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And today, she needed some centering. After a good stretch, she faced him on the floor. No one else was qualified enough to compete with her, and she thrived on challenges.
“Having a rough time lately?” Sabum asked as he waited for her to get in position.
“Yes, you could say that.” She hated that having Jason in her house was rough, but his constant need to change things was getting to her.
“Do we need to get anything out before we work?”
She shook her head and cleared her mind with one deep breath. “No, I’m ready.”
Monday morning, Hannah woke before her alarm, and was ready for the day before Jason got out of the shower. “See you at work,” she sang.
He’d helped her arrange her closet the night before, and she was still sore from lifting mounds of clothes. Sure, her house looked amazing—unrecognizable. Even her bird’s cage was clean. How he’d gotten Tweety out without freaking the bird out was beyond her, but it had happened, and she couldn’t be too upset. But still... it reminded Hannah of when her parents had constantly come down on her for not being enough.
She was grateful she could focus on helping Jason with his issues instead of thinking about her own. Helping others was second nature to her and always fixed her mindset.
Her PE classes crawled by, and she regretted planning so poorly—a basketball skills workshop instead of something more active—but it was what it was.
After work, she dressed in a hurry and headed to the office. As always, Jason was holed up in the office. Perfect. Slowly, she was going to draw Jason out of his shell.
Instead of greeting him first, as she always did, she stashed her things in the break room. Then she started Plan A: Keep Jason out of his office... all day. She had enlisted Rueben’s help, and he’d given her an idea to do employee evaluations, ones Rueben usually took care of himself. Over the weekend, she’d arranged meeting after meeting with each receptionist for their annual review. But conveniently, the conference room had been scheduled by a group of doctors, leaving only the small meeting room with three—and only three—chairs. Things would get cozy real fast.
Having sent all the emails she’d needed to on Sunday night, she prepped the evaluation sheets for Jason and started arranging the three chairs in the smallest meeting room on their floor.
Rueben peeked his head in. “Everything in order?”
She nodded and looked around the small room. “Maybe this is a bad idea. We don’t want to break him on the first day.”
Rueben sighed. “I know this feels like we’re being the villain in his story, but in a real job setting, there would be two chairs in here, not three. And there would be no question of if he was able to carry out his job.”
She raised a brow. “Good point.”
“Make sure the receptionists are prepped and understand their parts to play.”
She gave him a mock salute. “Yes, sir.”
Every twenty minutes, he was schedule to meet with a receptionist. Over the course of the next two days, Jason would meet with each one, spending time hearing their concerns and evaluating their performance based on the data sheets Hannah had printed out.
She found Brandy making copies in the back room and sidled up next to her. “Ready for your evaluation meeting?”
Brandy’s face brightened. “Yes. I’m surprised Jason volunteered to take them over. I guess soon he’ll be doing them anyway.”
It had been more of a voluntold situation, but whatever. “Me too. Now remember, we are trying to get him used to physical contact. Make sure to shake his hand and sit in the chair right across from him.”
She grinned. “I can do that.”
Hannah eased out a breath and headed to the break room to grab her things. She had hoped Rueben would be gone by the time she returned, but there he was, still talking—loudly too.
“I can’t do it, Rueben,” Jason said.
“It’s not a choice. It’s part of the job you elected to do. You think I can come back to do your job for you after I’m retired? I have two more days. After I leave, you’ll be taking over these responsibilities anyway. We’re just getting a jumpstart.”
Jason worked his jaw and stared at his desk. She tried to catch his eye, but he was determinedly not looking her way. “Fine.”
“Make sure to shake their hands, give them more positives than negatives, and then hand them their evaluation sheets on their way out.”
Jason looked up then. “It’s been months since I’ve added notes to the evaluation sheets. You said you were going to put the finishing touches on them. Shouldn’t you be the one telling them?”
“You said it yourself—you wrote the bulk of everyone’s evaluation, and you interact with the office staff much more than I do. Just speak from your heart. You know how hard our receptionists have worked. Come on, Jason. You can do this.”
