Learning How to Bend

January 8

//Out of curiosity, I went back and looked at when I first wrote the rough draft of this next scene. August 4, 2018. The first thing I ever wrote for these two characters was in May 2018. They've been part of my life for seven months, almost eight. It doesn't feel like that long. Anyway, continuing onward...

Joe spent four nights with me in total, which brought us to Monday morning, when both of us actually went back to work at Andino Incorporated. Having my friends' support—not to mention Thaddeus's from afar—truly made all the difference in my recovery after learning about Marcus.  When my lawyer called me to discuss potential proceedings, I conferenced in both Joe and Thaddeus.  Joe, because he had been with me from the beginning of it all, and Thaddeus because I wanted to hide nothing from him. It was entirely for selfish reasons, truth be told. I knew he would ask, and I did not want to have to relive it all for a second, third, or fourth time.  It was far easier for him to just hear what the attorney said.  Joe asked far more questions than he did; actually, Thaddeus asked none at all until both Joe and the attorney hung up.  At that point, he started checking on me.  I knew he cared about the whole situation with Marcus, but first and foremost, he cared about me.  That touched me more than anything else.

I was originally rather scared to return to the office, as Marcus definitely knew where I worked, but I had Joe to literally support me as we walked through the door.  He also distracted me with absolutely terrible jokes which went beyond the "corny" category into "idiotic." As soon as I opened my office door with Chelise by my side, I was shocked to find all of my tension release from my body.  It was not a slow release like air out of a small hole in a balloon; rather, it was like someone had taken a needle to the latex surface and popped it.

I plugged my laptop into the dock next to the monitor and shook the mouse to turn on the screen.  As soon as everything activated, I sat down and dove headfirst into whatever I had to do.  My group had long-since finished work on the new mobile application I was working on the previous year.  It had been recently released and was receiving stellar reviews.  Now, though, we had a new assignment starting this week.  After reviewing what our supervisor wanted, I groaned. This was not going to be enjoyable, as I already could tell my group and I were going to argue.  A lot.

There had been quite a few times when I wondered how on earth some of my coworkers were ever hired. Maybe they had oversold themselves on their résumés.  Possible had made things sound better than they actually were.  They were underqualified, and none of them but my supervisor knew what "teamwork" meant. The concept of needing to cooperate did not seem to compute in their heads.  We needed each other to succeed, which meant they needed me.

They needed me to agree with them, too, which unfortunately for them, was unlikely because I thought eighty percent of their ideas were asinine.  I knew I could request to be moved from the group, but I valued my supervisor too much for that.  She depended on me.  While I would not say we were friends, we respected each other.  If she had a problem, the older woman with the wispy alto voice came to me.  I always helped however I could.

For the next three weeks, I attended every meeting on my calendar.  I was signed onto every conference call, offering my input whenever I had the opportunity to do so.  I kept my complaints about my group's current assignment out of my phone calls with Thaddeus.  I did not think he would get involved, as it was a minor project with few long-term ramifications, but since it involved me, there was the possibility of Thaddeus intervening, however slim it was.  I loved that man, but there were times I thought he could potentially be a little too overprotective.  I could handle myself at Andino Incorporated; I never would have made it where I was if I were unable to do so.