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“I’d like that.” Julia smiled into the phone as she looked up and watched the fan spin above her. “I’d like that a lot.”
“Okay, I guess I’ll see you then.”
“See you then.”
“See you then,” Erin repeated.
They sat in silence for a moment, both waiting to see who would hang up first, both mesmerized in the rhythm of their breaths. Erin ended the call and Julia was left smiling into her phone when she did.
Chapter Fourteen
It was Sunday, and Julia finished organizing the last of the chaperone folders and did one final check for each grade level’s permission slips. She leaned towards her filing cabinet as she tucked the permission slips back to their safe location in a worn brown folder.
Out of the corner of her window, she saw movement in the parking lot. A group of men in suits and women in long fitted dresses exited the building, shaking hands as they made their way to ridiculously expensive BMWs and Teslas. It was the board of education, and on the sidewalk waving goodbye was Erin.
Julia looked at her watch. It was just past seven at night, and they never even notified Julia of its occurrence. She suddenly felt sick to her stomach. Every worst-case scenario flooded her mind like the water that floated Noah’s Ark.
What if she wasn’t invited because the meeting was about her? What if Erin finally gave them the ammo they needed to push her out? Everything she feared, everything that forced her to tiptoe around Erin, was now hurtling towards her in full force.
“I thought I saw the light in your office.” Erin’s voice appeared out of thin air.
She stood with her hip leaning against the doorway, a white blouse peeking out past her gray pant suit. How long did she sit staring out that window, contemplating where to go next?
“Hey,” Julia softly said. Her smile was weak, barely there at all. She couldn’t put on the mask, couldn’t think past the idea that Erin could have it in her to betray her like that. “Did you have a good meeting?”
“Yes, a very productive one, actually.”
“That’s nice,” Julia said dryly, turning her attention towards the planner before her.
“Is something wrong?” Erin asked, angling her head just slightly.
Julia sighed, the frustration coming out in one long exhale. “What was the meeting about?” she asked, and then added in a softer tone, “if you don’t mind me asking.”
“Just a review of the latest curriculum score evaluations,” Erin explained, her voice nonchalant. “I noticed you weren’t there.”
“I wasn’t invited.” The words left her mouth with more bite than she intended.
“Oh,” she shook her head apologetically, “I didn’t know.”
“How did it go?” Julia asked quietly, hurt scrolling across her face in long brushstrokes.
“Surprisingly very well. They were impressed with our long-term plan so far,” she admitted. Her voice was steady, so full of honesty that Julia thought she lost her mind.
“Did they say anything else?” Julia asked, trying so hard to push the desperation in her tone down. “About me?”
Erin sighed as she allowed more of her weight to press against that door frame. “They asked for an impromptu evaluation on you.”
“And?”
“I gave them one.”
Julia squeezed her eyes closed. This would be it for her career. It was over. Everything she worked for? Poof! Gone.
“Oh,” she sighed, leaning forward over her desk.
“Will you stop that?” Erin’s voice was a demand, her hands rising to her hip.
Julia looked up at Erin, now standing before her, completely startled by the tone of her voice. She was the one who used that voice on others; it was never the other way around.
