Olivia laughed and followed her down the steps into the station.
Chapter 31
It was a little after eight on Thursday evening when Jenny’s phone rang, and warmth spread through her when she saw the name in the caller display. “Adrienne! How are you? How is Morgan? How was Christmas in California?”
“Hi, Jenny. We’re both very well, thank you. And Christmas in California was odd. Not having to trudge through icy streets in eighteen layers of clothing felt very wrong.”
Jenny laughed and snuggled back into the couch. She had the apartment to herself for the evening—surprise, surprise, Carl was at Solomon’s again.
“But I am not complaining. Life here is wonderful.” Adrienne’s voice dropped in tone, and the emotion it carried was palpable.
“Aw, that’s so good to hear!”
“So, how are you?”
“I’m good.” Jenny paused. “Well, work isn’t so great and went off the charts for a while, but outside of work is kind of nice right now. Although the two are connected, so that’s a little bizarre to deal with.”
“I have no idea what any of that meant.”
Jenny could picture Adrienne shaking her head. “Yeah, sorry. I’m in Happy-Romance Land, so my brain has, of course, forgotten how to function.”
“Romance?” Adrienne sounded excited. “Tell me!”
“Uh, yeah, this is where it gets funky.” Jenny took a deep breath. “Remember the woman I told you about from C&V? Olivia, the icy, British woman?”
“Yes?” Adrienne drew the word out.
“Yeah.” Jenny hesitated. “It turns out she’s not that icy.”
There was a moment of silence. “Are you pulling my leg right now?”
Jenny snorted. “No, but I can see why you’d think that.”
“Start at the beginning.”
Jenny snuggled back into the couch and spilled it all—Olivia, the project, Chrissy, Derek. But not Olivia’s fake marriage situation—Olivia hadn’t yet given her the go-ahead, and Jenny would respect that.
“Good God, I don’t even know where to start with what you’ve just told me. Actually, that’s not true. Firstly, I’m very happy for you. Olivia sounds lovely, and what you’ve started together has so much promise. I’m delighted.”
“Aw, thanks.”
“And I’m also ridiculously proud of you for dealing with the situation with Chrissy and Derek the way you did. At the risk of sounding patronizing, you’ve grown so much in the last couple of years. It’s wonderful to witness.”
“Thanks.” Jenny glowed with the praise. “That means a lot, coming from you.”
“But I do have one question.” Adrienne’s tone turned even more serious. “Are you sure you want this job at C&V? Because it doesn’t sound like it’s firing you up. You could just quit and find something else. You now know lots of people in the business you could reach out to.”
Jenny chewed on her bottom lip while she considered Adrienne’s words. Was it an option? To just say, “To hell with this, I’m out of here”? Go off and do something new? But if she did, that would mean more upheaval, more change, and she’d barely gotten settled from the C&V takeover of TC Productions.
“Jenny? Are you still there?”
“Sorry, yes.” She ran a hand through her hair. “You’re right. What I do for C&V doesn’t exactly have me leaping out of bed every day. But it’s still what I know and what I’m good at, and maybe it’ll get better the longer I stay there.”
“Or maybe it won’t.” Adrienne’s voice was gentler. “Jenny, you are good at what you do, but you can also do so much more. That idea you had for the Christmas show was brilliant. And you know I loved what you did with the last project we worked on together. You are full of ideas and I think they’re wasted on a PA role. Don’t you want to push for something bigger? Something where you can really fly?”
“It’s all a bit daunting,” Jenny managed to whisper. Her stomach churned.
“I understand. I do. But I genuinely think you have so much more to offer and could get so much more satisfaction if you took a chance on being a little bolder. You did it with the Chrissy debacle, and with giving Olivia a chance to prove herself to you. Why not take that new, braver Jenny out into the job world, and see how far she can go?”
Adrienne’s words made Jenny equal parts excited and scared. I have been braver these past few months, that’s true. But keeping her head down, sticking with the job she knew, was so safe. Steady. Reliable.
Boring.
“If you want me to ask around, see if anyone has anything that—”
“No!” Jenny practically shouted the word. “Sorry. I mean, thank you, for the offer, and everything, but I think I need to think about this. Work out what I want to do.”
“Of course. I’m sorry if I pushed too hard.”
“You didn’t. But I do appreciate what you said. And why. It’s just…hard.”
“It is. Anything new is always a challenge. The trick is to own it and not let it own you. When you can do that, you can do anything you set your mind on.”
Not for the first time in the last six or seven years, Jenny wondered if Adrienne would be willing to adopt her. God knew she’d never gotten such good advice from her actual mother. “Thanks, Adrienne.” Her voice croaked. “I… Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome.” Adrienne’s voice was also a little husky. “Any time.”
Olivia watched as Jenny and Maxwell finished their lunch break with a quick game of desk basketball. Once again, Jenny ran out the winner.
Maxwell shook his head as Jenny danced a victory jig around the desks. “I hate it when she does that.”
“She is rather insufferable, yes.” Olivia winked at him and he laughed.
“Hey!” Jenny stood with her hands on her hips and glared at the pair of them.
Olivia, her libido racing into
