Free Broken by Annie Jocoby Page A

persistent. He cornered me, and I found myself telling him I would start in two weeks.”                            
    “Wait. Is it an unpaid position?”
    “No. He said his firm would pay me $40,000 a year. So, that’s about what I make at the bar. I guess that means I can afford to quit the bar. Otherwise, I really couldn’t swing it without taking out even more student loans.”
    Jack let out a low whistle. “Well, then, there’s no question. You’re going to take that internship position, and that’s that.”
    “How am I going to have the strength?”
    “I don’t know, but you gotta find it. No way are you going to let this opportunity go. No way.”
    I nodded. “Thanks for always supporting me. You’ve always been there whenever I needed you. I don’t know what I would do without you, to be honest.”
    “Girl. You’d be ok, no matter what, because you are fierce. Fierce, I tell you.”
    I smiled. “Fierce and fabulous.” Although I felt anything but. Fake it until you make it.
    We clinked glasses.
    “So,” he said, “we need to go shopping. God knows you don’t have anything to wear to a place like that.”
    Oh, god. Clothes. “What am I going to do? I can’t afford a new wardrobe.”
    “That’s why god made the Salvation Army and rummage sales. Besides, with your body, you could wear a potato sack and show all them bitches up, aight,” he said, snapping his fingers in a z-pattern.
    I laughed.
    “Is it too late to get on What Not to Wear? ” I asked him.
    “Yeah. That show has ended.” Of course, Jack knew this better than anyone, since that was one of his favorite shows on TV.
    “Damn. I really could use $5,000 worth of clothes, a makeover, and a stylist.”
    “Well, that’s okay. I’ll be your own personal Clinton Kelly. Girl, this is going to be fun.”
    “Maybe I have some stuff to wear.”
    “Let’s go and look.”
    So, the two of us went in to look at the rather meager closet that housed both my clothes and his. All that was hung up there were his clothes, really. My clothes were pretty much in the chest of drawers, as all I really had were jeans, mini-skirts, sweaters, t-shirts and a few button-downs. “No,” I said. “No Versace suits in there. Now what?”
    “I told you. Let’s hit thrift stores in a fancy neighborhood and we’ll find you stuff in no time. What’s your budget?”
    “Not much if I want to eat this month at all. I mean, I’m not even sure when I’ll be getting paid at this place. They’re going to delay the check, you know. I still don’t know how I’m going to swing this.”
    “Girl, we’ll figure it out. We always do. We’ll buy lots of Ramen Noodles and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and it’s done. You’re going to take this job, you’re going to look as fierce as you are, and you’re going to be the best damn architectural designer in the world.”
    I gave him a big hug. “I need you, you know that? I would be so lost without you.”
    “Don’t ever forget it, love. When you become rich and famous, you can’t forget the little people, k?”
    “You’re not a little person. You’re my world.”
    He hugged me and tousled my hair a little.
    “Um, Jack?”
    “Yes, love?”
    “Can we sleep together tonight?” Jack and I, from time to time, slept together in the bed. Platonically, of course. Sometimes we just needed security, and to have someone there next to us. Sleeping in the bed together was how we managed that.
    So, we ended up sleeping together that night, platonically, but I clung to him like one of my stuffed animals that I had for security when I was growing up. I was feeling like I was about to be rudderless, like a sailboat that was let loose without a person guiding it. Riding the violent waves, and getting further from shore.
    To say that I was scared to death would be understating it.
     

Chapter 12
    Scotty – Two Weeks Later
    “So, how do I look?” I asked Jack. My long brown hair was piled on