Friendly Skies Page 19

  “Is he okay?” Stephanie asked, giving Rich a gentle nudge with her foot.

  “He’s fine,” Jason said, loosening his hold on Judy. “He just forgot how to take a punch, which he got because he also forgot how to treat a lady.” He ran a hand through his hair and blew out a sigh. “I walked out here, delivering the drink Rich had asked me to get for him, and he was forcing himself on Judy.”

  “I knew it. I had a feeling he was going to do something stupid. Shit.” Stephanie said.

  She walked over to Judy, who reluctantly backed out of Jason’s arms.

  “Are you okay?” She took stock of Judy’s smudgy make-up and her hair starting to come out of its bun. In a motherly gesture, she tucked a curl behind Judy’s ear, and said to Jason, “Why don’t you get her home? Can you do that?”

  Jason nodded silently.

  “I’m going to work on damage control. Rich is going to come to any second, and we need to have it worked out how we spin this to keep the sordid mess from the masses inside.” Stephanie looked at Judy, “We’ll talk on Tuesday. Go home, get some rest. You and Mark were magnificent tonight.”

  Jason and Judy looked at each other. It sounded like they’d been outed by Stephanie, but she couldn’t be sure.

  “Come on, Judy, let’s get out of here.”

  Jason put his suit jacket around her shoulders. She hadn’t realized she’d started shivering. They gathered up their things amid more than a few sideways glances, but otherwise people continued to enjoy the party.

  He got them a cab for the short distance to her house, and Judy was in a fog the whole way.

  *

  When they arrived at her condo, she immediately headed for the shower. Neither of them spoke, and for that, she was grateful. Everything seemed to be moving too fast and she needed a little time to figure out what the hell happened.

  She wandered out of the bathroom in one of Jason’s t-shirts and a towel on her head, feeling slightly better. Jason had busied himself in the kitchen while she was in the bathroom, and the smell of garlic bread hit her immediately. She moved toward him, eyeing the plate of cheese and fruit he scrounged up.

  He handed her a cup of tea. “You didn’t have much in the freezer, but I found garlic bread and a few snacks.” He gestured to the plate. “Come here, sweetheart, you need something to eat. I could tell you were hungry after the presentation.”

  “I’m not hungry anymore.” she said dully, staring at the plate. She was having a hard time meeting his eyes.

  “I know, but you should try. It might help.”

  He sounded like her mom, which was slightly annoying but also sweet. He was trying to take care of her, and she was lucky to have him in that moment. She took a piece of garlic bread. Surprisingly, it tasted good and she realized that despite all that had happened, she really was hungry. They ate in companionable silence, which she was again grateful for. She knew Jason was worried about her, the two of them, and what was going to happen on Tuesday. He had to be worried about his job, too. She couldn’t help but feel responsible for Jason’s predicament.

  “Jason, do you think you’ll get fired for this?”

  The magnitude of what he did dawned on her. He defended her honor and put his entire future at risk to do it. She had a guilty feeling in her stomach that was growing. Here he was, caring for her so tenderly and thoughtfully, and she hadn’t even thanked him for rescuing her and punching Rich’s lights out.

  “I don’t know, but it’s going to be okay, I promise.” He took her hand and looked into her eyes. “Really, I’m not worried.”

  “But,” she protested, “what will you do? Bradford owns Callahan now.” She started to cry. Somehow this was all her fault.

  “This is not your fault, it’s Rich’s,” he responded, reading her mind. “He had it coming in spades. Look, let me tell you a couple things.”

  He took his hand away from hers and pulled it through his hair and let out a big sigh, just like he always did when he had something uncomfortable to say. He took her hand again in both of his, rubbing it and turning it over, and looking at her fingers.

  “I have never liked Rich, but his idea for Callahan was exactly what my dad wanted. My dad started talking to Rich before he died, and all I did was pick up where Dad left off.” He continued looking at her hand, and then suddenly he looked up and met her eyes.

  God, those beautiful blue eyes.

  “I realized pretty fast what an asshole Rich is, but his business sense is spot on. I thought that if I could negotiate a good deal with him for Callahan Enterprises, I might be able to eventually get out of the company altogether. I don’t want to work with a guy like Rich. I don’t want to stop flying, but I thought, if I do this right, I won’t have to.” He paused. “Do you understand?”

  “I think so. You were planning to get a different job after the deal went through. But I don’t know what that really means,” Judy responded.

  “I sold the whole company to Bradford. All of it. The name, the clients, the planes, the stock. I did not retain any shares. I liquidated the asset. When Rich and I were negotiating and I told him what I wanted to do, he was flabbergasted but he also thought he could make a killing. I held out for a lot of money. I told him I was going to retire on the money I made selling Callahan. He laughed and said there was no way I could do that, but in the end, he gave me almost enough to retire right now and go fishing every day.” He looked out the window at the night.

  She was still confused. “So then, why haven’t you done that? Why haven’t you retired?”

  “I promised Rich I would stick around through the transition. The earliest I was supposed to leave is the end of this year, but I think Rich is probably going to give me a pass.”

  He chuckled a little ruefully. He still had command of Judy’s hand and gave it a massage.

  “Also, I can’t retire. That money belongs to my mom and my sisters. They’ve been fighting me on taking any money, but I mentioned before that I had the profit split with half to Mom and the other half divided three ways. They don’t know it, yet, but their lives are about to change. I figured it was easier to just have it done this way than to keep fighting with them.”

  “Oh Jason, I can practically hear you trying to convince them.” She crawled into his lap and laid her head on his shoulder. He snuggled her in close, rubbing her back.

  “I put my share directly into my retirement. It’s a decent nest egg, and maybe will allow me to retire early. Who knows? At any rate, I’m fine financially. So, you see, it’s really okay if Rich fires me. I have enough to live on and enough to get myself started on my next adventure.” He kissed her neck and she started to tingle again.

  “What do you have in mind for your next adventure?” She asked with trepidation.

  Jason was a pilot. She couldn’t imagine him doing anything else. The meetings of the last few weeks had just about killed him with boredom. But more importantly, would his next adventure include her?

  “Well,” he began carefully, “You know how I said when I flew you and Greg to Catalina I was helping out a friend?”

  She nodded and sat up. She had a bad feeling that she might not like what Jason had in mind for his next adventure.

  “Well, it was really a test run. I knew I wasn’t going to stay with Bradford for very long and needed to figure out my next move. I’d been considering becoming a flight instructor, but it’s difficult to find a position in Washington. Seattle, especially, appears to be a city full of pilots. In southern California, though, the flight schools have higher turnover and seem to need instructors all the time.” He paused.

  “Tommy, my buddy, also needs help with his charter flights to Catalina, San Diego and all over the area. He doesn’t have the supply to accommodate the demand. It seems like a good fit. That is, it did, until I fell in love with my first client and she happens to live in Seattle.”

  His expression was unreadable. He was looking for something from her, but she wasn’t sure what it was. Sh
e knew one thing for sure, though.

  “Jason, I love you. Do what’s best for you. We’ll figure the rest out,” she leaned into him again, this time to kiss him long and slow. “Also, I never properly thanked you for coming to my rescue tonight,” she whispered in his ear.

  He stood up, carrying her in his arms. “Come on, I’ll let you thank me in the bedroom. I’d also like to tell you in great detail the effect your dress had on me.”

  She delivered a heavenly sigh into his neck and began to kiss him as they crossed the threshold of the bedroom.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  JASON LEFT EARLY SATURDAY morning. He had flights all weekend long back and forth between the San Juans and the Oregon Coast because it was the holiday weekend. Judy didn’t like the idea of being without him all weekend, but she had work to do and felt the pull of the office calling her. The Rich fiasco cast a pallor on what should have been one of her golden moments in her career, and now she had the fallout to deal with.

  She stumbled out to the kitchen to a freshly brewed pot of coffee and bagels from the deli around the corner. She smiled as she spotted a note from Jason.

  Judy -

  I’m so sorry last night didn’t work out the way it should have. You deserve so much better. Rich is an asshole, don’t forget that. He’s lucky I didn’t throw him over the balcony.

  I’ll be back on Tuesday, and I’ll call when I can this weekend. Love you.

  Jason

  Judy sighed. As she sat in her little kitchen, which hopefully wouldn’t be hers much longer, she thought about Jason taking a job in Southern California. Immediately her heart lurched. She didn’t want to hold him back, but she didn’t know what that meant for the two of them. She’d told him last night to do what is right for him, and that they’d figure the rest out, but how would that work exactly? Her job and her life were in Seattle. Even the idea of going back to school so she could become a teacher, that was something that would happen at the University of Washington because she had residency. Jason would almost certainly be fired after this weekend. So, then what? Would he speed up his plans to move to Southern California? She didn’t want to go to California. And she didn’t want to lose Jason. But she didn’t want to hold him back, either.

  This maudlin way of thinking was too much. She just needed to go to the office and see what backlash she had to deal with in her own job and go from there.

  *

  She expected to be mostly on her own when she got to the office, maybe have some emails to read and respond to about last night, and she was not prepared to be greeted by Stephanie as soon as she walked in.

  “Hi Steph,” she said evenly.

  “Hi Judy,” she said as she followed Judy and closed the door to Judy’s office. “How are you doing? Are you okay?”

  She sat down in the chair across from Judy’s desk and studied her for after-effects from last night’s events.

  “I’m fine,” Judy sat down. She realized that Stephanie was waiting to deliver some bad news. “Oh, Stephanie. Look, it’s okay, whatever you have to say, just say it.”

  This was going to be bad. The hairs on the back of Judy’s neck were prickling.

  Stephanie didn’t say anything for a long moment. “Okay. Well, Rich is recovering nicely, and all he seems to have is a black eye and a bruised ego. I’m sure, however, he’s already working on the spin for this. No one knows what really happened out there except for me, Mark, you, Jason and Rich. We told the media folks he’d just had a bit too much to drink and took a tumble, which scared the daylights out of you, so you asked to be taken home.”

  “I’m such a delicate flower.” Judy rolled her eyes. “I practically get the vapors just remembering it.”

  “The point is,” Stephanie continued, “No one knows what happened, so as I see it, no one needs to. However, Rich has asked that you be removed from the Bradford account.”

  Stephanie looked at Judy under lowered lashes.

  What the hell?? He practically tried to rape her and he was trying to get her fired! She flushed and rage painted her expression.

  “I have not given him an answer,” Stephanie said before Judy could gather her words, “but I think it goes without saying that I’ll probably have to give in to his wishes or face his board of directors. It won’t matter in the long run, anyway.”

  Judy decided for once to leave diplomacy in the hallway. “Do you have any idea how fucked up that is? He threw himself at me, and when I rejected him, he tried to force himself. What is this, 1950? Unbelievable.”

  “What’s your solution, Judy, have him continue to work with you?” Stephanie countered. “Continue to be a complete ass in your presence? How does that work for anyone?”

  She couldn’t believe it. She was the fucking victim and she was being made to feel guilty for something. In fact, she was being punished.

  “Just so we’re clear, here’s exactly what happened last night. First, Rich tried to get me to go up to his suite with him for sex. When I declined, he asked me to accompany him on the balcony while he smoked a cigar, which he did not have. Then he tried to kiss me. I pushed him away and told him to stop, and then he pulled me in, holding me so I couldn’t move, and proceeded to grind his erect penis against my thigh.”

  Stephanie blanched. “Judy,” she said softly.

  Judy held up her hand and cut Stephanie off. “I kneed him in the balls. At that point, Jason walked out on the balcony, carrying the drink Rich had asked him to get, no less, and I asked for help. Because Jason is a grown-up and understood the situation, he pushed Rich away and punched him out. God knows Rich deserved a lot more than that and he’s lucky Jason showed a little restraint.”

  She had worked herself into a self-righteous meltdown.

  “So while you are figuring out the right spin to put on this, and whether I should be punished for what happened, remember that what Rich did was a fucking felony.”

  Judy hadn’t felt like a victim until that moment – Stephanie telling her that she was to be blamed for this whole fiasco.

  After a few minutes, Stephanie responded.

  “Look, I get it. And you know what? You should report the assault. Rich is an asshole and he gets away with this shit all the time. We’ve always known this in our heart of hearts. But unfortunately, our board of directors is willing to look the other way. I don’t make these rules, and God knows I can barely stand to live by them, but this is the reality I have to deal with.”

  Stephanie was close to the edge, too. She was resigned and possibly a little afraid. She could get fired over this situation also. Judy was not the only one being hung out to dry.

  “Anyway,” Stephanie continued, “Rich asking you to be removed from Bradford isn’t the worst of it.”

  “Jesus, are you serious?” Wait, he isn’t accusing me of forcing myself on him, is he? What the hell.” Judy’s head was spinning.

  “No, no, nothing like that. But he did tell me that you and Jason have been seeing each other for at least several weeks. Apparently, he put a tail on Jason a few months ago because he was concerned Jason wasn’t actually making all his flights. He was, of course, but the PI uncovered your relationship in the process.”

  For the second time in the last hour, Judy was speechless. All she could do was stare with her mouth open. Stephanie continued her diatribe of terribleness.

  “So you understand, being removed from Bradford isn’t even really the issue. A relationship with a client is grounds for immediate termination. I’ve already spoken to upper management, and they agree that given your loyalty and work ethic, you deserve more than a cursory escort to the door. No one, not even Rich, will know the truth of why you are leaving officially. Rich will suspect it’s because of Jason, but we won’t confirm it. We’ll treat it as a resignation, and let you control the narrative. You’ll have a glowing reference from me, regardless. We’re prepared to offer you one year’s salary as severance and six months of medical coverage paid. Of course, you’re also full
y vested in your 401k so you’ll have that. In exchange, you’ll need to sign a release.”

  She paused again. “I’m so sorry, Judy. I really am.”

  Stephanie genuinely was sorry. The unfairness of the situation was something that no one would soon forget. Judy was fired for having a loving and beautiful relationship with Jason, but Rich could remain CEO and rain hell down on everyone else, even though he tried to rape Judy. What the hell.

  “What happens next?” Judy asked numbly.

  She’d never been fired from anything before. Ever. Even the jobs she hated, she still managed to garner promotions and good references. How the hell did she manage to get fired from a job she had spent her whole career doing? It was all she could do just to take one breath and then the next.

  “The paperwork is being drawn up now,” Stephanie explained. “If you want, you can review it and sign it now, and it will be effective immediately. Or you can name the date of the termination, and we can treat it more like a resignation would be treated - notice given, a party thrown, etc. It’s your call. But the Bradford account will be Mark’s from here on out.”

  Suddenly Judy felt like her office was the smallest closet on earth. She wanted nothing more than to get out.

  “Let’s make it effective today. I’ll pack up my things and you can bring the papers in when they are ready.” She was surprised at how steady her voice was.

  “Okay.” Stephanie got up to leave, but paused at the door before opening it. “For what it’s worth, none of this was my decision.”

  Stephanie looked tired. She probably hadn’t had any sleep between handling the board and Rich.

  “I know,” she said flatly. “And thank you for what you have done for me along the way. Means a lot.”

  She felt she should say more but the words just wouldn’t come. Stephanie left and closed the door. Judy sat as if pulled down by the weight of the world.

  After a small eternity, she pulled herself together and started packing up her belongings. The most surprising thing of all was that it only took her an hour to pack up 7 years’ worth of life with this company. She cleaned out her email, her personal folders, and packed up her pictures. Stephanie came back just as she was finishing up, and had a folder of papers. This was it.