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What is real, and what’s a story for the lawyer?
The situation is eerily familiar with how it all started. We faked being a couple for photographs, and that was a slippery slope.
Now we’re faking a break-up… and it’s starting to feel uncomfortably real to me.
Maybe Jack does want to move on.
Maybe to him, all that happened was ‘no big deal.’
On the screen, Jack and Raymond keep up their small talk.
“... yeah, the place was great, man,” Jack says. “If you ever have a chance to go, I highly recommend it.”
“You said, Hanu, like, H-A-N-U…”
“Yeah, it's an eco-friendly place, so if you like animals and nature, you’d dig it.”
Raymond swivels to his desktop and works the keyboard for a minute. “Hey, look at this. Sea turtles, dolphins, and look at all those birds… my kids might like this place.”
The conversation turns to kids: Raymond has a daughter and a son. Jack asks for their names, ages, and favorite hobbies.
I’m dying.
Finally, Raymond looks back at his legal pad. “Okay, you know, I think I’ve got enough. It sounds like a casual encounter, with no hard feelings, and you both knew exactly what lines couldn’t be crossed. No complicated situations moving forward, which makes my job easy. I worked a case a couple of years ago where this woman who owned a restaurant was having a kid with one of the waiters on her staff. They wanted me to prove that nothing happened between them…”
He laughs and shakes his head. “Now, that was tough. You’d be surprised at how many folks run around pretending to be all grown up but acting like teenagers who don’t know up from down. Well, you two seem to have an excellent grasp on the situation.”
Do we, though?
That’s what I want to know.
Raymond assures me he’ll sit in on my call with Marissa Snell from the Legal Department.
I’m exhausted at the thought of it and dreading it already.
As I close my computer, I’m still trying to process some of what he said.
My thoughts snag on the bit about the company pecking order. I am fighting not only to keep my job but also to get a promotion.
A promotion I really do deserve. I have worked incredibly hard.
My phone rings.
“Jack?”
“Hey. So, that went pretty well. You feelin’ okay about it?”
His voice, so deep, resonant, and warm, tugs me back to the white sand beaches of Hawaii.
But when I look up, all I see is my stark white wall.
I swivel to look out my apartment window at the snow piling up on the sill. It is still snowing out. When will it end?
“I wouldn't say I’m feeling good,” I admit. My whole body is tense and tired at the same time.
“Yeah, I get that,” he says. He sounds pretty beat up, too.
I wonder how much of that has to do with the meeting we endured and how much has to do with his feelings toward me. We’re trying to navigate a challenging shift in our new relationship, which is not going well so far.
