The Dinner

The Dinner

           "Dang it" Julie exclaimed as she caught herself pouring juice in her cereal and burning her toast. "This whole week has been a disaster".

           Her bad week started on Monday. As she arrived at her office job, her boss took her aside and told her they were downsizing. She was no longer needed. Feeling numb, she cleaned off her desk and went home. She spent the afternoon on her computer applying for unemployment and updating her resume. She was waiting for her boyfriend, Jack to get home so she could let him know what had happened. She didn't want to tell him in a text message. She soon received a message from him telling her he would be late, and she shouldn't wait up.

           On Tuesday morning she woke up to Jack already having left for work. They had been together for almost seven years. Lately, Jack was always coming home late and seemed distracted when he was home. She got up and decided to drive to her best friend Becky's house. Becky didn't answer her phone when she had tried to call her, but Becky hardly ever answered her phone. As Julie pulled up to the curb in front of Becky's house, she saw Jack's car in the driveway. . She was beginning to think she knew why Jack was gone so much. Julie quickly walked up to the door and began knocking. After a few minutes, Becky came to the door with a guilty look on her face. Jack was standing across the room buttoning his shirt. Without a word Julie turned around and got back in her car. This time she drove around for a while and finally went to her mom’s to cry on her shoulder.

           Julie had ended up staying overnight at her mom's. Her mom felt she was too upset to drive, and Julie had sent a message to Jack telling him to get all his stuff out of the apartment before Wednesday afternoon. Jack didn't try to apologize. He just said it was time for them to part ways. Becky attempted to apologize for what she did, but Julie wouldn't accept and told her they were no longer friends.

           All day Wednesday Julie filled out job applications and went over the bills to determine which ones needed to be paid right away and which ones could wait. She had been given four weeks of severance pay before she left. She drove to the bank to deposit the money and to open new accounts without Jack's name on them. When they moved in together, they decided to get joint accounts. When she arrived at the bank, she discovered she was too late. Jack had cleaned out both accounts and removed his name from them. This final check was all she had left. After she left the bank, she headed to her apartment. Jack had collected all his belongings and everything they had bought together. Things were deteriorating. She just crawled into bed and cried herself to sleep.

           This brought her to Thursday morning and her disastrous breakfast. She had managed to eat something. As she was finishing, her phone rang. At first, she was going to ignore it, but she saw it was her mom.

            "Hi mom", said Julie.

           "Julie, how are you today?" asked Julie's mom.

           "It's been a long week. Jack not only cheated on me with my ex best friend, but he also cleaned out all the bank accounts. It's a good thing I received some extra money when I was let go." said Julie as she started crying again.

           "Julie, you need to get out for a while. My friend Mary will be coming into town for the weekend. We are going out for supper tomorrow night. I want you to join us and I won't take no for an answer." Julie's mom told her in a firm voice.

           "What time and where?" Julie responded. She knew it would be useless to argue.

           "I will pick you up at 6:00 tomorrow night and we will be meeting Mary at that new restaurant in town. Her motel is near there." responded Julie's mom.

           "I'll be ready. See you then. Goodbye." said Julie.

           "Goodbye till tomorrow." Julie's mom responded.

           The remainder of the day Julie sat in front of the tv feeling sorry for herself and wondering what she was going to do if she couldn't find another job soon. She would only be able to afford this apartment for another month. She didn't want to move back in with her mom.

           Friday morning Julie slept late since she had trouble sleeping the night before. It was lunch time by the time she got up. After a light breakfast, she went online for a while to see if she had any responses from her job applications. Since it had only been a couple of days, she wasn't expecting much. She started doing some further research and wandered the internet. Julie looked at the clock and discovered it was almost 4:00pm. She shut everything down and went to take a shower and get dressed in a nice dress. It was soon time for her mom to show up. As Julie climbed into her mom's car, her mom told Julie how nice she looked. As they were pulling into the restaurant parking lot, her mom casually mentioned to her that Mary's son had a medical practice in the area, and he needed an office assistant. Her mom parked the car and headed toward the restaurant. Julie was beginning to suspect why her mom wanted her to come to dinner and her suspicions were confirmed when they walked into the restaurant. A woman and a very good-looking guy started walking towards them.

           "Mary, it's so good to see you" exclaimed Julie's mom. "This good-looking guy must be Tony."

           "Phyllis, it's been too long!" said Mary "Yes, this is Tony and I'm guessing this is Julie."

Mary and Phyllis were hugging while Julie and Tony standing and smiling at each other. They soon were seated and ordering their food. Tony and Julie found they had a lot in common and were talking throughout the meal. After supper, Mary and Phyllis made an excuse to leave Tony and Julie alone. Tony had his car and offered to give Julie a ride home.

           "I hear you are looking for a job." Tony said while smiling at Julie.

           "I hear you are looking for an office assistant." Julie responded with a grin.

           "The job is yours if you want it." said Tony "I would like to spend some time with you, but the job doesn't depend on you saying yes. I will understand if it's too soon after your breakup."

           "I definitely want the job and as much as I want to see you some more, I need to take it slow." said Julie. "Let's start out with seeing each other at the office and take it from there."

           "Sounds good" Tony responded

           Tony dropped Julie off at her apartment and they arranged to meet at his office on Monday. As she walked inside, her phone started ringing. It was her mom.

           "Hi mom, you and Mary are very devious." Julie said laughing.

           "You sound much happier. Did you and Tony have a fun time? Asked Julie's mom.

           "Yes, it was a very nice evening and I have a new Job .Possibly the start of a new romance. Time will tell." Julie responded. "I could never have imagined that what started as my worst week turned into the best over one dinner."