Author's note: Hey, happy new year, and another year for Never Been Pregnant, thanks for all your support last year and here's hoping for another great year!
Never Been Pregnant
Total Vaughn Lover
Chapter 3 Part II
Josie's New Assignment
"Okay, breathe," Josie instructed herself s she sat down in her seat. Anita plopped down on her left, her loveable big-headed assistant, Merck on the right.
But she barely could catch her breath as the various reporters and column writers from the Chicago Sun Times filed into their usual brightly sun-lit meeting room for their usual weekly meeting.
In a matter of moment she, Josie Geller Coulson was going to be announced as the reporter assigned to a project that everyone at the Chicago Sun Times was going to kill for.
"Breathe Josie!" Anita chided her friend as though she were nurse telling the expecting mother to breathe to make labor and delivery easier. "I'm serious, Josie, I haven't seen you take one good breath in the last five minutes!"
"Sorry but it's just that I'm sort of on a edge. According to what I've heard , I'm about to get my dream job!" Josie gushed nervously, reminding Anita of a high school girl giddy that her crush had said hi with her name at the end of it.
"Hey, I know you're nervous. If I knew this meeting was about me, I would certainly be freaking out," Anita whimpered, looking a bit hurt from the way her best friend was conversing with her. "But you don't' have to take it out on me."
"SSorry, it's just that I never thought I would reel back from that disastrous situation we had last year. And now it's all happening again," she said in her soft, almost cracking voice that she spouted whenever she was on the verge of crying. Her blue eyes looked even more watery.
"Nno crying, I'm not about to spend another day crying because god news just happen to follow you everywhere. I'm not sure, I've stopped all the leaks from last night when you told me you were pregnant," Anita whined, dabbing her eyes with a tissue from a packet she always carried with her.
Josie pulled a handkerchief from her own purse and wiped carefully at her eyes, not to smudge the mascara. "Anita, but it's okay, these are happy tears…and maybe a few of them are from anxiety," she added as an afterthought as she fiddled with a tube of gloss then applied the gooey stuff to her lips. "It's just, I know Sam is always saying he's proud of me, just the way I am but I never feel it. And I want to. I want to feel good about myself and impress Sam, that I can do this, that his exclusive is only going to be the first of many exclusives to come!"
Josie didn't realize she had her fist pumped into the air until she received questionable glances from people around the room. She turned her face down and started to internally chided herself for making herself constantly do embarrassing things. She was about to bury her head in her arms but she paused when she felt a warm hand squeeze her shoulder.
She turned her head to see her best friend, giving her the most beautiful and encouraging smile. "I know I'm not a handsome hunk of burning love who always knows exactly what to say to make everything all right, but I can tell you this, I've known you for years and I've known that your ability to put words together so perfectly and your dedication towards the craft was going to take you far and here it is. And Josie Geller Coulson, I know you have what it takes to do anything you set your mind to and that you will make our little Chicago paper shine!"
Josie just gazed at Anita with love, the kind of love you could only have for your best girlfriend. She felt the knots loosen and her nerves were overcome with a calmness. And now it was time to break the connection before the rest of the people in the room started making up stuff that was none of our their business.
"This coming from the woman who's broken the record for the number of times getting fired?" Josie shot back with a wry smile.
Anita nodded her head then rolled her eyes so as not to be taken seriously and that was enough to get away from the heavily touching moment.
Josie decided to change the subject but her process of coming up with a topic was interrupted by the sound of someone's hyperventilation and it alarmed her just a tad because the individual was so close.
Back when she's been a 100 nerd, who loved homework so much she often forgot to brush her hair, whenever Bill Prince was in her presence, she'd used to hyperventilate which led to, of course, speechlessness and concluded in her humiliating herself in from of the hottest guy in school.
This person's hyperventilation sounded worse. As if everything would be up to this very moment. This actually bothered Josie a little. She had the exclusive so why should there be anyone in the room more nervous than she was?
Suddenly a horrible thought struck her. What if her getting the exclusive meant the end of the line for someone else? The Chicago Sun Times staff was like family and she certainly didn't want to the be one responsible for pushing another co-worker out of a job. If that were the case, she would deny the job, it wasn't like she needed the work.
Sam was a college professor. Now of course she understood guarantee wasn't huge in the educational field but for now, he had a job and she was confident the only reason he would be parted from the job would be on his own accord. Seriously, how could they benefit from parting from one of the few teachers who will care passionately about filling young minds with knowledge?
So it wasn't like Josie had to work, only she knew that because she was as passionate about her word as Sam was, it would be hard to leave.
A married couple who enjoyed being also married to their jobs. Were they perfect or what?
But Josie would be willing to drop all of that for a fellow employee, and she was sure Sam would be proud of her. After all, she had San, nothing in life could top that.
Suddenly Anita jabbed Josie in the side, gently but hard enough to get her attention. Josie turned to her best friend with a pained expression.
"Anita!"
"Ssh, I don't want him to notice you're looking but look on the other side of you. Look at Merck," Anita hissed.
Josie gave her best friend an awkward glance but did so and let her eyes stray to the side.
She could barely keep from laughing. Merck was the one hyperventilating? It seemed to weird to see him unconfident about something when it was known he was pretty much overly confident 95 of the time, with co-workers under the "Merck," spell, constantly writing down the wise saying that came out of the smart aleck's mouth.
"Merck, are you okay?"
"Yeah," he stammered, but it came out extremely high-pitched. Anita and Josie both raised their eyebrows.
Merck looked around to make sure none of his self-created Merck fan club members were witnessing his brief phase out of character. "Ok…no!" he admitted, his eyes looking bigger under his porcupine hair. "Come on, Josie, the whole office knows someone's bout to get a big exclusive and I know for some reason, I know you're going to get it. And that would mean a possible promotion for you and of course, some kind of promotion for me and I…" he lowered his voice as though the worst was yet to come.
Josie and Anita leaned in, expecting him to say something life-altering or catastrophic.
"Well I…I don't have a speech!" he shrieked, looking panicked. "How do you think it'll look to the rest of the Merckees if their wise one actually fumbled in a situation like this. A possible leadership position, me and my fans live for these! I can't let them down!"
Josie was so sure she'd heard him wrong. She had to have. That couldn't have been what Merck said.
Josie looked at Anita who'd completely lost it. She was quiet but because there was so much she was trying to suppress, her face was noticeably red. Apparently, she was going to have to get this under control herself.
"Merck…Merck," she said soothingly then squeezed his hand until he looked over at her with innocent eyes, teary eyes.
Oh boy.
"I wouldn't get too worked up about it, not when we don't know anything yet," she cajoled him in her gentlest calmest tone. "And if that moment does come, I am very confident that you'll be able to come up with something…positively inspirational.
There was an awkward silence that made Josie feel just a tad bit regretful and a tad out of line for saying what she'd said to someone who worked for her.
Sure there was nothing wrong with making friends out of employees. Heck it might be the best way because that meant you probably spend forty hours with the girl and guy an you liked them enough to see them even more.
But not when the employee took it the wrong way like Merck had done, now giving her a subtle brow raise.
"So…do you want to get coffee after this meeting or something?" he asked then, behaving a little more like a normal person than usual. "Or do you think your husband would think of it as infidelity?"
Oh no. Josie didn't think that for a moment. Sam was not the jealous type and she was working on getting to that point. In fact, she was sure Sam would actually ask her is the "merck," had actually tried to pick up his wife.
"Um…actually, since I'm pregnant, I'm trying to stay away from coffee," Josie admitted truthfully. But when Merck looked so disappointed she added, "but if you're paying, I guess I can join you for a scone or two."
"Really? Josie, Mrs. Coulson, thank you!" he beamed then added. "I just didn't realize that you noticed my talent, my wiseness and I thought, what better way to give you more of an insight on me than to talk over a cup of coffee?"
Josie forced a smile. That hyperventilation must have affected his brain. If it was possible, Merck had gotten more confident on himself than previous and the only explanation could be lack of oxygen to the brain.
She could only hope.
"Yeah, I'd like that," Josie replied as genuinely as she could. Unless of course her ultra handsome hubby decided to surprise her by showing up for lunch.
"Good morning, everyone. A great new day at Chicago Sun, is it not?"
That was the sound of Rigfort's voice. Usually that got everyone's attention and made them all quiet and ready to take notes. But today, the tension was thick, everyone was dying to know what the "Big Job," was and which gifted reporter was going to receive the chance to appreciate it.
Everyone except Josie, of course.
"So everyone assembled or should I take attendance?"
Not one of them was in the mood to joke.
"Mmm…tight bunch this morning. Did I not provide enough doughnuts, Gus?"
"No, it was fine, boss. It's just…well, it's not a secret that one of us here is about to gain the opportunity of a lifetime." He winked at Josie which made her blush just slightly.
"Well, well, if that's the case, then I think we should cover everything else first so that no one will have a reason to leave the meeting till it's over," Rigfort chimed in, resulting in, "you got to be kidding,' stares from all of the ones besides the pretty chipper ones included in Josie's clique. "So, let's start, shall we? Okay first, Sharron."
This repetoire continued for some time and though it lasted for the usual five minutes because of all the tension in the room, it felt like fifteen. The weekly assignments included two big sport coverages. Fortunately they'd graduated from covering scholastic high school sports to the major university where Sam worked…which had it's good and bad aspects. The good was that her work area supported the team Sam's students play in …and the bad was that she was never assigned to cover sports and her co-workers, unfortunately for Sam, loved how romantic the English professor was and liked very much to tease him.
Then of course there was the team that was required to cover the huge fire, or the ten truck pile up on the freeway, the astrologer who actually thought predicting futures and writing horoscopes was her most important job in life. The fashion page led off by the most beautiful girl had a different style every week and then there were the other frequently over looked articles.
Finally of course, there was the "Today's feature," which meant writing for the front page and two continuation pages at good places within the paper.
The pages that were just about to be assigned to the team of can't stop smiling Josie Geller and can't stop hyperventilating assistant, Merck.
"Okay, and last but most definitely not least, I'd like to present this very special, "This week's feature to…" Rigfort began very dramatically then suddenly broke into a rare smile, "Josie Geller!"
Josie was surprised at the enormous amount of screaming and cheering that went along with the announcement that she didn't realize she hadn't corrected him with Coulson as she usually did. She'd received the most coveted job at the Sun. There had to be someone who was jealous, or could the miracle really have happened that every single on in the room was succumbing to her talent, or were they all just fans of Sam and Josie article, #2?
It had to be the latter. Josie had already received her one miracle in life…Sam.
"Uh Ms. Geller, it might be wise to pull out a notebook as I am about to cover, not only your one time article but the possibility that this can become a more long term project."
Josie was sure her face was red but she wondered if it was because of his calling her on not paying attention and gushing or if it was because she couldn't believe this opportunity could possibly get better than it already was.
"Now, wait a second," a particularly buxom blond with the snippiest attitude said coming to a stand, slamming her fist down on the notes she'd taken for this week's subject of her regularly featured what's in column.
"Yes, Ms. Golden."
"No offense to the awesome Josie Coulson," she snapped, but turned for a second to say, "by the way Josie, congrats on making it through your first year, you have to buy me makeup remover, I cried and my waterproof mascara ran!"
Josie nodded to her, obviously oblivious to the point her co-worker was trying to make or she was doing a good job making it look like it didn't affect her the way it should.
"Mr. Rigfort, the first article Ms. Geller certainly deserves…but if this is going to be a long featurette, don't you think other reporters who have been here longer than Josie should get a chance to contribute?"
Josie tried not to get all worked up about it but somewhere inside she felt a little scared, that suddenly they would realize she was a fake and would give it to someone who was perhaps more experienced that she was.
"Ms. Golden, I know it may be very hard to understand but we evaluated every reporter in the Chicago Sun before coming to this decision and though Josie has only recently become an actual writer, her articles were so influential that it made more money for the paper in a day than we could have ever hoped to make in six months!"
Ms. Golden obviously knew she'd lost the battle and sat down, glaring at nothing in particular, to the relief of expecting Mrs. Coulson.
"In fact, our paper was so influential that someone posted it on a website and that is where this exclusive idea came to play," Rigfort said excitedly then turned the floor over to Gus who stood up and started blushing when Anita started hooting like he was some kind of rock star.
"Thank you everyone. Now as Rigfort was saying, our little Chicago article was ready by the newest up and coming actor, Markison Aames and he sent us a…fan letter."
Gasps erupted through the room. It seemed everyone knew this Markison Aames, except the ones who should.
"Mr. Aames apparently found out about our star Josie through her ex in high school, who happens to run in that same circle. Why Josie never told us, I don't know."
All eyes turned to her. Merck with those almost seducing eyes, and Anita's red with fire, demanding why she hadn't been informed of the ex, an ex on the hollywood scene, nonetheless.
"Mr. Aames is like a lot of young up and coming actors, a pretty boy, as like all pretty boys, his hope is to reach out to the female audience and build his rapport from there. And he thinks Josie can possibly do it for him," Gus went on, looking very proud at her while she flushed form all the attention and pressure. She was still reeling from the comment that the newest young thing on primetime had found out about her through her ex in highschool….especially since she didn't have an ex, her first kiss had been with her husband.
"Josie, Mr. Aames was definitely impressed by not only your innate talent to put words together but your ability to convey a warm emotion while sounding completely genuine. In fact, his letter reads like this: I must have her and only her write my first article. Her ability to make words sing is astounding and what better way to make friends than through a song? I'd love to the Chicago Sun Times to allow her to be my temporary publicist, speaking for me at Premieres and award shows as well as making damn sure that everything written about me in the paparazzi columns be countered with my exact quotes. My first event is the week of Halloween, my premiere for my first big movie and if that goes well, I'd like to have her continually pain me with her mellifluous words and in a few months, feature with me in a special I'm creating for my fans so they can get to know the real me, the real Markison Aames. All expenses will be paid by me as well as for her write my article will come strictly from my pocket. I'm also willing to make a generous donation to the paper as I am now your number one fan!"
Gus concluded the speech then looked around the room. All mouths had dropped in shock, shock and…shock. Josie's mouth kept opening and shutting as though she were some kind of confused fish.
Josie looked over at Anita who couldn't get her jaw to roll back up and tears of joy, sparkles in her eyes. Josie was just mouthing, "oh my god! Oh my god! OH MY GOD!" when she felt a pair of strong hands take hold of her shoulders.
"So, Ms. Coulson, despite the fact that you're having some personal circumstances, you think you can handle the assignment?"
Josie already knew he answer but she felt a lot more confident about giving it when she felt Merck lean against her shoulder and her best friend grab her hand.
She looked her intimidating boss directly in the eye and gave him her best confident smile as she stated, "Yes, I'll do it to the best of my ability."
"We know you will," Rigfort said proudly then turned to the rest of the room. "So, your first job will be on Halloween. Mr. Aames will be giving us transportation information as well as Hollywood protocol, dress code, behavior, ect. Meanwhile, we'll see what we can do to keep you busy till then. Maybe Gus will be nice and give you the time off so you can prepare for your body for the weeks to come?"
Josie looked over at Gus with puppy dog eyes while Anita's were like daggers.
Gus's response was, "we'll see."
Rigfort then turned the to the room once again. "Well, I guess there's two congrats in order, one for the story and one…for the baby."
Now all negativity went out the door and all the employees had stood up to congratulate her. And Josie felt just as special as special as when she'd gotten prom queen through her second experience in High school.
Only this time, she had earned it herself. No Rob. No Sam. Just her.
The only draw back was of course going to be missing Sam. She was doing her best not think too much about that right now.
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"Well, Congrats Josie!" Merck said, sounding just a tad sat that Rigfort, not even Gus, had allowed him a speech.
"Aww, they didn't even ask me to say anything and I'm relived!" Josie told him, finally catching her breath. "But had they wanted me to, I would have definitely allowed you to speak for me."
"Just like Mr. Aames is going to allow you to speak for him!" Anita chimed in from behind them after managing to push herself through the fashion police so she could jab her in the side.
"Hey Anita!" Josie groaned, putting a protective hand to her tummy. "I don't think Angela or Miller is going to appreciate that."
But Anita went on as though she hadn't heard Josie say anything. More important matters were at hand. "I still can't believe you didn't tell ME that you have an ex. Nevertheless in the holly wood scene!" Anita hissed as they headed back to their respective desks. "I thought you told me that your first love is your Sam Coulson."
"Uh yeah, really. I'm not sure what's going on either," Josie admitted but instead of pondering it, she changed the subject. "I hope that Rigfort was serious about giving me time off. It looks like if this takes off, I'll be away from Sam a lot and…well, you know what Hollywood could do to happily married couples."
Anita noticed Josie's, "girl talk," signs and turned to the spiky haired assistant who was still punishing himself for some reason. "Merck, we'll call you when we want to go out for lunch. Why don't you go and answer some of Josie's messages."
"Coffee," Merck corrected immediately.
"Whatever. Go on and answer the phone or something. We need a moment for girl talk," Anita said quickly and Merck went away, looking quite rejected. But of course, Anita didn't seem to notice. "Jose, Sam is the most devoted guy in Chicago, if no the U.S. The only thing you need to worry about is making sure you don't overwork yourself," Anita told her as she seated herself on the edge of the desk. "You know, we should celebrate. Lunch is on me."
Josie didn't mean to look at Anita the way she did but she knew that Anita had a tendency of getting fired, in other words, she couldn't have had a steady income. But then she didn't want to insult her friend who looked eager to applaud her that she said," oh thanks Anita," instead as she pulled out a bright pink folder and slipped in her copy of the fan letter written by Markison Aames. "But I should go light. I feel like making a huge dinner for Mr. Coulson tonight."
"Look at you, calling Sam, Mr. Coulson."
And then of course, as usual, happy moment must be interrupted by those who were either jealous or didn't approve of others beings happier than them.
"Anita, shouldn't you be doing something useful like…you job?" Ms. Golden jeered, pausing with the rest of the fashion police that was hanging around her like worker bees. "No wait a second, as long as you're dating Gus, he'll always rehire you."
Josie usually didn't get upset but it was obvious what they were trying to do. She also knew what Anita would do had they provoked her so she instead motioned for her to leave. After all, the target was Josie Coulson, herself.
Anita looked reluctant to leave but she did, praying that Josie knew what she was asking for, after all, Ms. Golden was the equivalent of the snobby Kirsten
Josie sat up in her seat and straightened her cardigan then placed her hands before her and grinned, glancing at the small diamond ring on her wedding finger for luck. "Ms. Golden, I was expecting you. How can I be of assistance?"
"Oh, you don't need my help, after all, you're the star of this little office," Ms. Golden harrumphed, obviously a little shocked at the fact that Josie was not afraid of her. "If anything, we should be asking you for guidance, so if you'll allow us just one minute out of your happily ever after lifestyle."
Like Josie was going to deny them that. It was clear their intention was to intimidate her and she wasn't about to give them that satisfaction. "I'm listening."
"Well since it seems like you're not going to do the smart thing and offer the job to someone who will definitely know how to make a star shine, I just want you to think about how much Sam is going to miss you. Assuming someone else doesn't make his eyes stray," she teased, tossing her blond hair behind her shoulders, followed by everyone else doing the same thing in her group.
And really, everyone in that group looked like they belonged on the silver screen or at least a vidal sasoon hair commercial, any of them could stray a man's eyes from her.
Except Sam, because Sam was her husband, her Adele penguin. Not theirs, hers as he continually reminded her.
So of course Josie was not going to let them win today, not when she had Sam's strength in spirit. "Ms. Golden."
"Yes, Geller," she said, as though expecting her to say something stupid.
"I just have to say I am absolutely…disgusted that you didn't mature beyond high school."
"Excuse me?"
"Because had you, you'd know that you try to make others feel lower because you have no confidence in yourself except when people are more miserable than you are," Josie sighed, shaking her head. "I, on the other hand, am so confident that Sam is truer than anyone and that he'll not only support me but make sure that our love will only grow stronger. I have put all my faith in him, while you probably only dream of doing that with a man."
She stood up and put her fall jacket on then shouldered her dainty everyday purse; while they all looked on, waiting for what high and mighty move she was going to make next.
"Oh and Ms. Golden, I know that there's a reason why I'm not writing the fashion column since I don't know why stripes would be in this week yet next week it'll be a faux pas, but I know this much. You would need to have mastered more than color coordination and putting people down to make Markison Aames shine." Josie then walked so she was only an inch away from Ms. Golden and in a demanding tone said, " excuse me."
Josie smiled sweetly back at them then walked over to Merck who was covering his desk with his quotes of the day. "Merck, you busy?"
Merck glance up, looking embarrassed. He immediately began shuffling through his post it's trying to find the ones for Josie while pulling down the ones for him and began putting them into two piles so his desk looked somewhat presentable. "As always, but never too busy to assist you, Ms. Geller-Coulson."
"Good," she smiled with approval. "Let's go get that coffee then and bring those post it's along. I'll make sure they're grammatically correct."
Merck would usually be insulted by a comment like that but ever since her amazing transformation, Josie was like a ray of light and he would have to apologize to Sam because her confidence and flirtatiousness was down right sexy. "Right behind you, Josie."
As soon as he'd grabbed his wallet and quotes, Merck hurried to catch up with Josie who'd already reached the door.
Meanwhile Ms. Golden just stood there, feeling really humiliated in her skin-tight suite in a pale cold that matched her perfect styled platinum hair. Her other goldenettes had gone to their respective desks as though trying to make it appear they had nothing to do with the fashion columnist, and certainly didn't know why her tanned face had turned a few shades of purple.
Had they, maybe then someone would have heard it when Ms. Golden whispered, "you'll learn what happens when you mess with Ms. Golden. In fact I'll mess with your life so much you'll quiver at the sound of my name."
And maybe someone would have had it in their heart to warn poor happy and oblivious little Josie.
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Dun dun dun…DUN! So sorry my updates are so slow but my new year's resolution is to get these up as fast as possible so you don't have to wait so long. Please review and let me know you're still reading!!! Thank you.
Oh and yes, next chapter we get back to some good ol Sam and Josie with
Chapter 2 Part III: Something delicious is cooking in the kitchen, and it ain't Sam's dish.
Total Vaughn Lover