Good,” Hath said, and sighed. “I guess that’s it, then,” she said, looking around at the stark, empty house.

“It’s alright, Jen,” John said, wrapping her in a hug. “You’ve got so much more than a house now.”

Hath sniffled. “I know,” she said. “But it’s still hard. After we leave, though, there’s no looking back; only looking forward.”

“Then let’s get the hell out of here,” David said, and they did.

At the office, David had to laugh at people’s reactions to him. When he got to the building, Hath had to sign him in, and he had to show his ID. The girl, Janelle, took his license, and did a double take. She stared at David for a second, and he waggled his fingers at her, making her blush.

“Sorry,” Janelle said. “You’re not the kind of famous people we usually get in here. It’s usually politicians or financial analysts.”

David mimed a yawn, making her laugh. They went up to the fifth floor, and Hath had a death grip on David’s hand. “What do you do in the New York office when you have to go up nine times as high?” Hath just slid him a shut-the-fuck-up look, and he sheepishly looked away. “Sorry,” he said.

Hath waved her badge in front of the reader by the door, and they wound their way through the rat’s maze of cubicles to Hath’s, which was exactly in the middle of the floor. She introduced David to her coworkers and colleagues as they wound through the office, and David was surprised to see so few women.

“Where are all the women?” David asked, dumbfounded.

Hath just laughed. “This is the tech side of the floor,” she explained. “There are about ten of us girls over here.” David looked around. There had to have been more than a hundred people on the floor. Hath motioned in the general direction of the other side of the floor. “Over there is where our business unit sits, and the ratio is about half and half. I work in a man’s world, baby,” Hath said.

When they got to her desk, Hath dumped her jacket over the back of her chair, plugged her laptop into the docking station, donned her phone’s headset, and set to work. David watched from a borrowed office as she fielded IMs, e-mails, phone calls, and drive-by questions without missing a beat. Sometimes they would all come at once, and David noticed how she handled each in turn without making any of them feel they were not getting her full and undivided attention. This will surely come in handy when she started work for Jon.

Hath had checked in on the boards when she could, and saw that Lucy was torn between being with Sam if she needed someone, and being with Richie. She told Lucy to do what she thought was right, but to remember that Hath’s house wasn’t that far from Sam’s, and she could take care of things if need be.

By noon, David was exhausted just watching Hath. She laughed when he said something to her. “This is a light day,” she said. “I didn’t really have any meetings or anything, and that was only about half the volume of calls and people I usually get. They all know today is my last day.”

David smiled. “Speaking of that…”

Hath sighed. “Yep,” she said. “Let’s go.”

They went to the large conference room in the middle of the floor, and had to wade through a sea of people to get inside. Hath’s eyes teared up. It looked like everyone she’d ever worked with, in this and all the other business units, had come to see her off. David saw her reaction, and looped his arm around her shoulders. Hath made her way through the well-wishers, taking hugs and kisses from the women, and awkward shoulder squeezes from the men. When she reached table in the center of the room, she burst out laughing.

There, in the place of honor was a three foot tall purple witch’s hat. There was tattered black lace and taffeta streamers hanging from the peak, and spiders dangling from the brim. Andrew, as Hath’s boss, was Masters of Ceremony. He drew Hath up to the front of the room, and sat the hat atop her head. She tilted it at a rakish angle and smiled.

Andrew gave the customary “thanks for everything” speech, and everyone applauded. “SPEECH!” someone called from the back. Hath laughed. “What can I say?” she said, “except thank you for a wonderful five years. I’ll miss you guys.”

David piped up, “But not too much.” Everyone laughed.

“Yes dear,” Hath said, winking at David. “Not too much.” Hath looked around. “Bring on the cake!”

After the cake was cut and given out, Hath made her rounds, saying good bye to her friends. Taking her box of personal stuff from her desk, she gave one last look at the group of people she spent the last five years with, and left.