A Kiss of a Different Color

by Bettye Griffin

  “I don’t like it much, either, Jon. But it’s my job. The powers that be wanted something done after the scandal. What else can I do but enforce it?”

  “It stinks. But you know something? I’m glad it’s out in the open. It put a lot of undue stress on us, but no more.”

  He walked out of Jeff’s office with a strange sense of freedom. He’d done a foolish thing, but he also knew he couldn’t be fired for speaking out against a ridiculous policy. It simply wasn’t possible to regulate natural human impulses. But now that it was out in the open, he and Miranda no longer had to hide. That alone would make it all worthwhile.

  Was this how a wrongly convicted man felt when he was released from jail, he wondered.

  He noticed that the door to Candace Arndt’s office was closed. Miranda was probably still in there. He’d wait another fifteen minutes and try to reach her by phone.

  His cell phone vibrated in his pocket. For a fleeting moment he thought it might be Miranda calling him, but then he saw his sister’s name in the window. “Hey, Sara. What’s up?”

  The way her voice cracked when she said his name told him something was terribly wrong. Jon’s back went rigid. “Sara, what happened? Are the kids all right?”

  “They’re fine, and so is Mor. It’s Mormor, Jon. She had a heart attack.”

  Miranda nervously ran her tongue over her lips. She’d been in a state of panic ever since getting the call an hour ago to come in and meet with Human Resources. It could only mean one thing, and Candace Arndt wasted no time telling her about the tips they’d received about a possible affair between her and Jon.

  Then she asked straight out. “Is it true, Miranda? Are you seeing Jon Lindbergh romantically?”

  Miranda thought of all the money she’d spent to relocate to North Dakota. She tried to comfort herself. At least she had no lease to break. She’d chosen to go to a month-to-month basis at Chelsea’s after the initial three-month period was up, in case she decided to take the leap and get an apartment, complete with electricity, phone, and Internet service. All she’d really have to do was pack up her things in a U-Haul and drive back to Racine. She hated the idea of leaving Jon behind, but maybe it had been foolish for her to think anything so wonderful could last. If she went back to Racine, it would mark the end of their relationship. A romance couldn’t be conducted with seven hundred miles between the parties.

  “Miranda?” Candace prodded.

  She saw no point in lying. “Yes. It’s true.”

  “And it’s voluntary on your part?”

  Miranda stared at the administrator. “Of course it’s voluntary. And I resent your even asking such a question. Do you really believe Jon twisted my arm and insisted that I—” she didn’t want to use the words ‘sleep with him’—“go out with him to keep my job?”

  “I don’t mean to be insulting, Miranda, but I have to ask.”

  Mollified, she nodded. “So what happens now?”

  “Right now you can go back to work. I know you have patients to see, and I’m sorry to disrupt your schedule. Hopefully this meeting won’t throw you off too much. We’ll get back to you in a day or two. Thank you for coming in, Miranda.”

  On lead feet she dragged herself to her car. She didn’t want to go back to work, but she had clients waiting and her schedule was now behind by nearly an hour due to her having to drive to the corporate offices for the unexpected meeting. More than anything she wanted to see Jon, but she couldn’t get him at his direct office line or on his cell. She realized he held a demanding job, but the only thing she cared about at this moment was that she needed him, needed to bury her face in his chest and wrap her arms around him, needed to feel his arms holding her.

  She dialed his cell phone again and was disappointed when there was no answer. She took a deep breath. She had a job to do, and it didn’t allow for her heart not to be in it. The well-being and recovery of patients was at stake.

  She’d have to talk with Jon later.

  He called at six p.m. that evening. “Oh Jon, where’ve you been? I’ve been wanting to talk to you for hours.”

  “Actually, I’m on my way to Eden Prairie. My grandmother had a heart attack.”

  “Oh, no!” Miranda felt genuine distress at this news. “What’s her condition?”

  “Right now she’s stable. It’s those damn cigarettes. She’s tried everything to quit, even hypnosis. Nothing seems to work.”

  “Is there anything I can do?” Miranda tried to think of some way she could help. “Maybe take care of Stormy?”

  “Stormy is right here with me. I went home long enough to throw some clothes in a bag and put her in the truck.”

  Overcome by emotion, Miranda closed her eyes. “Things like this tend to make us forget about what matters most. Here I am, worried about losing my job, when your grandmother has been taken ill.”

  “It just goes to show, big worries, little worries...there’s really no difference, not when they’re your worries.” He paused. “I’m sorry, Legs. I wanted to talk to you the minute I finished my meeting with Jeff Johansson, but I thought you were still in with Candy Arndt.”

  “How did you know I was in with Candy?”

  “I asked Jeff if they planned to question you, and he told me you were in with Candy at that moment. Sara called me right after I left Jeff’s office, and I went right into action.”

  “Of course you did. You don’t have to apologize.”

  “Apparently they were getting calls about us as far back as the holiday party. Those were dismissed as coincidence.”

  Miranda thought for a moment. “Someone probably saw us on that flight to Minneapolis and tried to make something of us traveling together.” She sucked her teeth. “Had I known that TV station was going to share that interview with the national network, I would have let you talk to that reporter alone.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Even if someone did try to cite that interview as proof that you and I are seeing each other, there’s certainly nothing wrong with being on the same flight. Besides, you said during the interview that your final destination was Milwaukee.” He paused. “What did it was our both being gone the same week for vacation.”

  “And both coming back a few shades darker,” she added. “People certainly would have noticed that. Our working in different offices isn’t going to stop the grapevine from doing its thing.”

  “Well, I certainly had no problem telling Jeff exactly what I think…that my relationship with you should only involve you and me, not you, me, and them. And I must say, it felt good to do it.”

  “Let’s hope you don’t live to regret it.”

  “Try not to worry about it, Legs. What’s done is done. All we can do is wait and see what they decide to do. We’ll get by.”

  She sighed, “Yeah, I suppose. Right now there are other, more important matters at stake, like your grandmother. Oh Jon, I do hope she’ll be okay.”

  “I know you do. Listen…I’m going to be tied up when I first get into town, at the hospital and all. I might have to wait until tomorrow morning to call you with an update.”

  “Jon, call me tonight. No matter how late it is. Promise.”

  He chuckled. “All right.”

  “I wish I could be there with you,” she said truthfully.

  “I’d love to have you here with me. I’ll call you tonight, after I’ve seen Mormor.”

  “You drive carefully. And I’m going to say a prayer for her the moment I hang up.”

  Miranda kept her word and bowed her head in prayer for Birgitta’s recovery. With a deep breath, she raised her head, her eyes still closed. No matter what happened at work, she felt confident that she and Jon would see each other through.

  When she opened her eyes, her gaze fell upon a framed montage by her bed. The woman staying with her husband in the next bungalow in St. Croix had turned out to be a photographer, and she approached her and Jon apologetically one day as they returned from a walk on the beach. She had taken photos of th
em, she said, adding that they looked so happy together. They both assured her it was fine, and Jon asked that she email them copies. Not only did the woman agree, but she took some more pictures of them, this time with them posing.

  She’d kept her word and emailed photos to both of them. Miranda was thrilled by the way the photos had come out. Her favorites were the ones the woman had taken without her and Jon knowing: A shot taken from behind of the two of them standing with their arms around each other, her head resting on his shoulder, looking out at the sea…a shot of him carrying her piggyback along the beach, her arms outstretched to the sky…a shot taken when he spontaneously lifted her and twirled her around, her head thrown back, their hair windblown. She hadn’t bothered blow drying her hair straight that week, where every day had involved it getting saturated with salt water. Instead she simply let it air dry and hang in its thick, natural state, using a headband to keep it away from her face.

  Miranda saved the photos on a disk and brought them to the local FedEx Office. The desktop publishers there made a montage of the candid shots surrounding her favorite of the posed photos, one where he was sitting on the sand with her kneeling behind him, her arms reaching around his shoulders and crossing over the front of his body, their hair blowing in the tradewinds.

  She kept the results on the table by her bed, a potent reminder of their time together in a tropical paradise that was actually part of the United States, a happy time when she celebrated her landmark thirtieth birthday while Jon celebrated his thirty-third.

  Three days later, Miranda was determined to keep her nervousness from showing, but she felt petrified. Jeff Johansson, the human resources director, had called her into his office. Not Candace Arndt, the administrator who worked under Jeff and who had initially interviewed her about the situation, but the big boss himself. She sensed she was about to once again become unemployed. How ironic. To think she had moved seven hundred miles in an effort to become gainfully employed, only to lose it after less than a year because the employer felt they had the right to dictate whom she could see on a social basis. And what about Jon? He had a mortgage to pay every month.

  She wished he were here. She knew he was precisely where he needed to be, but that didn’t stop her from missing him. If that meant she was selfish, so be it. In the meantime, she wouldn’t let on as to how frantic she felt. She’d keep in mind the old adage, ‘never let them see you sweat.’ And she certainly wouldn’t get emotional should she indeed receive bad news. She would keep her shoulders straight, keep her expression unrevealing, and walk out of there with her head held high, like royalty.

  Then something occurred to her…Jon was still in Minnesota. Surely human resources knew he wasn’t back yet. If they were going to fire them, wouldn’t they do it at the same time?

  Jeff Johanssen studied the attractive woman seated opposite his desk. He knew it wasn’t any of his business, but it annoyed him nonetheless that Miranda Rhett had gotten involved with Jon. She seemed like a nice enough person, but it bothered him to see her sitting so calm and collected in his office, not at all worried about losing her job, because she had Jon Lindbergh to support her. Meanwhile, Jeff’s own twenty-three-year-old daughter complained she hadn’t gone out on a date in four months. Jon was too old for his daughter, of course, but it still wasn’t right for him to be dating Miranda when plenty of white women were looking for mates, husbands who would look after their best interests and see that they were taken care of. That suggested that Jon’s feelings for Miranda ran deeper than simple jungle fever…and that was what Jeff didn’t like.

  He wished she’d show some sign of nervousness, like chewing on her lip or twirling her hair, which she wore in a pony tail. It would give him a perverse pleasure to see her squirm. But she sat there like she owned the place, waiting for him to speak.

  He cleared his throat. No point in holding off. It was clear that she wasn’t going to fold. “Miranda, senior management has discussed the situation about you and Jon Lindbergh. Jon made some very strong statements when he and I talked, which I shared with the committee. We also discussed the specifics of your and Jon’s situation, how the two of you met and had known each other several weeks before learning you both worked here. We determined that this rule might have been hastily enforced without considering all the factors. This type of thing isn’t as simple as it sounds, Miranda. Not only can two people who work at different locations meet in a non-work-related setting, the way you and Jon did, but what happens when a couple at the same level is dating and one of them is promoted? Or when a couple becomes engaged?”

  “Good points,” she remarked, as calmly as if she were agreeing that the weather was lovely. “So what was the outcome?”

  “Senior management decided to lift the ban on employee fraternization,” Jeff Johansson said. “It just wasn’t working because of the factors I just mentioned.”

  For the first time he saw some emotion on Miranda’s face. “So we both get to keep our jobs?” she asked, a hopeful tinge to her voice.

  “Yes. You won’t have to resign.”

  “And neither will Jon,” she emphasized, almost as if she wanted to make sure he was protected as well.

  Jeff shook his head ever so slightly. “Jon’s job is safe. When I spoke to him the other day, he said if it came down to one of you having to leave the company, that you should be the one to be replaced. He said it would work better that way.” The startled look on her face left him at a loss. “I don’t…didn’t you know?”

  Miranda tried desperately to save face. “Oh, yes, of course.” She clumsily got to her feet, her mind reeling. Jon had told human resources to fire her?

  “Thank you, Jeff,” she managed to say as she shook his hand. Then, blinking back tears, she grabbed her handbag by its straps and made a hasty exit, ducking into the first ladies room she saw. In the privacy of a stall, her entire body shook with silent sobs as she absorbed what this all meant.

  Chapter 28

  Jon found himself growing more and more frustrated with Miranda’s deadpan delivery of her end of the conversation. He’d called to inform her that his grandmother had been released from the hospital, and while she met that news with genuine relief, their conversation rapidly went downhill from there.

  He asked her for about the third time if something was wrong, and when she said no, he exploded. He hated playing games. “I can tell something’s wrong, Miranda, so please don’t insult my intelligence by saying everything is fine. Are you going to tell me what’s on your mind?”

  She heard the aggravation in his voice, and it only infuriated her more. How dare he act like the wronged party, after what he’d done. “All right. Jeff Johansson called me into his office today. I was sure I was going to be given the opportunity to resign, but what he ended up telling me was that they decided to do away with the rule against employee dating.”

  “That’s great news, Legs! Now it doesn’t matter who knows about us, and we can both keep our jobs.”

  “Yes, we can,” she replied sweetly. “Or more accurately, I can keep my job. Because your job was never in danger, was it, Jon? I mean, you did tell Jeff that if one of us had to leave, it should be me.” She stopped to blow out an annoyed breath before saying, “You threw me under a bus, Jon.”

  His mouth dropped open. “Is that what you think?”

  “Any person with a lick of sense would interpret it that way.”

  “Legs, wait. You’ve got it all wrong. I didn’t—”

  She interrupted. “So you didn’t say that to Jeff? Is that what you’re saying?”

  A telling silence followed before he said, “I did tell Jeff that, yes. But Legs, I—’’ He moved the phone away from his ear and stared at it after he heard a click. He returned it to his ear to confirm what he thought.

  Miranda had hung up on him. He practically slammed the phone down, not caring about its delicate cellular structure. This was ridiculous. How could everything have gotten so out of hand?

  Jo
n ran his hands through his hair as he tried to determine what his next move should be. Had they really done away with the no-dating rule? He reached for his phone again, this time dialing Kate Conradt. As his direct superior, she’d probably been informed of his being called in to human resources to discuss his relationship with Miranda. As such, she probably also would have also been informed of the decision to abandon the restrictive policy.

  He greeted Kate when she picked up and responded optimistically when she inquired about his grandmother. “Kate, I’m sure that you’ve been told about my being called in to human resources. Can you tell me if there’ve been any policy changes in the last few days?”

  “Yes on both counts,” she replied. “I was given a courtesy heads up of their intention to question you to follow up on tips they’d received about you. Then Jeff informed me yesterday afternoon that they’re preparing to announce that the ban on employee fraternization has been lifted. They plan to issue a warning that any undue influence will not be permitted.” She paused. “It’s the girl you danced with so well at the Christmas party you’re involved with, isn’t it? The one from the rehab unit.”