Compromise Me (Book Two of the Kirkland Family)

Compromise Me: Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Saturday evening rolled around...and Josie was still upset about Travis.  She brushed out her wet hair, fresh from a shower, as she stared at her reflection in the fogged-over mirror.  Working around Travis this week -- and keeping it professional -- had taken its toll on her.  She was up to three yoga and meditation sessions a day, just to relax her mind and focus onnothing.  

Breathing helped.

Pushing her body to its flexible limits helped, too.  But all that didn’t filter out Travis.  She tried...Lord, how she tried to change how he thought about her, but after Thursday night, Josie knew it would take more than just a new wardrobe and a little extra hard work.  It was going to take time, and time was the one thing Josie was tired of waiting around for.

And dammit!  She wanted to have some freaking fun for the first time in nearly three weeks!

"Growing up sucks," she said to her reflection, and then laughed, remembering how Kim said nearly the same thing.

Sitting down on the side of her bathtub, Josie slumped and thought about the conversation she had with her dad and Hannah that morning.  It had started out with a checking-in thing from Justin, making sure she was locking her doors and filling up her gas tank...and sleeping alone.  But when Hannah got her chance to talk to Josie, she heard the strain in Josie's voice, and asked all the right questions, like "Have you done anything fun lately?" and Josie didn't have the heart to say she was working so hard at being a freaking mature adult that she hadn't the time or energy for fun, but she told her about Travis' competition that night, and she was looking forward going out with some new friends afterward -- complete lie, that one.  She didn't have any new friends.

But this would be the first non-work-related thing she’d done all week, and she really needed to do something other than eat, sleep and work.  She should have already gone out to some local bars in Memphis, but she never managed to find a friend to go with her.

Any friend...not listed as a co-worker or client.

It’s only your first week, she reminded herself as she got up and went to study her closet full of clothes.  You’ll make friends again.

She hoped so.  She’d been damn lonely this week, working late hours because she didn’t feel like going back to an empty apartment, even though that empty apartment still had boxes piled up along the bare walls.  Josie kicked one box out of the way as she deliberated between mature, freaking adult...or rock-n-roll all night long.  Professional?  Or concert-babe, with the black leather tights and sequined halter top?

Her mind flashed to Travis.  “Princess Kirkland” he used to call her...with spite.  She thought that he was a friend she could turn to if she ever found herself without, one but lately, things had changed between them.  He seemed so...so...so put-off by her all the time, and she didn’t know what his problem was.  She stopped teasing him.  She stopped acting like a spoiled brat.  She stopped trying to lock him in his damn studio booth, for crying out loud.  But she tried to be just a friendly person, and he got worse.  He kept looking at her like she was some kind of troll in a Jackie Kennedy suit.