Chapter 29

Jesse moved quickly through the building to her desk and arranged her things, pulling up the article on her computer. She made sure that it was at least edited to perfection, even if the content was lacking. If nothing else, it would be a work of formatting perfection.

It did not take long, and she printed it out, moving across the office to the printer to collect the document. Then, she returned to her desk and put the papers in a file. She looked at it for a long moment, feeling a weight like a stone in her stomach. She couldn’t help feeling a sense of relief looming somewhere in her mess of emotions, that at least the stress was over, and she could focus on something else.

Then again, if Elaine were truly unhappy with it, her next item of focus would simply be finding a new place of employment.

Jesse was vaguely aware of her coworkers beginning to pass her desk, and she realized that it was time for their daily meeting. She shook her head and gathered up the file. She would give it to Elaine after the meeting and then disappear. Elaine could read it on her own, and that way Jesse would be out of the immediate line of fire.

Jesse followed her coworkers to the meeting room and immediately took her place by Mark. Mark looked first at Jesse and then at the file clutched tightly in her hand.

“Is that it?” he asked her, gesturing to the file.

Jesse gave him a slow nod. Mark put his arm around her shoulder, gave her a tight side hug, and then turned his attention to the front of the room. Jesse looked up as well, and she feared for a moment that she would vomit as she saw Elaine smile broadly, giving a sweeping look across the room as she began her morning address.

Jesse barely heard a word of what was said in the meeting. Her heart pounded hard in her ears, and she fought the urge to vomit. She felt her hands shaking beneath the desk and clasped them together to try and stop it. She felt like she was slowly swirling into madness and wished that she had never been given this assignment at all.

“Jesse?” she heard Mark from beside her and looked up at him distractedly. “The meeting is over.”

“Oh!” Jesse gasped and immediately hopped to her feet. She scanned the crowd of her coworkers and finally spotted Elaine. She pushed and rushed through the congregation of journalists until she finally managed to catch up with Elaine.

“Elaine!” Jesse said hastily as she finally caught up with her, and the older woman turned around, smiling at her in her usual unsettling way.

“Ah, Miss Clarke,” Elaine fairly purred at her. “How good to see you. What can I do for you?”

Jesse gulped and offered up the file.

“This is the Hal Roberts article,” she said. “It’s edited and ready for print.”

“Excellent,” Elaine’s eyes lit up, and Jesse’s stomach sank further. “I have a few things on my plate this morning, but I will read through it as soon as I possibly can.”

Jesse forced out a smile and nod, trying to keep herself together for at least a little while longer.

“Thank you,” Jesse managed to say, and Elaine turned to head back toward her office.

Jesse waited until Elaine was out of her sight and then released a shuddering breath. She ran a hand over her face and slowly began the short walk back to her own desk. She knew it was only a matter of time before Elaine read the pathetic article she had managed to write, and until then all she could do was wait.

In spite of how slowly she walked, Jesse did arrive back at her desk at length, and she sat down into her chair with a deep sigh. For a while, she merely looked down at the surface of her desk, her mind feeling vacant and numb. There was nothing she really had to work on, and she didn’t want to allow her mind to wander too far lest she become weighed down with the graveness of her situation.

Eventually, though, Jesse needed a distraction. She briefly contemplated going to see Mark in his office but dismissed the idea. She didn’t know what she would say to him anyway and didn’t need to distract him from his work. In addition, she felt as though she had let him down. He had played a large part in securing her job, and now she felt sure that she was about to lose it.

Jesse stewed over that a while more, feeling her heart sink ever deeper into her stomach. She browsed the internet for a while, hoping that some light humor would help to lift her spirits, but nothing seemed to be able to bring her out of her haze of misery.

She vaguely considered reaching out to Hal. They had, after all, spent the previous evening together. She could call him up just to thank him again. She quashed that idea as well. She knew that if he didn’t answer, she would feel dejected. She was more fearful, though, of how she would feel if he did answer.

No. All she could do was wait. She didn’t need to drag anyone else into her state of emotional distress. This was all just her penance for her failure as a reporter, and she would bear it alone.

Jesse managed to calm herself somewhat. She knew that she didn’t want to be an absolute nervous wreck when Elaine finally called her in. Jesse largely looked through various pop articles online and vaguely wondered who was covering which of the latest stories, as she hadn’t been paying an ounce of attention to the meeting that morning.

Time passed, and before Jesse knew it, the lunch hour was upon her. She was eager to take the excuse to get out of the office, but the anticipation of what was to come with Elaine weighed heavily on her and prevented her from being able to stomach a meal.

Reluctantly, Jesse made her way back to the office as the lunch hour drew to a close. People around her were settling into their desks, and Jesse had just pulled her chair up when her desk phone rang.

Her stomach dropped, but she didn’t dare let the phone ring a second time before she answered it.

“This is Jesse Clarke at The Edge,” she spilled her customary line into the phone, trying to keep her shattered nerves from being evident in her voice.

“Hey Jess,” she heard a warm, male voice on the other line. “Are you okay? You sound a little shaken up.”