Around noon, I dragged myself out of bed and into the shower. I had to pitch this story to Jane in person. I wasn’t going to risk another email or text that she could just ignore.
But first I had to walk a couple blocks to the print shop. I wanted to print the story to make it more official. And then I stopped in the coffee shop next door to grab a large coffee with a splash of cream, because it was thirty degrees and rainy and I was running on fumes.
When I got to Jane’s condo, I knocked confidently, trying to ignore the way my hands shook. I just wanted my sister back.Please, let this work, I thought, holding my breath as I heard footsteps approaching the door from inside.
“Hi.” Jane looked slightly puzzled but not angry.
“Hi. I have something I want to talk to you about. An idea.” I paused. “Please.”
She didn’t hesitate before opening the door wider and ushering me in. Even if she hated me, Jane wasn’t the type of person to leave someone out in the cold. I sat on the couch, clutching my coffee cup with one hand and my bag with the other, glad I’d brought the coffee so Jane didn’t have to unwillingly go through the motions of offering me one. She perched warily on the armchair across from me. Linus jumped into her lap at once and glared at me.
I decided to jump right in. Clearly there would be no small talk happening right now. “Remember I had that idea the other day about you pitching a story to your work? About #MeToo?”
Jane sighed, looking frustrated. “Rachel, I told you, I don’t feel comfortable doing that.”
“Hear me out, please. I wrote it. It’s thoroughly fact-checked. I even referenced one of your network’s previous stories.”
Jane didn’t interrupt me this time. She looked bemused.
“It’s about sisterhood and trauma and trust,” I continued. “It’s about how women are feeling heard and seen but also scared, wary, and tired. It’s about how, whether the crimes are big or small, whether we know the person or not, each #MeToo story is a blow to our psyche.”
“I don’t know. I’ll read it, but…” Jane frowned as though she was tired of thinking about all this, and I didn’t blame her. “I doubt it’ll work. They’ll have moved on. It’s not like they’re lacking in special correspondents.”
“But not everyone has as many years of experience in their newsroom as you, not everyone is as beautiful as you, as smart as you, as…”
She smiled weakly. “I get it.”
“And you could offer to start employer-mandated therapy.” The words came out in a rush, without asking my brain for permission.
“What?” Jane half laughed.
“No… nothing. It was just an idea. That maybe they’d be willing to hire you back if you went to therapy. It might help to show that you’re really sorry about the video and help the public forgive you or…” I trailed off. “Honestly, I kind of just thought of it because my employer sent me to therapy.”
“What?” A broad grin spread across her face. I smiled back just seeing it.
“Yeah. It’s nothing. It’s fine.”
“Because of the video?”
“Oh, um… no. It was something different. That I did. Stupid…” I trailed off on a whisper.
After staring at me for a beat, eyes wide and mouth open in a grin, Jane lost it. She laughed harder than I’d seen her laugh since… well, probably since the night that video was taken.
“Okay,” she gasped after she’d gathered herself, wiping her eyes with the heel of her hand. “Okay. I’ll read the story.”
I tried not to look too eager as I handed her the pages. She glanced down at them and then looked back at me, her eyes still shining with laughter.
“Rachel, it actually means a lot to me that you did this. I can tell you put a lot of work into it.”
“I’m just trying to make things right. If this doesn’t work out and you decide you need a new job, I’ll do all the applications, I’ll even interview for you if you want.”
She pressed her lips together and smirked. Probably imagining how badly I’d butcher a job interview pretending to be Jane.
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
CHAPTER 29
TWO DAYS LATER, Ireturned to my desk after my lunch break and checked my phone. (Yes, shocking, isn’t it? I was trying this new thing where I read a book during lunch to get a bit of distance from my phone. After all, I wasn’t using dating apps anymore, and I was trying to gently wean myself off sending constant group chat updates.) I fumbled and almost dropped it in surprise when I saw three messages from Jane.
