Love & Lies

Chapter Thirty-five

It's already a quarter past nine and I am sitting in a waiting area like a patient in hospital, Jessie remarked to herself as she pressed her head against the plain, white wall behind her.  The polluting scent of disinfectant made her sentiments quite fitting as she wrinkled her nose for the upteenth time that morning.

She had hoped by showing up as early as eight-thirty would mean John could get the ripping her apart bit out of the way and she could actually still catch a quick bite with Brendan.  "Are you sure I can't get you anything?" Crystal interrupted from the doorway as Jessie was rereading the story Brendan had sent her so long ago.  "Not even water?"

From the moment she was able to put a face to Crystal's name that morning, a face that was certainly older than she expected, she regretted ever considering her an airhead still in her teens as Crystal kept trying to make her more comfortable in the ridiculously small waiting area.  "No, but thank you," Jessie answered back immediately looking up from the screen of her phone.

After having been in the waiting area three times, Crystal did not hurriedly return to her desk as she customarily did.  "Reading anything good?" she asked to make conversation.

"Oh, just a story written by someone I know," Jessie responded politely.  "I've read it already before, but figured it would give me something to do whilst I was waiting."

Crystal's green eyes gazed at Jessie sympathetically.  "I'm sure he will be ready to see you any minute," she assured her.

Jessie smiled in appreciation before Crystal's soft, red curls bounced back out of the room yet again and back to her cluttered desk.  Jessie knew she should probably be taking this time to see how Jordan's article was playing out in social media to prepare herself for the wrath of John, but after hanging up with him last night she could not bring herself to do it.  Brendan even offered to do it for her to ease the blow, but all she had wanted to do was not bother with the end of of Love Actually and just pass out in Brendan's arms if sleep was even a likelihood.

She sighed longingly as she remembered how calming Brendan's fingers lightly massaging her scalp were up in bed encouraging her eyes to become quite heavy again within ten minutes.  Remember what Brendan said, she urged herself.  Perhaps it's not as bad as you think.

"John's ready for you, Jessie," Crystal reappeared shockingly only a mere five minutes later.

Happy to abandon the windowless room with nothing but eight uncomfortable seats and a small plasma screen playing absolutely nothing, Jessie gave Crystal one last thankful grin before disappearing behind her desk into a hallway filled with offices.  As she approached John's translucent glass door bearing his full name and position towards the middle of the endless hall, she knocked on the wooden portion of the door below the glass.  "Come in," his voice beckoned.

Jessie entered his office that was quite the mess from the last time she was there way back when.  Shelves were half-filled on both sides of the room while it appeared that some other pieces of furniture were completely missing.  All that seemed left was one sole chair in front of his desk that was littered with papers and of course a corded phone and his laptop.  "I'm in the process of moving into Pete's old office," he explained nonchalantly.  "Please have a seat."

Following John's gesturing hand, Jessie sat in the chair as instructed and waited yet again.  She had no recollection of who Pete was, but that of course was irrelevant.  Removing his square-framed glasses, John closed his eyes before holding onto the bridge of his nose.  Sighing, he finally met Jessie's glaze.  "I just wish you told me you had better ideas to make the news besides our own ideas of encouraging airplay and interacting with fans on social media," he brought up seriously, tapping a piece of paper that was flipped over to its blank side with a bony index finger.