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When You're Around

Chapter 44

"Big news!" Chloe said excitedly later that night when she and Rachel had received their food at a restaurant. Rachel raised her brow in question. "Jess is taking time off to come on the road!"

Rach's eyes grew wide. "What? Serious?"

Chloe nodded. "She's going to finish this week and take next week off."

Rach smiled. "I'm so excited. She needs this." Chloe nodded in agreement. "You know," Rachel started thoughtfully. "It's not that I'm not excited about this cause I am, but I wonder what made her change her mind."

Chloe looked around the restaurant as if she was spilling a huge secret. "Well I don't know for sure if this is the reason but she did tell me she's been talking to John a lot."

"Hmm…really?" Rach asked with a smile.

"Yeah, so I'll be interested to see how they interact with each other when we get home." She commented and then looked up. "I did tell you about the barbecue Randy's thinking of having right?"

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Ugh, don't remind me. Is the jerk still going?" Chloe knew the 'jerk' her friend was referring to was Adam and she nodded. "Do I have to go? Rachel whined.

Chloe laughed. "Yes. Suck it up, it will be fun."

Rach rolled her eyes. "We'll see about that."

It was Wednesday morning when Chloe finally received the phone call she'd been waiting all week for. Randy was at the gym getting a workout before their flight in a couple hours and Chloe had been doing some last minute packing when her phone rang.

"Hello?" She greeted distractedly as she ran her eyes around the hotel room to make sure she hadn't missed anything.

"Hello Chloe? This is Principal Turner." Chloe's breath caught in her throat.

"Principal Turner, hi, how are you?" She asked politely.

"I'm doing well thank you. And you, how are you?"

Chloe was trying to gauge something from the other woman's tone of voice. She didn't sound too distraught, which could be a good sign but it could also be a bad sign. "To be honest, I'm really nervous." She said and gave a shaky laugh.

Principal Turner laughed too. "Well then let me put you out of your misery and get straight to the point of my call." She paused. "Chloe, the board and the administration have talked things over and I'm happy to say that Emerald Elementary would be more than honored to offer you a job for the upcoming school year." Chloe was silent in shock as she took things in. "You get to keep your job." The principal added in case the message wasn't clear.

"You're kidding," Chloe breathed, unable to believe it.

Another laugh from the principal. "No, I assure you I am not kidding. Chloe, what you said at that meeting really resonated with the group and you changed their minds. You were great."

"Oh thank god." She said with a hand over her heart. "Thank you so much."

"Don't thank me, you did this all on your own. I'll be seeing you very soon." The principal said before hanging up.

Chloe found it hard to contain her excitement but she didn't want to celebrate alone so she planned to wait until Randy returned from the gym. "Randy, I got the call from the school and it's good news," She practiced calmly as she paced the floor.

However, all that practicing was worthless because the minute the door knob turned and Randy was in sight, she shouted, "I get to keep my job!"

Randy looked at her in surprise before smiling and opening his arms so she could embrace him. "I knew you could do it," Randy murmured affectionately into her hair when she was locked tightly in his arms. "I'm so proud of you."

She lifted her face and pressed her lips to his sweetly. "I'm so happy, I get you and my job."

He grinned instantly. "I'm happy for you baby." He said before picking her up and carrying her to the bed. "You deserve a celebration." He said and she giggled as he dropped her gently on the bed before covering her body with his and attaching their lips once again.

"I just don't understand why you won't switch seats with me." Rachel said to John. They were sitting on their plane and had all been conveniently been seated next to each other. Rachel was, much to her dismay, situated between Adam, who had the window seat, and John, who had the aisle seat, and who apparently wasn't willing to switch seats with her when she asked him just a minute ago. The lovebirds Randy and Chloe were across the aisle from them sitting next to some college kid.

"Two reasons," John said holding up two fingers. "One," He ticked off. "You are the smallest of the three of us so it makes sense for you to take the middle seat. And two, you don't need the extra room like I do." He said gesturing to his legs which were stretched on the side of the aisle.

She simply scowled at him, not having anything to say to him. She faced forward and just stared at the back of the seat in front of her. She was mad at John now so she couldn't look to her left and she certainly didn't want to turn her head to the right to look out the window because she didn't want Adam to think she was looking at him.

"I'll switch seats with you," Adam offered nicely.

"I'm fine," She said. Obviously he didn't get that the point of switching seats with John was so she didn't have to sit next to Adam. Unable to stand the boredom any longer, she grabbed the magazine she'd bought for later in the plane ride and opened it up to distract her.

John gave Adam a thumbs up over Rachel's head and Adam grinned back. Maybe the being a nice guy thing wasn't going to be so bad.

After Jessica got off work that day, she hustled home to see Chloe. She also couldn't deny that there was a small part of her hoping John was waiting for her at home, though she knew he probably wouldn't be.

"Hello? Anyone home?" She yelled out after walking into the apartment.

"In here!" Chloe yelled back from her room before appearing in the living room a second later. "Hey!"

Jess smiled and walked forward to hug her friend. "Hey you,"

"Guess what?" Chloe said excitedly. "The school called me today and I'm staying!" She said, not even giving her friend a chance to guess.

"Oh Chloe! That's great," Jess said before pulling her friend into another hug.

"I know, I'm so excited!" She said with a laugh. "And hey I bet you're excited too, for your vacation."

"So excited. So, um, everyone here now?" She asked, subtly asking if John had made the trip over.

Chloe smiled at her friends obviousness. "Yeah, everyone's here, especially a very excited champ." Jess laughed and then turned towards her purse when she heard it ring. "Who is it?" Chloe asked after her friend pulled her phone out and look at the screen.

Jess blushed as she looked up at her friend. "John,"

"Oooh!" Chloe cooed playfully. "What'd he say?" She asked walking over to read the text message over her friends shoulder. "How about that dinner you owe me tonight?" She read aloud. Jess's blush intensified as she remembered telling John she would take him to dinner the next time he was in town. "Oooh," Chloe said again. "Looks like someone's got herself a date tonight!"

Jess turned around. "But you just got home, we should eat together."

"Please, don't be ridiculous Jess!" Chloe said. "We have all week to spend time together. You go out with John. Besides I'm having dinner with my parents tonight."

"Right," Jess said with a nod. "Weekly family dinner."

Chloe nodded. "Except, Randy's coming this time."

Jess's eyes widened. "Wow, really?"

Another nod. "I'm nervous as hell but Randy actually seems excited about it. But don't you change the subject!" She scolded her friend playfully. "You text John back right now and tell him yes."

Another blush from Jessica. "Ok, ok." She quickly typed a reply and showed it to her friend. "Good?"

"Sounds great, pick me up at eight." Chloe read aloud and nodded. "That's good but add a couple x's and o's at the end." Jess laughed but complied. "Now, let's go find you a dress that will knock John out!"

A/N: Love you guys! You're reviews seriously make me smile, thank you.