Borrowed Time Part 2

Chapter 239

They really had come far.

"Who would've thought?" She asked, and Becky shook her head.

Quick. Damn.

"God, not me, that's for damn sure." Becky sighed, and Juliette nodded, looking across the room, seeing where Carly was standing.

And staring.

"And now you've got a girlfriend who looks at you like that." Juliette said, jutting her chin to where Carly was leaning against a wall, clearly not listening to a damn thing that Yvonne was saying to her, chewing on the pad of her thumb with a smirk. Juliette felt like she was interrupting just by standing beside Becky... Like... This felt like something they needed the room for.

Becky giggled, rocking back on her heels as she waved at Carly, who gave her one right back before she cleared her throat and shook her head, seeming to clue back into the conversation that she was supposed to be in.

"Yeah, she's pretty great, isn't she?" Becky sighed, leaning her head against Juliette's shoulder.  She nodded, reaching around to pat the side of Becky's face lightly - that wasn't wrong, and she couldn't even jokingly deny it.  Carly was pretty great.

"Mhm."

"Juliette, come here for a second." She looked up to see Allison standing outside her office, gesturing her down... Right... Okay... She disentangled from Becky and made the quick walk over.

"What's up?" She asked, watching Allison fiddle with her rings... Bad news.  Had to be.

"Just so you know, Jackson's out today, so you're gonna be working with Ethan." Her smile dropped instantly, and her stomach lurched.

Fuck.  She'd forgotten about that.

"Oh... Okay." It played too much on her face she could tell from the worry on Allison's face.

"Is that alright?" Allison asked, and Juliette gritted her teeth and nodded. There were going to be times in her life that she had to work with people that she didn't like for one reason or another, and that included people that made her uncomfortable... Ethan hadn't really done anything to her yet. That wasn't a reason to freak out.

"Mhm." She mumbled, and Allison gave her a serious look.

"Jules." Her tone made her wince as she looked away - she didn't need someone looking past the curtain right now.

"What?" She asked, looking back up at her... Bad idea.

Her gaze was more now... More... Not... Something she could really decipher, but more.

"Don't lie to me." Allison's instruction was firm but still kind and concerned as she placed her hands on Juliette's shoulders, leaning closer. "Is there something wrong?" She asked, and Juliette swallowed the lump in her throat as she shook her head - she... There wasn't anything actively wrong, just...

A gut feeling that something could be.

And she didn't want to report a gut feeling, that felt ridiculous.

She had to wait until something actually happened.

"No ma'am." Juliette said, the near lie feeling bitter in her mouth - but technically nothing was wrong yet. That wasn't a full lie, so she didn't have to feel guilty. If she reported something every time she had a bad feeling... Well, most things that had gone wrong in her life would've been avoided, but that wasn't the point, the point was that she had to be wrong about it at some point.

And she was hoping that this was it - this was her point.

Allison frowned, crossing her arms across her chest as she looked at her, clearly waiting for more... But there was no more, she didn't want to say anything else, so she simply wasn't going to.