"Jo! You made it!" Abby smiled welcomingly as Jo shrugged her bag off her shoulder and joined them at the table for brunch.
"Are you okay?" Phoebe asked noticing Jo was not her usual upbeat self.
"Oh, I'm fine, I'm fine," Jo sighed. "It's a long day, that's all."
"Already?" Delia asked quizzically. "It's only 10am."
"Yeah, well. Frumpkis spent the night," she told them, then noticing their surprised looks she quickly added, "on the couch." Her friends still looked unsure what to make of that so she tried to explain herself. "He just turned up. Again. He was wasted and didn't have anywhere else to go. He is still Zoe's father. Still, I didn't want her to know, so I got up at the crack of dawn to get him out the door before she woke up."
"That's kind of…"
"Insane? I know, I know. And I know I said I wouldn't keep doing this, but it keeps happening, but it doesn't mean we still have to be talking about it. There's gotta be something more interesting going on than Frumpkis."
"I hope so. Like maybe… Scott?" Abby grinned, hoping for some gossip. "Any updates on that front?"
Jo groaned. "That goddam car crash waiting to happen?" She didn't much want to talk about Scott either, but she knew Abby was going to persist.
"Is he still professing his undying love for you?" Abby asked.
"Not in words so much anymore," Jo admitted. "We're back to a pretence of what passes for our regular banter. But his eyes! Oh God!" she put her hand to her heart, momentarily displaying the feelings she was trying to brush off, "I just have to avoid direct eye contact. It's for the best." Jo mouthed a thank you to the waiter and took a much needed gulp of her fresh juice.
"Are you sure?" Delia asked.
"Oh yeah," Jo nodded. "Why am I such a sucker for those big sad puppy eyes? Scott does them so well. I just look away. Just… focus on some other less-attractive non-sexy part of his body."
"And which part is that exactly?" Phoebe questioned.
"Um…" Jo was stumped.
"So how's Scott taking the eye contact avoidance? I can't imagine that would go down too well," Abby sounded a little disappointed.
"It was going well, as well as can be expected. Until yesterday," Jo sighed as she reluctantly admitted, "Things got a little… heated. No Abby, not in that way. I mean we had a huge argument. I don't even know what it was about."
"Oh come on Jo!" Abby encouraged. "Don't you think you need to at least give things a try with him? What are you so afraid of? Scott knows you so well, and he seems so sincere, not to mention sexy and…"
"And he hasn't shown up for work today," Jo interrupted. "Anti-tech nut still refuses to carry a cell phone," she complained in irritation. "So I've been slaving away this morning helping Alex (the new waitress, who has her eyes on Scott already, by the way) just so we could open the bakery on time this morning. That's why I'm late." Jo sighed wearily. "Also, Scott's got the van which we need later to drop off a big order." She sighed. "You know, all his screwing around I could handle, 'cos he's always been superb at his job, he's never let me down and he's always on time, if sometimes lacking pants. But if Scott's crazy infatuation with me is going to start affecting his work… I swear to god I'll fire his hot ass."
"That seems a little harsh," Phoebe frowned. "If this is the first time he's ever been late. Jo, what if he's genuinely… I don't know, sick or something?"
"Hey, Scott doesn't get sick," Jo rebutted. "Sure, he has allergies but the result of that is he eats the most organically healthy diet imaginable and he never gets sick. I'm not kidding. He's in perfect physical form, Phoebe, haven't you noticed?" She rolled her eyes. "Trust me, he's not sick. Not unless you're referring to the inside of his head. Like I said, goddam car crash waiting to happen, in that department, especially of late." Suddenly Jo's phone rang. "'Scuse me," she rummaged in her bag. "Hello? Scott is that you?" He sounded different over the phone. "Here we go," Jo told her girlfriends before turning away to talk to Scott. "Congratulations, welcome to the tech era," she told him. "It turns out you are capable of non-face-to-face communication." She quipped snidely, wondered what his excuse was going to be.
"Well, our communication hasn't exactly been face-to-face of late anyway, has it Jo? Considering you won't so much as look at me."
Abby and Phoebe grinned at each other a little awkwardly, unsure if they should start another conversation as Jo had a habit of yelling over the phone. Instead they sipped on their drinks, nibbled their carb-free brunches and glanced at the TV screen in the corner of the café showing a local news channel.
"I hate when cafés have the television on all the time," Delia complained to her friends in annoyance. "It's so distracting. I mean, don't we all have smart phones to utilize if we care about the news so much? I didn't come out for brunch to ignore my girlfriends and stare at a screen."
"Wait," Phoebe told Delia, noticing something on the screen. She pointed. Delia turned to watch too. "Did I just see…"
"So where the hell are you Scott?" Jo was asking in a rising voice. "Are you calling from a payphone? Do they even exist anymore? You better get your ass over here! You know we need the van today!" Jo swore into her phone, trying to keep her voice down.
"I am awfully sorry Jo," Scott apologised. There was something off about him, Jo could tell. Was his speech ever so slightly slurred? "I called as soon as I came to."
"As soon as you came to? You just came to? Wow. Are you telling me you're still drunk? I expect that behaviour of Frumpkis, on a regular basis in fact, but Scott, you told me you could keep things professional! So unless you want me to fire your ass, you better be here with the van by twelve o'clock before…"
"Not going to happen. I'm sorry Jo, but the van's been towed."
"What? Why? What'd you do to my van?" Her voice rose.
"It wasn't my fault, Jo. At least I don't think it was. Although I'm a little hazy on the sequence of events."
"Oh my God!" Abby stared at the TV screen that was reporting on a local car accident involving a Hollywood celebrity that had happened earlier that morning. They showed footage of a red sports car that had smashed into the driver's side of a very familiar looking delivery van emblazoned with the Rize logo.
"Well, to be quite honest, I don't remember what happened at all," Scott admitted to Jo. "But apparently, some drugged up movie starlet ran a red light. Anyway, the van's totalled. It's a write-off."
Abby tapped Jo on the shoulder and pointed. Jo glanced up at the TV screen. "Holy shit," she swore, her face dropping. "Scott, you idiot, just stop babbling and just tell me where you are."
"I… I don't know exactly. I'll take a stab and say I appear to be in a hospital," Scott continued talking, but it was hard for Jo to hear him over the sound of urgent voices in the background, and Scott was becoming a little incoherent. "There's blood everywhere, Jo. I can't feel anything. I think I'm doped up. I just borrowed someone's phone to call you so I shouldn't… I'm sorry, Josephine… I have to hang up… but before I go I should let you know I'm not going to make it to work today. I think they're taking me into surgery? Believe me when I say how terribly sorry I am to let you down like this, Jo Jo. I won't…" The call cut off, leaving Jo stunned.
Jo and her friends watched the rest of the TV story in shock. The footage replayed clips of the trashed Hollywood starlet being questioned by police while in the background they caught glimpses of paramedics removing someone from the van and loading a stretcher into an ambulance.
"Oh my God, was that really…" Abby began, looking horrified.
"The famous chick from that big superhero movie?" Delia asked. "Yeah, I think it was. How embarrassing. Isn't she mean to be the one to save people from this type of thing? Not run them down!"
"I was talking about the driver of the van," Abby clarified in dismay.
Jo put her phone down. "Scott's hurt," she said in shock. "Abby, can I get a lift to the hospital?"