A Stranger In My Home

Chapter 8

“How was work?” Jason asked as he picked Julie up at Jim’s law office.

“Good,” Julie answered.

“You feel like you’re getting into it?”

“Yeah, I am.”

It had been three weeks and Julie loved her new job. There wasn’t much to do, just answering the phone if it ever rang, and picking up lunch and coffee. She also sorted out the filing cabinet, putting everything in alphabetical order, and dusted off Jim’s office when he went home to check on Glory.

Glory was confined to her bed, the doctor having ordered bed rest for the last few weeks of her pregnancy. She was bored and often called the office to chat with Julie. Now, as the due date was getting closer and closer, Jim spent more and more time by his wife’s side, driving her nuts, as Glory put it.

Jim and Glory Richie were some of the sweetest people Julie had met. Granted, she had been pretty isolated for many years, but it was still nice to be around people who truly loved one another. Every word spoken between them showed their love for each other. Even when they were arguing about something. There was never any true animosity in their bickering and Julie became more and more aware of how screwed up her own marriage had been.

Things between her and Jason were tense. They led separate lives, and even though he was nothing but kind to her, she still felt like she was an intruder, and like he wanted her out of his life. Their conversations were cordial, but shallow.

Her job with Jim came with a weekly salary, and she’d immediately given Jason the money. He’d objected, but she’d insisted it was important to her to pay him back for her clothes and the gas money he spent on driving her to and from work, not to mention room and board. He’d grudgingly taken it, then, and put it somewhere for safe keeping. She had an eerie feeling he was putting it aside for her, so she’d have some money to get her own place.

“There’s an English Literature night class at the college,” Jason said after they’d been driving in silence for awhile. “I thought you might be interested in something like that.”

“Oh… well, yes, I’ve always enjoyed reading… but I don’t know what I would do with that. I mean…”

“It’s something to do,” Jason shrugged. “Maybe it’ll help you figure out what you want to do in life. If you don’t like it, you can always take something else.”

“Sure.”

“Good. And there’s something else I wanted to talk to you about…”

“Oh?”

“Well, I’m going to go back to work soon – I’m going stir crazy doing nothing, to be frank – and I won’t be able to drive you to and from work, or to night class, so I was thinking… well, I got you a car.”

“You what?” Julie blinked.

“It’s nothing fancy. It’s a used car from the garage where I’ll be working, but it works.”

“But, Jason… I can’t accept a car from you.”

“When you start making the big bucks, you can sell that old scrapheap and give me whatever you get for it, all right? Then you can buy your own car. It’s just a temporary solution, Jules.”

Jules? He’d never called her that before. She liked it, but it sounded odd coming from his lips all of a sudden. Derek always called her Julie. But Jason wasn’t Derek, she reminded herself. He was about as far away from her husband as you could get.

Speaking of… she hadn’t heart a peep from Derek since that phone call. She’d started to relax, but she had a gnawing feeling it was the calm before the storm.