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His townhouse was on the edge of town, and other than sharing a couple of walls with strangers, it was the perfect living situation. After many years of fighting him on so many issues, his parents had been eager to help him get his own place. It was a relief to finally have a place to call his home.
Once inside his house, he laid his keys on the kitchen counter and headed to his room. Without even turning on the light, he crawled into bed and pulled his weighted blanket over himself. After hours of being around people, it took at least a tenth of that time to decompress.
Finally, under the cover of his blanket and the comfort of his bed, Jason relaxed for the first time in hours.
The next morning, a knock sounded on Jason’s office door, making him jump. “Enter,” he called, not looking away from the clinic’s financial reports.
“Rueben needs you in the conference room.”
He looked up to see Brandy smiling warmly at him. His heart sank. If what she’d said the day before about Rueben retiring was true, he was bound to tell Jason soon. “But he’s—”
“In the middle of an interview.” Brandy nodded. “He asked if you would sit in on the next three.”
“Three!” Jason looked up from his screen. “But that’ll eat up my whole day.”
“I know. Isn’t this exciting? If this isn’t proof he’s trying to pass responsibilities off to you, I don’t know what is. He’s already training you, and you haven’t even taken the job yet.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Rueben’s my—he would have let me know if he was leaving. He wouldn’t spring something like that on me.” Would he? Jason shook his head. No, he wouldn’t do something so cruel. Jason needed time... and people skills.
“I know you can do it, Jason. Chin up.”
Brandy backed out of the room, giving him space to exit. What else could he do? He grabbed a clipboard with blank paper and a pen and stalked out of the room.
“Good luck,” she called to him.
“Thanks,” he mumbled under his breath.
Just as he grabbed the conference room door, a vaguely familiar woman, dressed in a professional suit, exited the room. She had been one of the applicants he’d screened. Jessica or Jamie, maybe. He backed up against a nearby wall just as she passed.
“Excuse me,” she said softly.
He relaxed his shoulders and nodded before she scurried down the hall.
“How did the interview go with her, Rueben?” he asked as he entered the room and closed the door behind him.
“It’s just the two of us. You can call me grandpa.”
He released a slow breath. “No, I can’t, and you know it.”
His grandpa sighed. “Fine. Take a seat.”
“How did the interview go?” Jason asked as he chose a seat far away from Rueben. “She seemed polite and well put together. You don’t really need me, do you?” The words tumbled out of his mouth in a rush since the next interviewee was due any minute.
“Yes, I do. I need you here, especially since this person is going to be working with you.”
Panic seized his insides. “Me? But I never—”
“I know you never asked for an assistant, but you’ll need someone once I’m gone.”
“Gone?” Panic rose to his throat, choking him. So the rumor was true. “Where are you going?”
His grandpa had been Jason’s best friend since he’d been in high school and had started struggling with touching others. Rueben understood him, unlike his parents, and though he pushed him to be better, it was done lovingly.
Rueben looked him over and shook his head. “It’s all right, son. It won’t be very soon, but eventually I’d like to retire, and you’re the natural replacement. You know the business as well as I do, and the upper management has agreed it’s time to get you an assistant to free up some of your time so you can slowly start taking over my responsibilities. They’ve unanimously decided to let you take the job, should you accept. You do want the job, right?”
“Well, yes, but—”
“Then it’s settled.”
