Jane

Chapter 2-1

Chapter 2

The pub he’d selected was a smaller place with a classy atmosphere that looked like it had been grabbed straight off a British street corner. She fully expected the bar tender to have a British or Irish accent. Instead he was a large black man who spoke like Jimmy Hendrix. That made her smile.

“Okay, I like this place,” she said as they slid into a booth.

“You’ve never been here before?”

“No. Jules took me to a pub near this old copy shop once or twice, but I don’t really get out much.”

“Jules. You’ve mentioned that name before. You go out with him sometimes, don’t you?”

Jane laughed. “Oh god, not you too. His girlfriend got pissy about that at one point. Look, I was part of his support network while he was coping with his anxiety issue. His girlfriend Kaylee has him settled down now so no more babysitting him through his anxiety attacks.”

“I see. And taking a guy out drinking is helping with his anxiety?”

“He wasn’t getting drunk. They have good wings there.”

Was he trying to hide a smile? Jane wasn’t sure.

“So why don’t you go out much?”

“I didn’t grow up here. I didn’t go to school here. I have a few friends, but they were friends of my foster father and helped me get settled here, but otherwise I’m on my own.”

“Sounds lonely.”

“It’s peaceful.”

He shrugged and took a long sip of his beer. “So what do you do with your free time?”

“I work out.”

“And?”

“Why all the questions? What do you do with your free time?”

“I play basketball down at the community center, go to the gym, and I help my cousin flip houses.”

“Huh. I see.”

“Do you play sports?”

“Not really, no. I used to skate when I was younger but I haven’t been on the ice in years. Skating indoors isn’t the same.”

“You mentioned you didn’t grow up here. Where are you from?”

“Canada.”

“That’s a pretty vague answer. That place is huge after all.”

“Eastern Canada.”

“Okay, I get the point. I won’t ask. You’re a very private person.”

“Yup.”

“Any reason why?”

“He makes an astute observation and follows it up with a dumb question,” Jane mumbled.

“It’s not dumb, just a little person…oh. Right. Dumb question then. So, crazy weather we’ve been having lately.”

She had to smile at his persistence. “Yeah. We’re lucky we didn’t get another hurricane. Seems the weather’s gone crazy across the entire continent.”

“They say that’s all part of global warming though, right?”

“Sure. I mean that’s the big picture answer. But what exactly is happening? What is the chain of changes and how are they affecting things? That’s what I’m interested in. If we know that we can possibly predict some of the other changes, we’ll be seeing in the near future.”

“If the pattern progresses we’ll be looking at more storms while the rest of the country is looking at shorter growing seasons, floods or droughts depending on the regions, more severe temperature patterns.”

“Right. We need to chart those different patterns.”

“Scientists are doing that, I’m sure.”

“You know, I always teased my friend in high school for wanting to be a meteorologist. Called him the Weather Man. But I bet he’s working on global warming weather tracking or something now.”

“I never had a mind for science. It fascinates me but it wasn’t my strong suit.”

“Same here.”

They talked global warming a while longer, then about Hurricane Katrina. She told him about snow and the winters of her childhood versus the last few winters before she left home. Her stomach growling alerted her to how much time had passed.

“It’s starting to get late,” she said. “And I need sleep. But this was actually fun.”

“So you’ll consider doing it again sometime?”

“Maybe. I make no promises. And it still won’t be a date.”

“Dating would probably make Carter very angry with us anyways.”

“Look, I like making him angry as much as the next person but you’re not going to bait me into dating you just to get a rise out of the boss.”

“It was worth a shot. Drive safe.”

“You too.”

Bryce headed for home. He was about equal distance from the care home as Jane but in the opposite direction. Just across the street was the community center he’d mentioned to Jane. Some of the guys were out shooting hoops so he jogged up to his place, changed, and came back out.

Usually playing basketball helped him work off the stress of the day. Even though he didn’t usually work directly with the patients, a care home could be a depressing place to work. Around every corner was a reminder that old age was marching up behind him with unwavering persistence. It wouldn’t matter how much basketball he played or how hard he worked on those houses. One day he’d wake up old, feeble and lonely.

More than wheelchairs and drool, it was the loneliness of the place that ate away at him. Of all the patients in the care home, just over half had any family living anywhere nearby and only a third received regular visitors. Was that his fate? Sitting alone in a faded chair in front of a dirty window staring out at a scraggly bush with drool running down his cheek?

He didn’t like to think about it so he played basketball and joked with the neighborhood guys until all thoughts of work vanished for the day. Only today, as much fun as it was to joke around and stretch his legs, he didn’t really need the unwind time. Talking to Jane at the pub had done the trick.

When it started to get dark the guys started heading for home. Bryce grabbed his water bottle off the bench. Someone put a hand on his shoulder and he turned. “Oh, hey Bill.”

“We didn’t think you’d make it today. Boss keep you late?”

“No, nothing like that. Just went out for a drink with a friend.”

“Good. Good to see you getting out some. You take care.”

“You too. Hey, did Gerry ever get that promotion?”

“Naw, but his wife got some more hours so they’re doing okay.”

“Glad to hear it. See you ‘round.”

He went back upstairs, heated up a couple burritos, and turned on the TV but didn’t really pay attention to what was on. He was thinking about Jane.

In truth he’d been thinking about her, on and off, since she got the job at the care home. He was a few years older than her and an orderly so he didn’t see much of her when she was working in the kitchen. The first he’d really heard of her was the day she’d helped Mr. Overwater off the floor. The nurses had been so impressed they hadn’t stopped talking about her, except when she walked into the room.

He had noticed her then, a short, underfed teen with a haunted face. Her eyes always darted around a room when she first entered. She sat with her back to a wall, but never in the corner. She always had to be able to see the door. She seldom laughed. Her smiles were strained. When she first got her promotion, she only spoke to him and Kevin to ask for instructions. She listened intently, worked hard, and learned fast.

In the last four years she’d lost some of the wounded look, put on weight so she was curvy now and strong enough to do the job alone. Whether she’d gotten past whatever haunted her or she’d just gotten comfortable at the care home, he didn’t notice her staking out the staff room every time she entered anymore. She started talking to him casually and actually had a wicked sense of humor. He could see how that sense of humor, combined with an intense need for privacy, kept most people at a distance. He found it intriguing.

Maybe it was that wounded look in her eyes when she started, or how slowly she opened up to people, but he’d put off making a play for her for five years. Five years of saying stupid things to make her laugh while enjoying her dry, sarcastic wit. He didn’t mind that she was rough or that she had these walls up around her. He liked being around her at work and he’d waited five years to see if he’d enjoy spending time with her off the clock. So far it was really just more of the same, which wasn’t bad, but he wanted to see a little of what was behind the walls she’d put up, and maybe figure out why they were so high.

She managed to avoid Carter for the rest of the week, and all of the next week as well. Things were so much easier when she and Bryce and Kevin were allowed to do their own thing on their own schedule. Everything got done. The nurses never complained. It was when Carter attempted ‘hands on leadership’ that everything got jumbled.

“Well, that was a good week,” Bryce said. He pulled his lunch kit out of the fridge. “What am I going to do with these?” His payroll stubs were still sticking out of the mesh pocket.

“Put them back in the message center,” Jane offered.

“Brilliant. Except then Carter will come looking for me on Monday and I can’t promise I won’t blame you.”

“Fine, throw them out. But make it obvious.”

“Now that is truly inspired.” He sighed. “I guess I should take them home and file them with my accountant come tax time. Apparently I never hold on to the right stuff.”

Jane thought about her own neatly arranged files back home. Living with the Clan Chief, she’d learned a lot about finances. She had been grateful for the lessons until she learned his motives behind them.

“Want to hit the pub tonight?” Bryce asked.

“I’m starving,” Jane said.

“Well then, how about dinner? Somewhere casual. Just two people eating food at the same table.”

“So, not a date?”

“Not a date.” He was grinning.

She refrained from rolling her eyes. “Fine. Where?”

“I know a nice little diner. You’ll like it. We won’t need to change ‘cause it’s nothing fancy but the food is amazing.”

They went out to the parking lot where their cars stood side-by-side. “What are the directions?” Jane asked, hitting the button to unlock her door.

“You could just catch a ride with me. Your spot isn’t used by the overnight shift and I can bring you back here after dinner. It’ll save you some gas and parking at the diner can be a nightmare.”

“You’re not trying to kidnap me or something, are you?” It wouldn’t really matter. She could drink men twice her size under the table and still have the balance and dexterity to hand them their asses if they tried anything, so kidnapping and date rape were both fairly far down her list of fears. Still, she’d rather avoid that particular confrontation if she could.

“Would I do that?” Innocent didn’t suit him.

“I don’t know.” For a moment they stared at each other over the top of his car, then she hit the button and her car beeped, letting them both know that she’d locked the doors again.

He grinned. “Don’t worry, as your co-worker I’m probably one of the first people the police would investigate and I’m a horrible liar. If I was going to kidnap someone, I’d want to make sure I wasn’t going to get caught.”

“Strangely that’s a very good reason, and a very bad one at the same time. You’re a horrible person.”

“Sometimes,” he said with a shrug.

It was a very short drive to the diner. Jane wasn’t sure the trip actually saved her any fuel but it was tucked in between a liquor store and the post office and shared the lot with both so he was right on parking being a nightmare. She didn’t mind walking from the far end of the lot though since it was a nice afternoon.

When they got inside, Bryce led the way to a table near the far wall. Jane looked around. There were no booths, just padded chairs; some tables with two, others with four. It was small as sit-in places went and there were metal signs with funny sayings tacked all over the walls.

“What are you thinking?”

“I’ve driven by this place a few times but I’ve never been in here before. It’s nice.” Jane was still trying to read all the signs. Most of them made her smile. “It reminds me of home.”