Saltwater Secrets - Amelia Addler Page 0,67
certainly wasn’t a bad thing. He was sincere.
“That’s really nice to hear,” Jade said.
Despite the ongoing conversation at the table, Jade kept getting distracted by her own thoughts. She told herself to stop daydreaming about Matthew, but then she would end up thinking about the vote, and that made her nauseous.
She’d try to force herself to focus on the conversation everyone was having, but since she hadn’t been listening, she didn’t know what they were talking about.
It was a relief when it was time to clear the table. Jade insisted on manning the kitchen: rinsing the dishes for the dishwasher, packing the leftovers, and hand washing the larger bowls and pans. It gave her something to focus on, and maybe Matthew might come help and tell her whatever it was that he wanted to tell her?
But as soon as she carried her first load of dishes into the kitchen, her hopes in regards to Matthew were dashed. Morgan had the idea to roast marshmallows on the back patio, and Matthew was pulled into helping build the fire.
Meanwhile, Tiffany volunteered to be her partner in drying. Jade enjoyed the company, though she worried that she might never get a chance to talk to Matthew alone.
Everyone was busy trying to make a fire and s’mores station outside; Jade could hear their laughter carrying into the house. Once Tiffany and Jade carried in all of the dishes and were alone in the kitchen, Tiffany cleared her throat and said, “So I chickened out.”
Jade turned towards her. “What do you mean?”
“I was planning to talk to everyone at dinner about something.”
“What’s wrong?”
Tiffany shook her head. “Well – nothing really. I wanted to ask if it would be okay for me to stay with you for a few more weeks…or months.”
“Wow!” Jade handed her a large bowl to dry. “I mean – of course it’s okay! But is everything going to be okay for you? Like with your job?”
Tiffany threw the dish towel over her shoulder. “That’s what I wanted to talk to everyone about. I actually kind of…quit my job.”
“Oh my gosh Tiffany! What happened?”
She sighed. “It’s a long story.”
“You love your job! Was it because you didn’t get that promotion that you wanted?”
Tiffany shook her head. “No, I got it. Me and my friend Malcolm were both promoted.”
“Did you just not like your job after that?”
“No, it wasn’t that. It wasn’t all that different, really. I mean, I got a raise, which was nice I guess. But I was working all the time. Not that that was any different.”
“Did something happen at work?”
“Kind of. It was Malcolm – he got sick.”
“Oh no!”
Tiffany nodded. “He was diagnosed with kidney cancer a few months ago. It was really aggressive.”
Jade covered her mouth with her hands. “I’m so sorry Tiffany. That’s awful.”
“Malcolm and I – we started around the same time and we were always competing with each other. You know, in a fun way. We helped each other out, too. We both spent all of our time working – because the job was what mattered most. They made you feel that way.”
Jade nodded. She’d never had a job like that herself, but Tiffany seemed to love it. She never had time for anything else.
Tiffany continued. “When he got sick, it was like…none of his hard work mattered. He ran out of paid time off really quickly, so he had to take unpaid time to be able to go to chemo and stuff. And then they fired him.”
“Is that legal?”
Tiffany shrugged. “I don’t know, probably not. But he was so embarrassed that he wasn’t able to come to work that he didn’t really fight it. He had no one to help him – no one to take him to his appointments, no one to even help him get groceries. He had to get chemotherapy by himself – I mean, I took some time off to go with him as much as I could, just because it was so…”
Tiffany looked like she was about to cry, and Jade felt the tears coming to her eyes too.
“Tiffany I’m so sorry. That sounds terrible.”
Tiffany took a deep breath. “And he…well, he passed away. And everything at work went on like nothing had happened. It was like he’d given his entire life to the company and…”
A sob escaped from Tiffany and Jade rushed to her side. She was able to grab a paper towel to offer – it wasn’t as soft as a tissue, but it was the closest thing