It's all in a nod

June 2003


Shelly- we need to talk!

Me- can it wait til tomorrow,  lil busy

 I didn't wait for her to respond I flipped my phone shut and hid it in the junk drawer. Slamming it shut, I told myself not to let her drama mess up my night.

Shelly was quickly forgotten as I sat down to dinner with Jacob. We chatted some before he got up to help me with dishes, he washed I dried. Somehow we got on the topic of movies. Sometime after the tenth movie quote I called him out.

"What's with guys and quoting movies?  You see a movie once and all of a sudden you have it memorized! "

"Yeah its in the guy handbook,  we get it during sex ed, remember when they split the guys and girls up?  Lot of great stuff in it, no talking at the urinal, never wear whitey tighty's, never date a friend's girl, there's also a whole language in head nodding."

"What do you mean language in a head nod?" I laughed as I handed him the last dish.

"You know, raise your head to acknowledge another dude or say hi, head down says thanks or is a way to show respect." His mouth curved upward before he tilted his head to the side and nodded upward.

"What's that one mean?" I asked even though I think I got that one.

He wrapped his hands around my waist and pulled me toward him.

"It means, come here." He whispered in my ear sending shivers up my spine. I felt his warm breath move over my neck while he slowly placed gentle kisses on my sensitive skin. I pulled back grabbing his head and bringing his mouth to mine. We stayed that way, heavily making out before he finally pulled away.

"As much as I'd love to do this all night I have to be at work by 7 and I don't have my work clothes." He reluctantly let go of my waist and ran a hand through his dark blonde locks. I stuck my lower lip out before walking him to the door.

"Goodnight Jacob," I lifted up on my tiptoes to get one last kiss. He backed out of the doorway smiling with a little wave.  Once he was out of sight I shut the door and went to retrieve my phone. I sighed when I saw I had two missed calls and five texts, all from Shelly. I opened the texts first before I decided if I should call back.

Shelly- answer jules! I won't be at work tomorrow

Shelly- I was fired!

Shelly- did don say anything to u? U were in his office for a long time!

Shelly- your silence says it all

Shelly- sorry, I'm just upset, call me!

I snickered at the last two, how dare she try to say I had anything to do with it. Whether it's the truth or not she's the one who made her bed when she started lying. Ugh I was regretting ignoring the situation all night and not talking to Jacob about this. Not that he wanted to hear about my work drama but I wanted to talk to someone. I was heated and a part of me just wanted to call and chew her out. Another part wanted to salvage some sort of friendship, maybe if I talked to her she would fess up and be sorry?  I looked at the time on my phone 11:30, too late to call and too late to go to Vicky's. This was just going to have to wait until tomorrow.  I wasn't tired so I stayed up for another hour watching tv. When I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer I got ready for bed. I couldn't help myself I checked my phone again.  This time I had two messages, neither from Shelly.

Jacob - tonight was nice, wish I was falling asleep next to you, goodnight Jujie

This made me smile. Before responding I opened the other.

Cal- hey beautiful how about that dinner you owe me,  Wed good?

I frowned at this one, I didn't know how I felt about Cal anymore and I wasn't sure if going to dinner with him was a good idea. Curiosity won out and I agreed to meet him at a pub nearby Wednesday night.  Putting my phone away I finally drifted off to sleep.


The next morning I overslept and had about 10 minutes to shower and stuff a brown sugar pop tart in my mouth before speeding off to work. I pulled up just in time.  Patrick, Karen and surprisingly Don's cars were already parked out back. I had somehow forgotten about Shelly's text last night until I didn't see her car, bringing it all back to memory.

In order to get to my desk I had to walk past Don's office. Hurrying by I almost made it until I heard my name called out. Backing up I ducked my head in and greeted him with a smile. I was met with a curt hello but no smile. He asked me to step in for a moment. I swolled before stepping in slowly.

"I talked to Shelly yesterday,  she denied everything.  Said she was only giving them the usual life discount. When I brought up the differences in premium not matching what the clients were telling me she continued to deny she did anything.  It wasn't until I went into the severity of this, she could loose her license and of course her job, that she broke down." He paused then and looked up at me.

"She confessed?" I was crossing my fingers hoping it was finally out in the open.

"She did, apparently she was showing the client a quote with high mileage and higher driver level, then she would show them the real quote and say the difference was the life policy. "

"I wasn't sure exactly how she was doing it but that makes sense as to how we couldn't get any numbers to match."

"Yes, well I did let her go last night after our talk. I'm not telling you who to be friends with but I will let you know she told me Patrick and you both knew about it for a while and never told her to stop. In fact her exact words were, 'Jules was even thinking about doing it too'. "

"Don, that's completely a lie, I would never..." I began defending myself before he interrupted me.

"It's OK Juliette I know. I am working with corporate on the proper procedure for this issue. In the mean time let's get back to work, I'll call you in sometime this week to begin training. Thank you." With a nod he excused me, I guess Jacob was right, guys can say a lot with a nod.

I got back to my desk and was instantly confronted by Patrick.

"Shelly was terminated yesterday!"

"Yes, I just found out." I was going to be as vague as I could with him. He's slept with her and I don't know how loyal he may feel toward her.

"I can't believe she was lying like that to get a sale. And to think I actually had a relationship with her. " He shook his head and rolled his eyes. As much as I wanted to shoo him away, he perked my interest.

"Relationship? "

"Yeah,  sorta, we hook up occasionally. Mostly just sex but it has been going on for a year almost. I think she wants to make it official but she can't shake Gavin."

"You are still sleeping together!" I smacked my hand against my mouth when I realized how loud I was getting.

"Well yeah, once you've had Patrick you can never give him up." He smirked and winked before he headed back to his desk. Ugh my stomach churned. What the hell, some friend Shelly is, or should I say, was. I pushed all thoughts of her away before distracting myself with work. By five I was ready to run out of there.

Opening the door I was ecstatic to see Alicia sitting on the couch flipping through a magazine.  I plopped down beside her and spit out everything,  including the conversation with Patrick.

"She's cheating on Gavin! What a skank, Jules I don't know how we missed this. I thought she was so down to earth and sweet." Alicia looked at me shaking her head.

"I know, it's one thing she was lying it's another she tried to throw me under the bus. "  we chatted a while longer about it before I brought up tomorrow's dinner with Cal.

"Like a date?" She looked at me skeptically.

"No,  I Mean I don't think so. I don't know, I don't think I want to get back together.  Especially with how great I feel around Jacob. But...it's Cal." I really didn't know how I felt about Cal anymore.

"Well, I like Jacob better but it's your choice. You aren't technically with Jacob so there's nothing wrong with going to dinner.  Just go and find out what he wants, maybe he just misses your friendship? "

Yeah, I guess. He does remind me of home and I guess I've been missing that a little lately." It's been a year since I moved here and even though I had no desire to go back I did miss some of the familiarity.

"Speaking of home, Dean's family is throwing him a huge graduation party at their house. I've met them before but only his parents and sister,  you have to come with me. I'm nervous, I know his sister doesn't like me, what if the rest of the family doesn't either?" She grabbed my hand and gave me a pleading look.

"Of course I'll go, and relax they'll love you," I threw her hand off me and got up to find something for dinner.

"When is it?" I called out while sticking my head in the fridge.

"Saturday,  it's near LA." Wasn't too excited about going to LA but I've heard the house Dean grew up in was pretty amazing and I've been wanting to see it.

"Hungry? I didn't see anything and suddenly have a craving for Thai." I smiled knowing she would never pass it up. We ordered take out and spent the rest of the night watching TV and catching up. I know it sucked to have such a crappy friend in Shelly but I knew I'd always have Alie.





Quick note: next post will be about Wednesday's dinner. Then I was thinking about doing another Alicia POV for Dean's graduation, or would you rather just hear about it from Juliette's POV?