A Heart to Trust by A.L. Brooks (romantic books to read txt) 📗

Roz and Tamara had done it when they were only twenty, and Jenny couldn’t imagine them ever not being together.

Adrienne had found her special someone at the later age of forty-nine, but look how well that had turned out.

So hoping for something similar as you approached thirty wasn’t aiming too high, was it? Of course, there were Jenny’s issues with trust to get around first…

Over the next half hour, more people arrived at the bar to say their goodbyes to Adrienne. Jenny knew most of them, and before long she’d sunk herself into enjoying the evening, leaving her thoughts far behind. She spent some time with Toby, a cameraman she’d worked with a few times over the last couple of years. He was a laidback guy and fun to talk to. She was also introduced to Adrienne’s closest friend, a woman named Tricia who was a professor at NYU. Watching Adrienne with her was amusing, to say the least. The two women clearly went way back, and the stories they bounced off each other had everyone laughing.

Maxwell also appeared at some point, much to Jenny’s surprise; he wasn’t known for socializing with work people. “Adrienne is special,” was all he said when Jenny questioned him on it. He pulled up a stool next to hers and sat, a bottle of beer looking tiny in his big hand.

“So,” Jenny ventured. She took a gulp from her light beer—she’d switched after her first cosmo as her budget didn’t stretch to Manhattan prices. “What do you think of our new job?”

Maxwell rarely showed emotion, so his deep frown was almost comical. “I’m not sure I’m happy.”

Jenny swallowed. “Yeah?”

He twisted his beer bottle in his hand. “One of the best things about working at TC was they only did sports programs.” He looked forlornly at Jenny. “I know we’re still working on sports projects but the new one…I am not a fashion man.”

Jenny took in Maxwell’s plain—some might say boring—chinos and dark-green, short-sleeved shirt. “I hear you.” She decided to push him a little, deeply curious if she was the only one with personnel problems in the new situation. “But I don’t mind the work so much as the new, um, team arrangement.”

Maxwell looked blankly at her.

“You know, Olivia being the way she is.” She held her breath.

“Olivia is very professional.” He tilted his head. “And Chrissy is nice.”

“Oh yeah. Yeah, that’s very true.” Crap, it was just her with the issues. Or it was just about Olivia and how she seemed to have some problem with Jenny?

“Is something wrong?” Maxwell’s frown was back.

“No! Not at all.” Jenny raised her bottle and he tapped hers with his. “Let’s go talk to Adrienne.” She moved off before waiting to see if he followed.

She made sure to keep the rest of her conversations throughout the evening about anything except work. By the time it came to say goodbye to Adrienne, Jenny was tired and sad. She held Adrienne tightly as they hugged out their farewell.

“I meant what I said.” Adrienne looked deeply into Jenny’s eyes. “I’m here for you whenever you need me, okay? Just pick up the phone or drop me an email. Whatever you need.”

“Thanks.” Jenny did appreciate it, but she knew it was definitely time to stand on her own two feet. She wouldn’t be bothering Adrienne at all if she could help it. “I’ll miss you! But I know you’re going to have the best time in California. And I’m so happy for you and Morgan.”

“Thank you.” Adrienne was all teary again and wiped her eyes. “God, this is pathetic! I always did hate goodbyes.” She squeezed Jenny once more. “I’ll speak to you soon.”

“Sure thing.” Jenny pulled away, knowing she wasn’t far off from crying herself, and loathed to drag this out any more. “Okay, I’m outta here.” She gave Adrienne a little wave, then turned on her heels and left the bar before anyone saw the mess her tears made of her mascara.

Jenny was thankful she’d switched to light beers the night before when, at around eleven the next morning, Olivia was very, very Olivia. A hangover would only have made things worse.

“Jenny.” Olivia pierced her with a hard stare. “Did you have to do that?”

“Do what?”

“Make changes to the Catwalk documents without using track changes.” Olivia’s voice could have cut glass. “I thought we all agreed we would—”

Jenny held up her hand. “Wait a second! What changes? To what document?” She’d spent all morning on the phone with work connected to her other three, smaller projects. None of her day required her to work on anything related to Catwalk.

Olivia’s mouth tightened. “The changes to the catering schedule. I’ve just opened it up and since I last worked on it yesterday morning, one of my columns has been deleted and there are two new ones with entries that make very little sense. It shows you as the last person modifying the file on SharePoint.”

“I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about.” She tried to keep her voice even. “Catering isn’t my area, it’s Chrissy’s. Why would I go into the document and change it?”

Olivia blinked, then faced Chrissy, who sat opposite Olivia. “Didn’t you tell me you’d asked Jenny to update the schedule while you were in that meeting with Derek?”

Chrissy pursed her lips. “I honestly don’t remember that conversation, no. When did I say that?”

Olivia’s eyes narrowed. “Yesterday morning,” she said icily, “after our team meeting.”

Chrissy held up both hands and gave Olivia a sheepish grin. “I’m sorry, Olivia, I don’t recall that at all.”

Olivia looked at her for a long moment, then switched her attention back to Jenny. “I know you haven’t used SharePoint before, but you need to get a grip on this. You can’t go into any document you like and muck around with it—”

“I didn’t!” Jenny said so loudly that heads turned from other area of the production team. “I