Anita didn't get a chance to answer Josie's plaintive question. Just as Anita opened her mouth to comfort Josie, Angela burst into the office, the force of her anger causing the door to fly open and slam against the wall. "What the hell was that, Josie?" she shouted, clearly not caring at that moment that Josie was her superior.
Now she decides to call me Josie, Josie thought ruefully. "I'm sorry, Angela," Josie began, "I didn't know..."
"The hell you didn't!" Angela interrupted angrily. "Rigfort said you recommended to him that I be taken off Ask Elizabeth and used as a reporter instead."
Josie closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out in a rush. "Okay, I admit that's true," she said. "But I didn't know he would do it so soon…or that it would be an undercover feature, I swear. I would never have suggested that, believe me…I've been there."
"That's not the point, Josie! Undercover feature or not, I sat right there," Angela jabbed her finger in the direction of the striped chair, "and told you point blank that I did not want to be a reporter. After all, it is my life and I think I have the right to make that decision! How dare you go behind my back on this!?"
Josie closed her eyes for a moment, rubbing her temples and praying that Angela would somehow disappear. After all, this assignment was not exactly the ideal situation for Josie either. But she doubted that Angela would be sympathetic to this fact.
Hoping against hope, Josie opened her eyes. Angela was still standing in front of her, fuming, with her arms crossed, waiting for an answer. Josie sighed and tried a different approach. "Angela, don't you understand that there are tons of people who would kill to be in your position right now…getting a shot at their first piece in a major newspaper?"
Angela frowned, as if she were considering this statement. 'Maybe she'll see how lucky she is and how right I am,' Josie thought hopefully.
"Fine. If there are so many people dying to be in my position, then recommend one of them to Rigfort!" Angela demanded.
'Okay, then again, maybe not,' Josie thought. How could she make this girl understand?
"I didn't recommend any of them because they don't have your talent at making words come to life. You have a real gift, Angela," Josie said earnestly. Her mind instantly connected the words she was saying to Angela with the words she had once heard Sam say to her. God, she could still hear his voice saying it, telling her how much he believed in her and her talent…she could almost see the sparkle of love in his eyes, his hand holding hers on that bench in the South Glen South courtyard all those years ago…
Angela sharp voice cut through Josie's reverie. "Don't try to butter me up, Josie. It's not going to work."
Josie shook her head a little to force the image of Sam to the back of her mind again. "I'm not! I am being completely honest with you, Angela. Your pieces have the ability to hold a reader's attention like no other stories I've read. I am sorry that I went behind your back, but I could not, in good conscience, stand idly by and let you waste your talent on an advice column. Which," Josie said, holding up her hand to silence Angela when she saw her open her mouth, "is very important, but not the best place for a great writer such as yourself to exercise her talent."
Josie snuck a look at Anita, who was standing off to the side assessing her performance with a rather impressed expression on her face.
Angela's angry façade dropped as she slumped dejectedly into the striped chair. "You don't understand!" she exclaimed, almost pleading with Josie. "I can't go back to college. Do you have any idea how bad it was for me the first time?"
Josie rounded the desk and sat on the corner of it across from Angela. 'Another habit I picked up from Sam,' Josie thought for a moment before turning her attention to the forlorn Angela. "I know exactly how you feel," she said.
Angela shot Josie a doubtful look.
"Trust me," Josie insisted. "Five years ago, when I got my first shot at reporting, my inaugural story was an undercover piece at a local high school. And, believe me, there is no way your college experience could be worse than my first high school run. I was a complete joke!" Josie exclaimed. "Everyone, including my own brother, called me 'Josie Grossie.'"
Angela shifted in her seat uncomfortably and countered, "Yeah? Well, at least you had people who cared enough to give you a nickname," she said dryly. "Everyone at my school pretended I didn't exist. I was a non-entity."
Josie's heart sank. She really empathized with Angela, who looked so small and vulnerable in the chair. Trying to give Angela a positive spin on the assignment, Josie said gently, "Well, you edited the school paper. Things couldn't really have been that bad, could they?"
Angela's eyes widened, angry once again. She leapt off the chair and spit out, "You have no clue how things were for me, Josie!" before spinning on her heel and storming out of the office.
Josie flinched as if she'd been slapped and her shoulders slumped. Anita walked over and sat next to her on the desk.
"She's right, Anita…I shouldn't have gone behind her back," Josie said to her friend sorrowfully.
"You did that girl a favor, Josie!" Anita enthused, trying to be supportive. "In a few days she'll be thanking you for this opportunity."
Josie shook her head in denial and rose from her chair. "I have to talk with Rigfort. If not for Angela's sake, at least for mine. There's no way I could deal with Sam and his school and that's exactly what I would have to do…"
Anita cocked her head. "Speaking of Sam…When was the last time you spoke to him?"
Josie knew exactly how long he'd been gone, even to the hour, but she wanted to appear nonchalant, is if it didn't bother her. "I don't know. Umm…A year ago?"
"A year!?" Anita exclaimed.
Josie's fingers itched to remove his framed picture from the bottom drawer to stare once again at his beautiful hazel-green eyes and his sexy smile, but didn't want to give away to Anita that she still had his picture. "The last time we spoke was when he told me he got the position at Fowler."
Anita sighed, saddened for her friend and angry at Sam Coulson for making Josie feel this way. "I really wish you two could have worked things out."
Josie's words were out before she even realized them. "So do I, Anita. So do I."
* * *