30. No Way Out

Johanna

J o rounded the corner and glanced in the conference room. It felt like Ali had been avoiding her the past two days. But she hoped it was merely her imagination. She, herself, felt extremely awkward at the restaurant and it was most likely related to that. She didn’t want them going out to cause tension for Ali. She also questioned if maybe they should slow things down between them. If it wasn’t for her dying urgency whenever she was around Ali, it would have been an easier choice.

She approached the nurse’s station, where May was finishing up at the computer. “Ready for lunch?”

“Yeah, just looking for Ali to see if she’s available to go.”

May dropped her gaze. “Alrighty then.” She then stood up and shrugged. “I’m heading. I’ll meet you down in the cafeteria.”

“Okay, I’ll be down in a bit.” That was strange, but Jo tried to shrug it off and went to the supply closet. The door was ajar, so she peeked her head in and found Ali just leaning back against one of the shelving units. Her eyes drawn to her phone. “Hey, there you are.”

Ali looked up, startled, and slipped her phone back into her pocket. “Here I am,” she said.

“Well, we were getting ready to go to lunch and wanted to see if you would be able to join us?”

“Actually, I’m swamped. Have to grab some things in here, prep an OR and doubt I’ll get much time to eat anything. Maybe a banana or something later.” Ali shrugged, nonchalantly. “But you both enjoy!” She turned before Jo could even respond and that caused Jo to frown.

“Okay, don’t work too hard,” she said. She left the supply closet and went to the elevator. The elevator seemed to take its time as she waited for it to reach the floor. As she did, she spotted Julia headed her way. “Hi Julia.”

“Hey, Johanna. Mind if I take this elevator with you?”

Jo shook her head, but she noticed how her chest clenched. It was going to be another awkward situation and how she handled it, could either help or hinder a situation. They stepped onto the elevator and Jo pushed for the floor to the cafeteria, then looked over to Julia.

“Same,” she said. Jo stepped back and the doors closed. “Ali is getting so close to her promotion,” Julia continued.

Jo jerked her attention to Julia. “Oh yeah?” Jo asked. “She’s up for a promotion?”

Julia tilted her head. There was a slight gleeful look in her expression as her eyes seemed to smile. “You hadn’t heard?” Jo went along with it and shook her head. “Nurse educator. It would be a huge change for it, but she’s ready and she is so deserving. I just hope it all works out for her. ”

“That’d be great,” Jo softly commented. She leaned back against the wall. “She’s taught us well and I think she would be the perfect choice.”

“You and I agree,” Julia replied. The doors opened and Julia was the first one to step off, before turning and looking back at Jo. “This position is a support position for the hospital. That means she can’t do anything that will jeopardize her career. She is deserving. I just hope she understands how much has truly gone in to making sure the right person gets the job. I don’t want her to take that lightly.” Julia sighed. “Have a great lunch, Johanna.” She turned and walked away.

Jo stayed in the elevator a little longer, until the door nearly closed her in. She stuck her foot out and stepped out of the enclosure and hurried to the cafeteria. Julia’s tone was almost threatening. She shook it off and glanced around to find May. She caught her at a table, alone. She grabbed her food, paid, and went over to join her.

“I just had the craziest encounter.” Jo sat down across from her, and May looked up and then glanced to the spot beside Jo.

“Where’s Ali?”

She couldn’t make it. Busy and all.” Jo shrugged, pretending it didn’t bother her. She opened up her salad but noticed that May’s fruit cup and water seemed untouched. “What’s wrong?” Jo asked.

“Nothing,” May replied. “But rather, is everything alright with you?”

Jo shrugged. “Maverick is doing well, responding to treatment. For that, I’m grateful.

“That’s good news.” May opened her cup and spooned around the area. She sighed. “I was referring to you and Ali, though. Everything good there?”

Jo nodded. “As good as it can be. We have to be secretive and that’s a struggle, but only for now. You know she’s up for this big promotion, and I don’t want anything to stop her from obtaining that.” She took a bite of her salad and thought for a moment. “I had the craziest elevator ride with Julia. You know how I said we ran into her at the restaurant, right?” May nodded, then took her gaze down to her cup. “Well, she mentioned to me about the promotion, and I played it off and acted like I knew nothing about it. I think she believed that. But then she started to get all, I don’t know…” Jo couldn’t even describe the word for it. But something was off the moment that Julia started to walk away.

“I overheard a conversation,” May started. “I don’t want you to freak out or overreact, but it seemed pretty important. I heard Julia and Ali talking, and Julia asked if there was inappropriate behavior between you and Ali. Probably because she saw you two together. Ali denied it and all, but Julia said if there’s any truth to it that she would have to take Ali out of the running for the promotion because it would look bad and all.” May sighed. “I don’t know, some of it was probably lost in the translation, but I am confident that Julia was warning Ali.”

Jo stared at her. That would all make sense and coincide with how she felt about her interaction with Julia, but she heard nothing about this from Ali. “When was this?”

“Saturday morning!”

Jo stared down at her food, determined to get to the bottom of it. She didn’t want to make a scene in front of everyone in the hospital, so she kept it all bottled up and went back to work and pretended that nothing was wrong. However, that night instead of taking the train to her apartment, she got off near Ali’s house. She made the couple block walk and approached her door with caution. She had been practicing the rest of the day on what she was going to say to her. But when Ali opened the door, all those words went rushing out of her head.

“Jo. This is a surprise. What are you doing here?”

Jo tapped her foot and looked off past her, her mind in a whirlwind. “We need to talk.”

Ali stepped back for her to enter, but Jo stayed on the front porch. “Why’d you do it Ali?”

Ali opened her mouth, then frowned. “Do what?”

“You lied to me. Why? Do you think you were doing me some massive favor?”

Ali sighed. “When did I lie to you?”

Jo stared. Sure, it was more of an omission than a lie, but why couldn’t Ali understand where she was going with this? They had been in sync for their relationship but now it was as if they were mere drifters.

“I heard what Julia said. She questioned it and asked if we were in a relationship. Us being together, could hinder you getting this job. Isn’t that true?”

Ali sighed and stepped back. “Jo,” she began. “We discussed that and that’s why we’re keeping things hush hush.” She shrugged. “I’m not going to worry about that, though, and you don’t have to, either.”

Jo felt the tears springing to her eyes. That was all she needed to hear. What May said wasn’t wrong and if that was the case, then she had no other choice.” She looked away as the tears slowly crept down her cheeks.

“Jo, don’t cry,” Ali started.

Jo quickly shook her head. She backed up from Ali, while Ali took a step closer. “This would never work.”

“Jo!” Ali reached out and touched her arm, but Jo quickly withdrew her arm from Ali’s grasp and looked up to meet her gaze .

“I can’t be the reason you don’t get the job. I just can’t. If us being together is going to cause you to miss out on this opportunity, then I say we end it now.” She stepped back, reaching out for the banister as she nearly tumbled backward down the steps.

“You can’t be serious.” Ali threw out her hands. “We said we loved each other. And for this reason alone, you’re throwing it all away.”

Jo took a deep breath. “You mean too much to me, Ali. That’s why I have no other choice. I don’t want you to waste this opportunity, and if being with me causes you to lose that, then it’s not worth it.”

“Jo, listen to me, it’s not like that. Please don’t run off like this. We can discuss this.” Ali ran out onto the porch, but Jo was already down and headed away from her. “Jo!” She called out. Jo picked up the speed to gain some distance, her chest caving in at every breath she attempted to take.

She didn’t know how exactly she got home because her head was swirling with everything that had happened. But she walked into the apartment and nearly collapsed next to Maverick. He looked up at her and started licking the tears off her nose.

“I’ll always have you, boy,” she whispered. Even if she had to lose Ali.