Tragic and Wonder: An Un-Fairytale [On Hold]

Chapter 22- Road to Recovery

Since there was a three-hour time difference between home and LA, we scheduled Grandma's therapy for first thing in the mornings, that was I was able to have the rest of the day to work from her home. I would drive her to physical therapy and help her tun her errands in the mornings before 11 AM and then I would go to work in my workspace, which was the spare bedroom in which I was staying, leaving the door opened to help Grandma if she needed anything. When it came time to meet with clients, I would take the video call with the door closed so that Grandma knew I was in the meeting.

Mr. Lewis was more than generous in figuring out a way to keep me working from such a distance away. I was so thankful. I ended up setting up a coffee delivery for him for every morning that he was there. Anna would receive it and place it on his desk before he arrived. He sent me a thank you text each day when he saw his coffee. I thought that I had the world's best boss. We were a well-oiled team when it came to working together. We understood each other and <were one another's strengths where there was a weakness in the individual.> He kept tabs on Grandma's recovery and would send her letters in the mail after I told him that she enjoyed receiving hand written mail.

"Jadie." Grandma called me one afternoon after I got out of a meeting.

"Yes, Grandma?" I asked.

"Jadie, Harper is a very special man. You make sure that he doesn't get away."

"Grandma!" I blushed. "Mr. Lewis is my boss. Nothing more. Besides, he is engaged to be married to a very well-to-do heiress." I stated flatly.

"I would be willing to bet that he doesn't love her, Jadie. Not after the way we all saw him looking at you. And who in their right mind would go out of their way to personally deliver a granddaughter to a grandma who just got out of the hospital? In their own private jet?" She asked with a smirk.

"Grandma. There is nothing between us. He is a genuinely nice human being and he is a great boss. He saw how upset I was at seeing you in the hospital and wanted to help. Nothing more. I promise."

"Jadie. I just have one question and then I will drop it. Would he do that for each of his employees? Or just you?" She asked me with a serious look on her face and a twinkle in her eyes.

I took a minute to think about that. I had never thought about it before. He would certainly help his employees when they needed it, but never once in the three years of working there, had I known him to use his personal jet to help an employee. When I thought about it further, I could not even recall him taking Amy anywhere in it. No. No. I am just over thinking this. There is no way that Mr. Lewis would like me as anything other than his employee. I just need to keep my distance from him and then everything will be fine. Keep it 100% professional Jade. I told myself. Grandma simply looked at me with a knowing smile and walked away.

Grandma was true to her word about not bringing Mr. Lewis up in our conversations. I knew that she was still suspicious, but she held onto her opinions, which was incredibly difficult for her as she always spoke her mind. That was one of the many things about her that I loved. She always called them as she saw them, and she saw Mr. Lewis as a keeper. There was no arguing that fact. He most certainly was a keeper; he just was not mine to keep as anything other than a boss.

Grandma's recovery was going well. She had been out of the hospital for two weeks already and was doing everything that the doctor and physical therapists asked her to do. She was what one would call the model patient. She was precise about following the directions because was ready to be out and about on her own. She was a very independent woman. She had been that way for as long as I could recall, probably because my grandpa died shortly after my brother's were born. I was so little that I had a difficult time remembering him. Grandma was devastated when he passed but she clung to her grandkids to keep her going. My mom was an only child, so having five grandkids made my grandparents so happy.

When grandpa passed, grandma would take on watching Jasmine, Jordyn, and I so that mom was able to focus on the boys. I honestly do not know how she did it. My mom is super mom. So, as Grandma watched us girls, she noticed that I would frequently end up being left by myself. She hated seeing that, so she would play with me. I think that was when our special bond began to form. She loved all of her grandkids equally and never treated any of us differently from one another, but there was something that we shared that she did not have with the rest of my siblings.

Next week was my big meeting week and mom finally found out that she could take over for me. I was so thankful that I was able to go to Denver. I called Mr. Lewis to let him know that I would be able to meet him there. He was thrilled to, and I quote, "have his right-hand wo-man back for the meeting." As soon as he said that I knew he was struggling without me being there to keep everything organized. I reminded him that it was only for another two weeks and then I would be back in the office, in person.

As week two ended, I was more and more grateful each day that I had the chance to spend time with Grandma and to be there to help her with whatever she needed. We would spend the evenings talking together and watching classic shows that made us laugh so hard we were crying. I loved the time I was spending with her. We even put together our own little book of the month club, since I would be there for about a month. We called it "The Double J Book Club." It was so nice to spend so much time with her. It almost reminded me of when she watched us girls when the boys were younger. It brought back great memories while making amazing new ones.

I was so glad to see her mending well. I was filled with conflicting emotions as week three began. I was sad that I was leaving her for three days, yet I was thrilled that I was going to the Denver meeting. This was a big meeting that was sure to help our company to grow if we landed that account. I was just hoping that we would.

Grandma could tell that I was excited and anxious, so she decided to put together a girls' night for the two of us. It reminded me so much of the girls' night I put on for Amanda when we were in high school. I did it to take her mind off Casper and the girl he was dating at the time. That was when I learned she had a crush on him. This felt oddly familiar to that night. We painted each other's nails and watched romantic comedies all evening. It was a great send off before the big meeting I had. I thanked her so much for easing my nerves. Now if only they would stay calm until the meeting was over.