Chapter 5

The following day, I went back to Vivian’s office. I waited anxiously for her to come in. Ten minutes later, she did.

“Oh, hello, dear,” she said cheerfully. “I’m sorry I was a bit late. I had to do something.”

“That’s OK,” I said as casually as I could. Actually, I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown whether I got the job or not. Vivian looked at me.

“You got the job,” she said with a smile. I just sat there for a moment, shocked.

“Really?” I squeaked, sounding stupid. She nodded. I wanted to scream and do a victory dance right then and there, but, I couldn’t do that in front of Vivian. I had to act like a sensible twenty-one-year-old. I got up and kept my composure. “Thank you,” I said, shaking her hand.

“Don’t mention it. Mr. McMahon was impressed with your credentials and he’s confident in your ability,” she remarked.

“When can I start?”

“Well, you’d have to go through at least a week or two of field training to familiarize yourself with the surroundings,” Vivian answered, “so, if you want to start right away, you can do that next week. By then, we’ll be in Minneapolis. We’ll only be here for four days,” she explained. I nodded.

“Great,” I said, not being able to keep my excitement any longer as I bid farewell to her and made a mad dash to the mostly empty car park. “I got the job! Yeah, baby!” I hollered at the top of my lungs. I couldn’t wait to tell Liz the good news! After I calmed down, I took a bus home and phoned Liz about it. She was ecstatic.

“Congrats!” she exclaimed. “Let’s celebrate!”

“Just what I had in mind!” I told her.

So later that night, we went out to another club downtown and partied to our hearts’ content. I danced for about twenty minutes with different people. Afterwards, I took a seat at our table.

“I take it you’re puffed out!” Elizabeth shouted over the loud music.

“Yeah!” I replied, sipping on a diet soda. “But I’ll get back there when I’m refilled!” We burst out laughing. About fifteen minutes later, a shadow hovered above us as we were talking.

“Hey,” the voice said loudly. We looked up.

“J-Jeff!” I shouted. “Is that you?”

“Yeah! I didn’t know you go here!” he replied. He glanced over at Liz. She gave me an aren’t-you-going-to-introduce-me-to-Jeff-Hardy look. “Jeff, this is Liz. Liz, Jeff,” I said loudly.

“Nice to meet you,” he said, shaking her hand.

“Likewise!” she replied. She gave me a questioning look why Jeff and I seem to know each other. I gave her an I’ll-explain-everything-later look.

Jeff leaned over a little closer so I could hear him. “If you’re not busted, would you like to dance with me?” he asked. I was feeling the spirit of partying that I couldn’t refuse.

“Yes, sure,” I said, and gave a smug smile to Liz’s surprise as he led me to the dance floor. We danced and danced to about three party tunes. We heard the opening chords of a slow song next. We stopped dancing and just stood there as couples paired off to dance. I wasn’t sure whether I should dance with him.

“You wanna dance to this?” he asked softly.

“Um, I don’t know,” I replied uncertainly. I glanced over at Liz, who gave me a what-are-you-waiting-for look.

“Come on, dancing is a just a conversation between two people. Talk to me,” he said, taking my hand and slowly pulling me to him. Of course, for some reason, I didn’t object. He wrapped his arms around my waist as I wrapped mine around his neck. We casually talked about anything we can think of. Then he remembered to ask my name.

“Ann,” I replied.

“Well, Ann, it’s silly of me to have forgotten to tell you how great you look,” he said sincerely.

“Thanks,” I replied as I felt my cheeks turn pink with warmth. But thank goodness he couldn’t see it since the club was pretty dim. “You don’t look too bad yourself,” I managed to add. Finally, the slow song was over. I pulled away from him gently. I felt suddenly awkward with him.

Later, I got back home and told Liz everything. She listened in amazed silence.

“You’re kidding, right?” she asked.

“Nope. It’s true,” I replied. “I’m serious. It’s like, everytime I’m almost in trouble, he’s always there,” I said.

“Maybe you two are destined to be, you know, together,” she suggested. I threw a pillow at her.

“In your dreams,” I told her. “It’s not like we’re gonna fall in love, get married and have a family. Besides, he’s like a big brother to me,” I countered.

“Girlfriend, you must be from another planet!” my Liz exclaimed. “You actually regard that red-hot sex bomb they call Jeff Hardy as nothing else but…a brother?” She stared at me incredulously.

“Guess I just don’t have excessive hormones working overtime, unlike majority of the female species,” I said, with a grin. “You want advice on controlling it, give me a call.”

Chapter 6
Chapter 4