Man Enough For Me (16 page)

Easy looked at her quizzically. “How can you be so sure about that?”

“I just know,” Jules said. “I was really down about everything, but being here this morning just reminded me how much He cares about me.”

Easy grunted but said nothing more. Jules whispered a quick prayer in her heart and then took a deep breath.

“He cares about you too, Easy,” she said. She braced herself. This was the part of the conversation where Easy usually brushed off the topic, not wanting to talk about anything related to him and God. But to Jules’s surprise, this time he didn’t.

“How do you know that?” he asked.

“Because I’ve seen it with my own eyes,” Jules said confidently. “Look at the way He’s taken care of you. Protected you from harm in that community you live in. Look at how he’s blessed you with a grandmother who could love and take care of you even when your mother and father were gone.”

Easy’s brow furrowed as he listened to Jules. He wasn’t objecting to anything she was saying, but she could tell that he wasn’t convinced.

“If He cared so much, why would He make them leave in the first place? Isn’t a good God supposed to prevent that from happening?”

Jules sighed. “God won’t force us to do anything, Easy. At the end of the day our choices are our own. I don’t know why your mom left; that’s a choice she made. But God made sure that someone was there for you even when she wasn’t.

“Sometimes, things happen that we don’t understand. But the Bible says all things work together for the good of them that love the Lord. And so we have to believe that God is doing what’s best for us.”

Easy pondered on Jules’s words for a moment before smirking.

“So you think something good will come out of you hooking up with a drug dealer?” he challenged.

Jules smiled. “Stranger things have happened.”

Easy chuckled. “You really believe all this stuff, don’t you,” he said, glancing at Jules.

She nodded. “I do. No one cares about you like He does, Easy. No one.”

They both stood on the sidewalk, contemplating that concept, when Easy’s grandmother came up.

“Jules! It’s nice to see you.”

“It’s great to see you too, Sis Crawford,” Jules said, as the tiny woman’s arms enveloped her. “And it was even better seeing Easy here this morning.”

“Ain’t it chile,” Sis Crawford agreed. “I tell you, prayer still works.”

Jules sighed as she thought about Sis Crawford’s words. Yes, prayer still worked. It had to. Because with all that was going on in her life now, it was the only thing she could count on.

P
rayer was the only thing that kept Jules sane over the next few weeks, especially since Penny seemed to work extra hard to get under Jules’s skin.

“Jules! Get in here.”

Jules sighed, pushed back her chair, and made her way to Penny’s office. It was the week of Truuth’s launch, and the last thing she needed was drama at work, but it seemed like that was exactly what she was going to get.

“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee,”
Jules whispered to herself. It was all she could do to summon God’s tranquility when she had to deal with Penny.

In the year that the woman had been Jules’s boss, Penny had been nothing but a couple tantrums short of a nightmare. Both Jules and Michelle disliked the loud, pushy woman, but they were able to tolerate her because she only worked from their office two days of the week. The other three days she worked with the hospital’s executive team or worked out of her office at Toronto General Hospital, the other major hospital in the Toronto Central Hospital Network.

With the hospital restructuring and the associated tension between the executive team, the staff, and the hospital’s community consultation board, Penny had been out more often in
various meetings trying to pacify what was slowly brewing into a stormy issue. While that meant more time spent outside of the office, it also meant that the hours when she was there, she was more snappy and sadistic than usual. Jules knew that her summons to the office would likely be another of Penny’s torture sessions.

“Yes, Penny?” Jules asked, trying to force a small smile as she appeared at her boss’s office entrance. From where she was, she could see Michelle looking annoyed from her position near Penny’s desk.

“What’s happening with the community newsletter? It should have gone out two days ago.” she asked, her large green eyes boring into Jules.

“It’s completed. It’s just waiting for final approval.”

“From who?” Penny asked, sounding slightly annoyed.

Jules grimaced. “From you.”

“So where is it? Why didn’t you get it to me?” Penny asked, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Though wilt keep him in perfect peace.

“I gave it to you last week, Penny. And I sent you an e-mail reminding you about it three days ago,” Jules said.

In fact she had sent Penny multiple e-mails, and had even spoken to her directly about the newsletter at the end of the previous week. But Penny had kept putting it off, and now that it was late, she had conveniently forgotten that Jules had spoken to her about it. This was classic Penny.

Penny sighed as if she was talking to a child. “Well, Jules, if you gave it to me, where is it?”

“It’s right there on your desk,” Michelle said, pointing to the two-page newsletter sitting on Penny’s large, maple wood desk, in the same corner that Penny had tossed it when Jules had given it to her the week before. “Right where it’s been all week.”

Inwardly Jules sent up a quick prayer for Michelle, hoping that Penny didn’t pick up on the woman’s tart tone. Jules could tell that Michelle was annoyed with Penny, but she worried that the young woman’s sharp tongue would be her undoing. In
fact, the tiny Asian woman was famous for letting her dry remarks slip when Penny started with her antics.

Jules was sure that Penny would have loved to fire the girl, but even she knew that the office would probably fall apart if she did. Though younger than both Jules and Penny, Michelle had been at the hospital longer than both. As a result she was the only one in the department who knew the exact who, what, when, where, and how of the work they did. She also was the only one who knew exactly who to go to in order to get certain things done. Jules knew that she personally couldn’t do her job without Michelle. She was sure Penny knew the same thing went for her, but it seemed like Penny sometimes forgot.

Penny glared at Michelle before snatching the newsletter from the corner where it lay, and quickly signing the approval slip at the bottom and handing it over to Jules. The signature wasn’t really necessary, but previous incidents had taught Jules that when it came to Penny and her convenient memory, it was often best to get everything in writing.

“Let’s try to get that out as soon as possible,” Penny said briskly, as if she had done them all a huge favor.

Jules resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Michelle didn’t.

“Anyway, that’s not what I called you both in here for,” Penny said. “Jules, I need you to attend this evening’s community consultation board meeting.”

Jules’s mouth fell open, and she looked at her boss as if she had lost her mind. She had grown accustomed to Penny’s passing off her responsibilities on her, but this was ridiculous.

“With all due respect, Penny, isn’t that meeting your responsibility?” Jules asked, fighting to keep the annoyance out of her voice. How dare this woman pass off a community consultation board meeting on her, and at such short notice?

It wasn’t that Jules had a problem with the consultations. They were a vital part of maintaining the link between the community and the hospital. Jules had been to a couple of the community meetings out of curiosity. But public consultation was not a part of her portfolio at the hospital. Penny was
the
public relations director, and was thus required by the hospital’s constitution
to sit on the consultation board. That had been the whole reason they hired Penny, because of her supposed familiarity with the process.

“It is, but I have an engagement this evening that I absolutely have to attend, and I cannot make it. Someone from the department has to be there,” Penny said.

“What kind of engagement?” Jules asked, an eyebrow raised.

Penny blinked rapidly, seemingly surprised that Jules would question her.

“Excuse me?”

“She said what kind of engagement,” Michelle repeated, leaning closer to Penny’s ear. A look of perverse pleasure sat on her face as she watched Penny squirm.

“An engagement,” Penny huffed, obviously flustered. “One with a very important political figure who has a lot of influence on this hospital.”

“How come you never mentioned it before?” Jules asked, folding her arms. “Seems kind of sudden.”

“I am the boss here,” Penny snapped, her face getting red. “I don’t have to tell you everything.”

Jules shrugged. “Whatever. I can’t make it this evening. I’m busy.”

Her “busy” involved washing her hair and downloading photos of Triad’s last event from her digital camera to her laptop. But Penny didn’t need to know that.

“Are you telling me no?” Penny asked, bewildered.

“I’m telling you I can’t make it,” Jules said, turning to leave the office.

“That’s too bad,” Penny said to Jules’s back. “I always admired your commitment to this hospital. But it looks like you don’t really care at all. It will certainly be something to think about at the end of the month while I’m filling out the performance reports for our team.”

Jules froze. Had Penny really said what Jules thought she said? She turned around to look her boss in the eye.

“Are you threatening me, Penny?”

This was a dangerous conversation, and even Michelle had
an uncertain look in her eyes. But Jules was tired of Penny’s drama.

“No,” Penny said, with a look of mock sincerity. “Of course not. I just don’t want you to feel at the end of the month like you could have done more but you didn’t. Come on, Jules, you love working with the community, and it’s not like I’m skipping this to stay home. I’ll be working too. Can’t you just take this on this one time? It will only be for a few hours.”

Jules sighed knowing that since Penny had laid down the law, she really had no choice. She would have to fill in.

She dreaded the thought of having to lead out at one of the community board meetings. They were filled with angry residents who were tired of the hospital’s giving them sorry excuses for why they still had to wait hours for care, or why they couldn’t get the tests they wanted done when they wanted them. They didn’t care that funding to hospitals had been cut, or that the hospital wards and labs were understaffed. They just wanted it fixed. And they were rarely reasonable people.

“Fine,” Jules said in defeat.

“Excellent,” Penny said. “It’s at the John Innes Community Centre at seven. Don’t be late.”

Jules clenched her jaw and trudged her way back to her office. This was shaping up to be a very bad day.

She had barely sent the freshly approved newsletter down to the print shop for copying when she heard the main office door open and close, signaling Penny’s exit. Only moments later, Michelle was in Jules’s office scowling.

“I can’t believe you let her weasel you into that meeting,” Michelle said, obviously more upset about the whole thing than Jules had the energy to be. “Do you know what the engagement she has this evening is?” Michelle continued, tossing her jet black hair away from her creamy white skin.

Jules shook her head, knowing that Michelle was going to tell her anyway.

“Harry Douglas’s anniversary party. The invitation came in the mail two weeks ago, and she made me RSVP for her last week.”

Jules’s stomach fell, and she almost wished Michelle hadn’t told her what she did. Penny was missing the community consultation meeting to go to a lower level member of Parliament’s shindig? Didn’t she realize that the hospital was in the middle of a restructuring that would involve the whole community? Didn’t she realize that making sure the community was updated on the changes, and making sure they were a part of it, was more important than getting drunk with some politicians?

What’s more, Penny had known all week that she would be opting out of the meeting, but she waited until the day of the event to ask Jules to take her place?

Jules shook her head. The woman was unbelievable.

“Jules, I don’t know what that woman did to get this job, but she certainly didn’t earn it,” Michelle said, shaking her head.

Jules sighed. Generally she tried not to encourage Michelle’s gossip about Penny, but she couldn’t help but agree with her this time.

“Did she at least leave a copy of the progress report developed from the last consultation meeting?”

“Yeah, let me get it for you.”

A few minutes later Michelle returned with a slim red binder that she placed on Jules’s desk.

She shook her head as she stood at the door watching Jules flip through the document.

“I don’t know how you do it, Jules. If it was me, I’d just let it all spin out of control and watch her take the blame for it.”

Jules heard Michelle but said nothing. She knew Penny well enough to know that if she ever tried that, Penny would find a way to pin the blame for the fallout on Jules. Furthermore, the public relations department as a whole would get a beating because of it. And with all the instability in the hospital, Jules didn’t need anyone finding fault with her department or her. That was the way people lost their jobs, and she wasn’t ready to lose hers yet.

With her other job on the skids, that was the last thing she needed.

*  *  *

It was 3 a.m. Sunday morning when Jules finally stopped moving. She had been on her feet for the past eight hours making sure that everything at Truuth’s launch concert went as planned.

After cancelling the event at the Sound Lounge, she’d had to find a new location that would hold the crowd they expected at a price they could afford. She was almost at the point of hysterics when it occurred to her that they didn’t even need to have the launch inside. It was the end of summer. No one would mind an outside venue. In fact many people would probably prefer it.