Tessa's Wishes (Whispered Wishes #3) (2 page)

Dealing with one young child was challenging enough. Tessa couldn’t imagine what it was like for Ava to have two, although at almost eight years old, Jenna was hardly a young child anymore. Come to think of it, she was probably a big help to her mom. Plus, Ava had her husband, Max, to support her both emotionally and financially, even if his job as an airline pilot did require him to travel often. The fact of the matter was that Tessa would gladly switch places with her older sister any day, even with the sacrifices Ava had to make moving back to Forest Hills three years ago.

Her oldest sister had always dreamt of owning an art gallery, and she was so close to making that wish come true. When she and Max lived out in California, she ran a gallery, quite successfully. The owner had been all set to sell it to her, but Ava found out she was pregnant with Logan. Not that having a child was bad news or anything. Quite the opposite, in fact. She and Max were thrilled. It’s just that she’d had such a difficult pregnancy with Jenna and a hard time balancing her time between being a mommy and having a career. After giving it much thought, she turned down the offer and selflessly decided she wanted to devote all of her time to raising their kids. She and Max packed up their children and moved back to the East Coast so they could be closer to both of their families. She hadn’t stepped foot in an art gallery since. She claimed she’s had no regrets. Tessa wasn’t entirely convinced.

Maybe they weren’t so much sacrifices, as they were changes in plans. In reality, had any of their lives turned out as intended? Perhaps Holly’s had, although to date she didn’t have that house full of kids. It’s possible, though, after hanging out with her sisters’ kids, she had changed her mind or was in less of a hurry. Even so, Holly still
could
have kids. It’s not like she was giving anything up. Everything else in her life was going forward right on schedule.

No, Tessa was talking more about long-term objectives, like her desire to run a theater and perhaps get married. She’d already attempted to work in a theater
and
get married. Both undertakings had been dismal failures. The theater didn’t pay, and  … well, men sucked. She’d said it a million times over the years to her sisters every time she watched them go through heartache. True, they were both happily married now, but the thought of going through the kind of pain she went through with Scott again to
maybe
find a partner was a crap shoot she wasn’t willing to gamble. She was perfectly fine with being single. She could even handle a life away from the theater.  Now her crotchety bastard of a boss was another story. He had to go. He was more than a sacrifice, he was cruel and unusual punishment. Oh, how she wished she could find another job.

 “Tessa? Are you there? What’s up?” Ava asked, returning to the phone.

She hated to ask her older sister for yet
another
favor, especially when Ava sounded so worn out. After hearing her voice, Tessa wished she could have made up some small talk, hung up the phone, and called Holly to ask for help with Sophie, but she already knew Holly had parent-teacher conferences after school today and would be unavailable. It seemed like she was always asking one of her sisters for help, but this was an emergency. Well, not an emergency in the sense of life or death, but an emergency in the sense that if she didn’t finish this project, she could lose her job. No, she would most definitely lose her job. If that happened, she and Sophie would have to move in with her older sister.
Ask Ava for a favor or move in with Ava?
Yes, the favor route was definitely the better choice in this situation.

“I’m here,” she said, keeping her voice low in case Mr. Abbott was eavesdropping, as he often did. “Listen, I’m so sorry to ask you this, but my boss is being a royal ass, and I have to work late
again
. Any chance you can pick Sophie up from daycare and give her dinner? It looks like I’m going to be stuck here a while.” Holding her breath, she cringed as she waited for her sister’s response.

 “Sure.” Ava sounded exhausted as Logan broke out in full-fledged hysterics. Apparently television was not an acceptable substitute for what he wanted.

 Letting out a long breath, she closed her eyes for just a split second in relief. “Thanks, sis, I owe you one. I’ll call you later. Give everyone a kiss from me.”  

Swiftly hanging up the phone before the guilt set in, Tessa tried to blink back her tears.
Ava always said yes … even when it was a burden.
Bringing her hands up to her eyes to brush away the few drops that had managed to escape, she returned her attention to the client folder sitting on her desk.

“Tessa!” Mr. Abbott hollered from his office. “Those reports are not going to get done if you’re busy gossiping on the telephone with your girlfriends!”

Seriously?
She’d been on the phone for all of two minutes. Was he expecting her to respond? Apologize? Argue? Grovel? Just what exactly made this man so miserable day in and day out? She didn’t care. Her patience had left the building hours ago, and she had no interest in psychoanalyzing the psycho in the next office. Instead, she stuck up her middle finger, watching her doorway to make sure her asshole boss wasn’t standing there, of course. Feeling slightly better, she picked up the binder and began flipping through the pages of the Schilling file.

Chapter 3

Tessa stared at the numbers on her computer screen. How could they be wrong? They weren’t. She’d used the same formulas and broker statements as she had every quarter for the past two years. All of the checks and cross-references were formulaic and in place. If she’d entered a wrong number, they wouldn’t tie back correctly to the statements. The reports were foolproof. A method she’d tirelessly perfected last year, not that her boss had bothered to notice or appreciate the hard work she’d put in to streamline the process. To him, the fact that she was able to create reports in less time didn’t mean she was being more efficient. No, to her cranky old-school boss, it meant she
had
to be rushing and therefore was
obviously
not doing a good enough job.

Added to that, Mr. Abbott was in a bad mood,
again,
and his moods seemed to be getting worse. This wasn’t the first time he’d thrown the binder back to her, but usually she had a day or so to let him simmer down. She’d tweak some of the formats and colors in her charts, careful not to disturb any of the actual calculations, and present it all back to him … during her regular working hours. He’d give her some line about how if she got the numbers right the first time, she wouldn’t have had to redo everything. She’d smile, say, “Yes, sir,” and be on her way.  Tessa could handle that routine.
That
routine didn’t take her away from her time with Sophie. Lately, however, he seemed to get a kick out of making her work late. Him and his damn ego—did he really think he could push her around like that? Apparently so, as here she was working past six o’clock yet again.

Having done all of the usual insignificant changes, she pondered just how long she should sit in her office, pretending to work before printing out the
new
reports for her boss. Judging by his current phone conversation, she’d have to add a few minutes to let him cool off before approaching him.

“I don’t give a rat’s ass. I’m tired of your excuses. Either get the job done, or I’ll find someone who can.”

She cringed as she listened to his temper tantrum through her office walls. At least he’d moved on to screaming at someone else. Wondering who it was and what they’d done to piss him off, she settled back into her chair and closed her eyes, blocking out the sounds and grateful for a moment of reprieve. Ava had most likely picked Sophie up already. If she left in the next twenty minutes, she could probably get her daughter before they started eating dinner.

“Tessa!”

Startled, she sat up straight. Her boss stood in her doorway, looking annoyed as usual.

“I’m not paying you to sleep on the job.”

“I’m not sleeping, sir, I was just—”

“Save it. I’m heading out for the night. I expect those reports to be fixed and on my desk when I return in the morning. I’m meeting with Nicholas first thing in the morning. If he’s not happy, I’m not happy. Do you know what happens if I’m not happy?”

“Then I won’t be happy?” she meekly asked.

“I don’t pay you to be happy. I pay you to work. Get it? Lock up when you leave.”

His eyes, already small and full of anger, shrunk even more as he squinted into a purposeful glare, before sharply turning away. Without another word he was gone. The front door to Abbott and Associates slammed shut behind him on his way out.

“Actually,” she muttered, “you’re not paying me at all at the moment, since I get the same salary whether I leave at five or work all night long. Lord knows you’re too cheap to give me any overtime.”

Through her window she watched as his over-priced, mid-life crisis sports car raced out of the parking lot. What made Nicholas Schilling so special anyway? He was just some stodgy old businessman who happened to have a lot of money. So much money, in fact, that he paid an outrageous sum for her firm to keep track of it all. She could keep track of her own funds in about sixty seconds flat. Big deal. Money wasn’t everything. She clicked print to get the reports started.

Sitting at her desk as the paper started to feed through the machine, she felt even more hostile toward this man she’d never met.
Rich old bastard.
The quarterly meetings were always held at his office in the city or some other fancy locale. He was apparently far too important and busy to come out to Forest Hills. Mr. Abbott didn’t seem to mind and always made it a point to bring Schilling’s favorite scotch and cigars with him.
Scotch and cigars for a nine a.m. meeting? Nasty.
Thankfully, she wasn’t ever asked to attend. She wanted no part of their snooty boy’s club bonding.

While Tessa checked her email, the printer continued to hum. Junk. Always junk. She’d sent out a fresh batch of resumes this week, including one to a tiny theater looking for a full-time financial manager. It wasn’t her ideal position, but it got her closer to the stage and paid enough to cover her bills. More importantly, it took her away from this place. Unfortunately, she’d yet to hear a response to that or any of the other jobs she’d applied for. The job market was a tough one these days.

Screeching out a piercing beep, the printer came to a grinding halt.

Damn
. Walking over to the machine, she began the arduous process of opening and shutting compartments, trying to figure out exactly where the paper jammed. When was Mr. Abbott going to get that new printer he kept promising?
Never. He was a cheap bastard.

After no less than an hour and a half of printer wrangling, Tessa finally placed the finished reports on her boss’ desk. The charts looked completely different, but the numbers were exactly the same. He’d never notice.
Idiot.
She grabbed her coat and purse, hoping to get to Ava’s house before Sophie passed out on the couch. All she’d wanted was some quality time with her daughter, and now her entire night was ruined; wasted on trying to please old man Abbott, money-bucks Schilling, and a temperamental printer. Just as she reached the door to leave, the telephone began to ring.

“The machine can pick it up,” she mumbled before realizing she’d forgotten to turn it on. Sighing, she reached for the phone. “Good evening, Abbot & Associates,” she said, hoping it wasn’t her boss checking up on her.

“Oh … hello,” the deep voice said, sounding surprised. “Sorry, I wasn’t expecting anyone to still be there. I was just going to leave a message. Is Steven Abbott in by chance?”

“No, he’s gone for the day. Can I help you with something?”

“Yes, this is Nicholas Schilling. Tell Steve I apologize for the late notice, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to cancel our meeting for tomorrow. I’ll be out of town for the next few days and will call to reschedule when I get back.”

Hunching her shoulders forward, Tessa shook her head in frustration. “Of course. I’ll leave him the message, sir.” 

“Thanks, and again, please apologize to him for me. I hope cancelling on short notice like this isn’t too much of an inconvenience for anyone.”

“No, it’s no problem at all,” she lied, as she scribbled a quick note on the pad of paper that sat at the front desk.

“Thank you. I’ll be in touch.” He abruptly hung up the phone.

“
Nope, it’s no problem at all,” she repeated as she slid to the floor and began to cry.

Chapter 4

Shortly after nine o’clock, Tessa pulled into Ava’s driveway. She sat for a moment, listening as the crickets chirped amongst the rustling leaves, and rested her head on the steering wheel in pure exhaustion. The sound of a passing car brought her out of her drowsy state. Shaking her head to wake herself up, she grabbed her keys and headed toward the front door.

“Is she asleep?”  She softly walked over to the couch where Sophie was curled up with her favorite blanket and doll, both gifts from Tessa’s parents when she was born. Three years later, her daughter never let them out of her sight. The pink and purple blanket, frayed in several places, but soft as anything from having been washed so many times over the years, Sophie had named
Biddy
back before she could even say Mama. The doll she called
Daisy,
most likely for the flowers on her dress that were once vibrant, but were now barely recognizable.

“She had no interest in dinner,” Ava said, brushing the hair off her eyes. “And passed out shortly after we got home. Her teacher said she seemed kind of out of it.” Resting her hand on her forehead, she looked at her niece with concern. “The fever just started, but I didn’t want to wake her to give her anything. I knew you’d be here soon.”