Secrets On the Clock

by Nicole Disney

  “Why is he so set on staying there if she’s hitting them?”

  “Again, we don’t know that she is. But their aunt is their next of kin, their only other kin, and she is only willing to take in Raylon. Deon would have to go to foster care.”

  “And Deon and Raylon don’t want to be separated.”

  “You got it.”

  “In other words, he has a good reason to lie,” Danielle said. “What makes you think he’d tell you?”

  “He is exceptionally smart,” Jenna said again. “And he loves his brother very much. I think he’ll tell me if it gets bad, for Raylon.”

  A long, full silence stretched between them, and Jenna sensed it was filling up with unasked questions. She knew Danielle wanted to know if she really broke the rules for Deon like he implied, and she wasn’t ready to answer. At the same time, her own questions were building about who Danielle was. And her mind kept wandering to Danielle and Sasha talking in the hall.

  “How are you liking working with Sasha?” She hoped she sounded like a supervisor checking in on her newest team member, but she suspected she was rather transparent in her probing.

  “It’s fine,” Danielle said and smiled. Jenna felt a tingle travel through her skin. The idea of Sasha checking Danielle out was making it impossible for Jenna not to do the same, and Danielle was gorgeous. Her teeth were exceptionally white, her hair was silky, and her eyes said she knew something she wasn’t supposed to. Jenna couldn’t guess the specifics of Danielle’s Asian heritage, and she couldn’t find a way to ask that felt natural, but in any case, she couldn’t seem to keep her eyes off Danielle’s amber skin.

  “She’s very nice,” Danielle said. “And fun.”

  “She is,” Jenna said. Those were only a couple on a long list of attributes Sasha possessed, along with wit and beauty. Despite always knowing her friend was a catch, Jenna had never felt threatened by her, and she wasn’t exactly sure why she did now.

  “She invited me out this weekend,” Danielle said.

  “Oh?” Jenna’s stomach twisted. She hadn’t been invited. Because it was a date? Or because she was no longer welcome at such gatherings? She wasn’t sure which idea bothered her more.

  “Yeah,” Danielle said. “To Big J’s. I guess it’s tradition?”

  Jenna laughed. “Oh, yeah. It is, I guess. It’s always a good time. I’m sure you’ll have fun.”

  “Are you going?”

  “Not sure,” Jenna said. “Haven’t exactly been invited. They might not want a supervisor hanging out watching their mischief.”

  “That’s crazy,” Danielle said. “They love you.”

  “Do they?” Jenna looked over just in time to see Danielle’s cheeks slightly flush, and she held back a chuckle as she realized Danielle blushed easily.

  “Well, sure. They talk about you all the time.”

  “That’s good to hear,” Jenna said. “I’ve been trying to get this promotion for a while, but I’d hate to lose friends over it. Maybe it was a little naive of me, but I didn’t really worry about that until it was too late.”

  “Well, I know I’m new,” Danielle said. “But I’m pretty sure you don’t have to worry. And you should consider yourself invited. I hope you’ll come.”

  Chapter Eight

  Danielle frowned at the pile of clothes on her bed. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d struggled to pick an outfit, which might explain why the selection that made up her wardrobe was as sad as it was. Brianna poked her head into the room, observed the pile, then beamed and burst in the rest of the way.

  “You need help.”

  Danielle sighed. “Yes, actually, I do.”

  “What are we going for? Maintaining the work image or shattering it?”

  “Shattering.”

  Brianna went to the bed and sat down without looking through anything. “Something sexy?”

  “Yes.” She paused. “Well, no. Not like—”

  “Sexy like you didn’t mean to be?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Who’s the girl?”

  “There’s no girl.”

  Brianna scoffed. “Danielle, who’s the girl?”

  “There is no girl.” Danielle ignored the face that jumped to mind. “I just don’t want to be the little uptight Asian girl again. I haven’t talked to anyone very much, and they haven’t talked to me. I’m pretty sure they all think I just come home and practice violin every night or something.”

  Brianna smirked. “Oh, come on. It can’t be that bad.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “Well, no one will think you’re shy next to me. I’m so loud we’ll both get credit.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Can you just make me not look like a twelve-year-old boy?”

  “Of course, I can,” Brianna said. She started going through the clothes on the bed. “So, these two beautiful trainers of yours, will they be there?”

  “Sasha will,” Danielle said. “I’m not sure about Jenna.” Danielle felt a stab of disappointment at the consideration Jenna might not show. She couldn’t help but linger on the realization that if she found out right now Jenna wasn’t going, she would no longer care what she wore. That was dangerous.

  Brianna stood up and held a shirt on a hanger against Danielle’s body, then pulled it away and tried another. “Did you call dibs on one of them yet?”

  “Dibs? No.”

  “I could go after either one and you wouldn’t mind?”

  “Please don’t,” Danielle said.

  “All right, we’re getting somewhere. Please don’t to which one?”

  “Either.”

  “Well, you can’t have them both, Danielle, that’s not fair.”

  “I work with these people, Bri.”

  “So? I don’t.”

  “This is a bad idea. Forget it,” Danielle said. “I don’t even want to go.” Danielle slumped into her pile of clothes. Brianna slowly put the hangers down and came and sat by her.

  “Isn’t this a welcome party for you?”

  Danielle raked her hand down her face. “Yeeees.”

  “Okay, so you have to go.”

  “Why? I didn’t ask to be welcomed.”

  Brianna smiled and grabbed her arm. She pulled until Danielle was sitting again. “What happened to not wanting to be the quiet little Asian girl anymore?”

  “You happened! With your sexy outfit choosing and girl hunting and shit faced being. It’s just not me. I’m never going to be a party girl. I need to just buy a violin and get it over with.”

  “Oh stop. You don’t have to be a party girl. Just go and talk and have fun. I’ll do the drinking and girl hunting.”

  “Could you not? Just this time?”

  “Don’t drink or flirt? Why don’t you just ask me to stop breathing, Danielle.”

  “Seriously,” she said. “Please?”

  Brianna sighed. “All right, fine. Just this once. Because it’s a work thing.”

  “Thank you.”

  “And because I am not listening to you learn to play violin.”

  “Thanks.”

  Brianna started going through her clothes again and finally found something she liked. “Try this on.” She tossed it into Danielle’s hands. “And I’m doing your makeup.”

  “Thanks, Bri.”

  “Mhmm,” she said. “That’ll be twenty dollars for my services.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  Brianna cracked a smile, then took on a straight face again. “No seriously, I need twenty dollars. I—”

  Ringing sounded from Danielle’s laptop and cut Brianna off. Danielle looked over and saw her brother’s picture on the screen. She launched from the bed to her desk and hit answer.

  “Li!”

  The screen filled with his face with his room at their parents’ house in the background.

  “Shh,” he whispered. He hunching over the keyboard in an attempt to hide the screen. He glanced over his shoulder to verify the door was still closed. He looked older
than the last time she’d seen him. His hair was longer and gelled, and his chest looked fuller, more muscled. A few lines had developed around his smile. At twenty-two years old, he seemed too young for that, but he had recently started med school. If that wasn’t enough, she knew her situation with her parents stressed him out as much, if not more than her.

  “Why didn’t you call sooner?” she whispered. “It’s been so long.”

  “They keep asking if I’m talking to you,” he said. “I think they know.”

  “There’s no way. We’re too careful.”

  “I don’t have long,” he said. Danielle had never seen her brother so anxious. They’d been hiding the fact that they still spoke ever since her parents cut her out of their lives two years ago. He was always cautious, but not always scared.

  “What’s wrong, Li?”

  “Dad is sick,” he said. “He won’t tell me what’s wrong, but it’s bad enough he hasn’t been working for two weeks. He’s home right now.”

  “Sick? How sick?”

  “I don’t know.” Li checked over his shoulder again.

  “You have to find out. You’re the only one he’ll tell.”

  “I tried,” Li said. “He keeps saying it’s nothing, that he just needs rest.”

  “Does he look sick? Come on, Dr. Corey, what’s wrong with him?”

  Li scoffed. “Please, I have no idea.”

  Something banged in the hall outside his door, and Li froze. Danielle found she couldn’t breathe either. The idea of them being upset with Li for talking to her hurt just as much as their own refusal to talk to her.

  “I better go,” Li said.

  Danielle felt tears building, but she wouldn’t let them spill over, not for Li to see.

  “Okay, call me soon.”

  He nodded, preoccupied with watching the door again. “Okay, love you.” He closed the laptop before she could say it back.

  Chapter Nine

  Jenna’s phone was exploding with text messages from her friends reminding her about Danielle’s welcome party. The fear that she might not be wanted at these events anymore was extinguished, which was nice, but she was having doubts about attending.

  She knew Paula was watching her carefully as she learned the nuances of her new job, and though nothing was explicitly said she could no longer socialize with the others, it was frowned upon.

  She also had to admit she wasn’t comfortable with how much she wanted to see Danielle. She’d always been good at being honest with herself, and even though a large part of her wanted to brush the notion away, she knew what she felt when Sasha lingered by Danielle was jealousy, however mild it might have been. She wasn’t overpowered by Danielle’s attractiveness or their comfortable conversations, but she didn’t want to be. As a supervisor, she wasn’t allowed to have any sort of romantic interaction with subordinates, and gentle as the fire might be between them, fires never needed alcohol. Her phone chimed again, and she read the message from Adam.

  Bitch you better be on the way!

  Jenna smiled and grabbed her jacket. Yeah, she was on the way. She couldn’t deny she needed it. She missed her friends, and she didn’t want to miss out on the fun. What she did tonight would set an expectation, both for her friends and her bosses, so if she wanted to keep hanging out with them, she needed to show up. Jenna hurried down the stairs and found Callie lying on the couch watching TV.

  “I’m out of here,” Jenna said. “Use my credit card if you want to order something for dinner; it’s saved.”

  Callie rolled over onto her stomach so she could see. “Where are you going?”

  “Out with friends. Work thing, sort of.”

  “Doesn’t look like work.” Callie scanned her outfit. “Bar?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Must be nice.”

  “You’ll be twenty-one before you know it. I’ll take you to every bar in town if you want. I promise.”

  “Yeah, not what I meant.”

  “What do you mean, then?” Jenna asked.

  “Must be nice to go out.”

  “You could go out too, Cal. You have a car and no curfew; the world is yours.”

  “Right, that helps.” Callie’s tone dripped with the sarcasm that had become her favorite weapon. “With what friends?”

  “You’ll make friends in no time. You just have to get out there.”

  “Yeah, because this just attracts people left and right.” Callie gestured harshly at her face. “I said I want friends, not an audience.” Callie had dark hair and bright green eyes just like Jenna, but the scarring on the left side of her face made her left eye a bit differently shaped than the other and her hairline higher. The skin looked a little too thin, too tight, with some bumps along the edges, and her lip curled up slightly on the side. It was noticeable. Jenna never claimed it wasn’t, but Callie wasn’t as horrifically disfigured as she clearly thought she was.

  “Give people a chance, Cal. They aren’t as awful as you think.”

  “Oh, they aren’t? I just imagined people throwing rocks at me, did I?”

  Jenna sighed. “That was terrible, Callie. I’m so sorry it happened. They were kids, though. Kids are awful. No adult is going to behave anything like that.”

  “Probably not, but they’ll be thinking all the same things. No one sees me and thinks, let’s be friends, or I’m going to ask her out.”

  “They would if you let them get to know you a little,” Jenna said. “If you just—”

  “You should go,” Callie said. “You’ll be late. Go have fun being beautiful.”

  Part of Jenna wanted to stay and keep comforting Callie, but she was starting to recognize their patterns as toxic. When she stayed she just felt like she was playing into Callie’s agenda. She never changed the way Callie felt about her appearance. She would do anything to take back Callie’s burns, but she couldn’t, and she couldn’t figure out how to help her see her life wasn’t over.

  Jenna grabbed her keys and headed for the door.

  “Okay,” Callie said. “Have fun. I’ll just be here hanging out with Mom.”

  Jenna ignored the shiver of irritation and trudged for her car.

  She could hear the hum of chatter and laughter from the bar the moment she pulled into the lot and was instantly grateful she did decide to come out. It was silly to think she couldn’t handle a night around Danielle. She’d worked with many gorgeous coworkers in her life, and it hadn’t been a problem yet. She wasn’t a rabid teenager.

  She made her way to their usual spot on the patio and saw Sasha and Adam shoot from their chairs to greet her.

  “Hell yes!” Adam said. “You made it!”

  Jenna felt a flood of relief seeing their smiling faces and barreled into a group hug. “You were right,” she said. “I needed this.”

  She slipped into the chair that had become hers. Adam’s boyfriend, Sean, was all smiles. His skin seemed to glow, and whatever had been pressing enough to jeopardize Adam’s job seemed to be forgotten.

  Val and the others streamed in from the bar in a roar of laughter as they balanced drinks and set shots on the table.

  “Jenna!” Val chimed as she sat down. “Holy shit, I thought we’d never see you again. Have a shot, lady.”

  The chatter quickly turned to a constant buzz, and Jenna had a hard time hiding the fact that she couldn’t stop checking over her shoulder for Danielle. Maybe she wouldn’t show. That would certainly simplify things. She could use a nice carefree night with friends without having to worry about the impression she was making on a new employee, or the impression that employee seemed to be making on her.

  Just as she started to think Danielle was probably a no-show, the signature roar of a greeting flowed around the table. She looked up, and Danielle was in the doorway with an understated smile that seemed genuine, if slightly uncomfortable. She was wearing skintight jeans with rips in them that made Jenna’s mouth dry and a loose shirt with a beautiful artistic design that looked like it had been pai
nted. It deceivingly hung freely from her shoulders, yet clung to her curves, and Jenna was much too aware of Danielle’s perfectly proportioned form. Jenna realized with a tingle that Danielle was scrutinizing her just as closely. She looked away before it became downright inappropriate and was grateful for a new place to direct her attention when a woman came clomping through the doorway and squished onto the crowded patio.

  “Who’s your friend?” Jenna heard Sasha asking though she felt somehow far away. Jenna dared to look at Danielle again as she waited for the answer.

  “I’m sorry,” Danielle said. “This is Brianna.”

  “Hey, everyone,” Brianna said. “Y’all ready to party?” Brianna did a quick shimmy and stirred up a round of laughs. She had voluminous, reddish brown hair, lots of makeup, and the type of clothes that took up a lot of space. A coat with a big, furry hood, a low-cut top with ample cleavage spilling from it, an oversized purse, knee high boots. And Jenna could tell her personality matched. She was surprised to see Danielle in such boisterous company, but how could she really know how Danielle behaved in her free time?

  “Come on over, girls.” Sasha pointed at the two empty seats between her and Jenna. Brianna bolted for the small opening between the wall and chairs, ensuring she would have the first pick.

  Jenna laughed and braced herself as she realized Brianna was making an undisguised beeline for her. Brianna lunged into the chair and started shedding her bulky coat and purse, then turned her body toward Jenna as she crossed her legs and found a place for her elbow on the back of her chair.

  “What was your name, hon?”

  “Jenna. It’s nice to meet you.”

  “Jenna, I just have to tell you real quick that you are absolutely gorgeous. Have you ever done any modeling?”

  Jenna smiled and couldn’t deny Brianna had a very warm presence that somehow amounted to something less cheesy than her parts.