The Freelancer – Chapter 9
Jenna sat in front of her computer, staring into the empty screen. Another day come and gone and she had nothing to show for it. The problem wasn’t that she was out of ideas; it was that she had too many swimming in her head. Her deadline was a few weeks away and she didn’t even have a title yet.
Where was Trista when she needed her? She was always good at helping her focus, except when she was distracting her. Jenna could use her for either one of those right now. It didn’t matter which.
It was no use. She gave up and shut off the computer. When Jenna went into the kitchen for a drink, she was shocked to find it was already past five o’clock. While she knew she’d been staring at the blinking cursor on the screen for quite a while; she hadn’t imagined it was almost eight hours.
“Take out it is,” Jenna muttered to herself as she thought of the frozen package of chicken she’d neglected to remove from the freezer.
“Jen! Jenna, where are you!”
“Kitchen, Trist,” Jenna called to the direction of the slamming door.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Trista looked out of breath.
“I was trying to decide between pizza and Chinese food. I lost track of time and forgot to…”
“That’s great, but stop talking for a sec,” Trista cut in, doubling over while trying to catch her breath. “I can’t believe that you look like that.”
“Excuse me?”
“You have no idea what’s going on outside, do you?”
“Someone sprinkled you with crazy dust?”
“Cute, Jen, real cute. Do you remember the new tenant I told you about?”
“It was just yesterday. What about him?”
“He moved in today, he’s fully hot, and you have no idea what I’m talking about. I can’t believe that you were so lost in your writing that you didn’t hear a hottie moving in across the hall. You should have offered him a glass of iced tea by now. I mean, really, it is a scorcher out there.”
“What do you want me to do about it now? Should I go over there, iced tea in hand, and offer to help him unpack?”
“I know you’re kidding, but that would be really good if he was home.”
“If he isn’t even there right now, what are you griping at me for?”
“He’s in my living room.”
“What!”
Trista shrugged. “I thought it would be nice to get to know my new upstairs neighbor.”
“What about Blaine?” Jenna couldn’t hide her shock.
“For the sake of our friendship, I’m going to pretend that I don’t know what you mean by that. I want you to come over and meet this guy. His name is Jackson.”
“I thought you said you weren’t going to set me up with some random guy off the street. You know that I’m not ready for this sort of thing.”
“What’s not to be ready for? Look, all you have to do is come over and have a drink with us. Just be hospitable for a while and you can come back over here and be a hermit again afterwards. Deal?”
Jenna rubbed her face with her hands. She knew that Trista wasn’t going to let this thing go until she gave in and went over there. Maybe when she saw how uncomfortable with all of this Jenna was she would back down.
“Deal,” Jenna reluctantly answered. “Let me wash my face and I’ll be right over.”
“Good idea. You won’t regret this.” Trista turned to leave, but stopped short at the door. “While you’re at it, Jen, why don’t you put on a little mascara and one of those cute sundresses?”
Trista left before Jenna could answer.
Jenna stood staring at the door in silence for a moment after Trista left. Finally, she walked into her room and opened the top middle drawer of the dresser. She removed a 3×5 snapshot.
“Dammit Tony, I don’t know if I can do this.” Shaking her head, “The plan never should have changed.”
