AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She couldn’t make it. Busy and all.” Jo shrugged, pretending it didn’t bother her. She opened up her salad but noticed that May’s fruit cup and water seemed untouched. “What’s wrong?” Jo asked.
“Nothing,” May replied. “But rather, is everything alright with you?”
Jo shrugged. “Maverick is doing well, responding to treatment. For that, I’m grateful.
“That’s good news.” May opened her cup and spooned around the area. She sighed. “I was referring to you and Ali, though. Everything good there?”
Jo nodded. “As good as it can be. We have to be secretive and that’s a struggle, but only for now. You know she’s up for this big promotion, and I don’t want anything to stop her from obtaining that.” She took a bite of her salad and thought for a moment. “I had the craziest elevator ride with Julia. You know how I said we ran into her at the restaurant, right?” May nodded, then took her gaze down to her cup. “Well, she mentioned to me about the promotion, and I played it off and acted like I knew nothing about it. I think she believed that. But then she started to get all, I don’t know…” Jo couldn’t even describe the word for it. But something was off the moment that Julia started to walk away.
“I overheard a conversation,” May started. “I don’t want you to freak out or overreact, but it seemed pretty important. I heard Julia and Ali talking, and Julia asked if there was inappropriate behavior between you and Ali. Probably because she saw you two together. Ali denied it and all, but Julia said if there’s any truth to it that she would have to take Ali out of the running for the promotion because it would look bad and all.” May sighed. “I don’t know, some of it was probably lost in the translation, but I am confident that Julia was warning Ali.”
Jo stared at her. That would all make sense and coincide with how she felt about her interaction with Julia, but she heard nothing about this from Ali. “When was this?”
“Saturday morning!”
Jo stared down at her food, determined to get to the bottom of it. She didn’t want to make a scene in front of everyone in the hospital, so she kept it all bottled up and went back to work and pretended that nothing was wrong. However, that night instead of taking the train to her apartment, she got off near Ali’s house. She made the couple block walk and approached her door with caution. She had been practicing the rest of the day on what she was going to say to her. But when Ali opened the door, all those words went rushing out of her head.
“Jo. This is a surprise. What are you doing here?”
Jo tapped her foot and looked off past her, her mind in a whirlwind. “We need to talk.”
Ali stepped back for her to enter, but Jo stayed on the front porch. “Why’d you do it Ali?”
Ali opened her mouth, then frowned. “Do what?”
“You lied to me. Why? Do you think you were doing me some massive favor?”
Ali sighed. “When did I lie to you?”
Jo stared. Sure, it was more of an omission than a lie, but why couldn’t Ali understand where she was going with this? They had been in sync for their relationship but now it was as if they were mere drifters.
“I heard what Julia said. She questioned it and asked if we were in a relationship. Us being together, could hinder you getting this job. Isn’t that true?”
Ali sighed and stepped back. “Jo,” she began. “We discussed that and that’s why we’re keeping things hush hush.” She shrugged. “I’m not going to worry about that, though, and you don’t have to, either.”
Jo felt the tears springing to her eyes. That was all she needed to hear. What May said wasn’t wrong and if that was the case, then she had no other choice.” She looked away as the tears slowly crept down her cheeks.
“Jo, don’t cry,” Ali started.
Jo quickly shook her head. She backed up from Ali, while Ali took a step closer. “This would never work.”
“Jo!” Ali reached out and touched her arm, but Jo quickly withdrew her arm from Ali’s grasp and looked up to meet her gaze.
“I can’t be the reason you don’t get the job. I just can’t. If us being together is going to cause you to miss out on this opportunity, then I say we end it now.” She stepped back, reaching out for the banister as she nearly tumbled backward down the steps.
“You can’t be serious.” Ali threw out her hands. “We said we loved each other. And for this reason alone, you’re throwing it all away.”
Jo took a deep breath. “You mean too much to me, Ali. That’s why I have no other choice. I don’t want you to waste this opportunity, and if being with me causes you to lose that, then it’s not worth it.”
“Jo, listen to me, it’s not like that. Please don’t run off like this. We can discuss this.” Ali ran out onto the porch, but Jo was already down and headed away from her. “Jo!” She called out. Jo picked up the speed to gain some distance, her chest caving in at every breath she attempted to take.
She didn’t know how exactly she got home because her head was swirling with everything that had happened. But she walked into the apartment and nearly collapsed next to Maverick. He looked up at her and started licking the tears off her nose.
“I’ll always have you, boy,” she whispered. Even if she had to lose Ali.
Ali
Ali didn’t sleep a wink after Jo had broken things off. She didn’t give her a chance to explain. She didn’t let Ali tell her that if it truly came down to it, she’d gladly give up the job for her. She didn’t really seem to care what Ali had to say and that bothered her, almost as much as the breakup.
