Free White Jacket Required by Jenna Weber Page B

smiled. “It was a good night. Busy, but everyone seemed happy, and the Greens seemed to have a wonderful time.”
    â€œGood,” Tony said. “Thanks for all your hard work tonight. I know your schedule is tight right now, but thanks for being here. You can go.” He turned his back and then returned to laughing with his son, leaving me standing there with my mouth wide open.
    A compliment from Tony? That had surely never happened before. After his hard words earlier in the night, I was convinced that he hated me. Now, the simplest of compliments completely made my night, and I smiled broadly while I walked back through the restaurant, out the door, and to my car. When I got back to the apartment, Helen was heating up some chicken soup in the microwave.
    â€œHey, stranger!” she said. We really hadn’t seen much of each other lately, with my busy school and work schedule and her odd hours. She had dark circles around her eyes and looked like she had lost a little bit of weight off of her already very slender frame. I set my bag down on the counter and pulled up a bar stool.
    â€œHow are you? How’s work?” I asked her.
    â€œIt’s okay . . . not exactly how I pictured it going, but that’s life, you know?” Helen’s words were soft and hinted there was more to the story.
    â€œI can’t even imagine. I feel like all I do is complain about my busy schedule, but you’re over here hardly sleeping and potentially getting shot at!” I laughed to lighten the mood.
    Helen smiled. “Well, I don’t know about all of that. It’s just hard. The only other girl in my department quit today, so now I feel like I’m all alone with all the guys. I want them to treat me the same as they would each other, but it’s difficult.”
    â€œI know exactly what you mean,” I said. “I know it’s a totally different scenario, but there are hardly any girls in my program, either. All day long I deal with dirty jokes and adolescent boys staring at my boobs.”
    Helen finished her soup by the sink and ran some water in her bowl before placing it in the dishwasher. “Yeah . . . some days I just wonder if I made the right decision doing this. I could be halfway through fashion school by now!”
    To me, Helen had always seemed much more the fashion-designer type, but she was hell-bent on catching the bad guys.
    â€œYou could always play the ‘what-if’ game,” I said. “I do the same thing. If I weren’t here right now, I’m sure I would be living in Tampa and working some nine-to-five starter job at a PR agency or something. This is hard, but it’s much more interesting!”
    Helen nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m sure it will get easier. I’m going to head to bed—I have a long day tomorrow and feel like I haven’t slept in weeks.”
    I said goodnight and headed into my room for bed as well. Every night when I got home from work, my favorite thing to do was run a hot bubble bath and soak my aching feet for a few minutes. Sometimes I read in the bath, but other times I just zoned out, letting my mind wander away from meat temperatures and kitchen-safety regulations for a little while. What would I be doing if I weren’t here right now? It all seemed to work out so perfectly, with her moving here and finding the apartment so quickly. I loved school, for the most part, and was glad that I’d made the decision to move here, but it was always interesting to think just how different life could be as the result of one decision.

    Old-Fashioned Gingerbread Cookies
    Makes about 4 dozen large gingerbread men
    If you enjoy gingerbread cookies as much as I do, you really should try this recipe for a thick, moist, and chewy version. To make gingerbread cookie sandwiches, cut cookie dough in 4-inch circles and sandwich the cookies together with Chocolate-Buttercream Frosting (p.