The Dream Before the Dark ✓

14 | Purgatory

JEN HAD NO CONFIDENCE that this whole revenge shopping strategy was going to effectively yield any results whatsoever. But she couldn't reject a hypothesis without running the experiment first, so she wore her new outfit to work on Monday. Feeling unusually bold, she even put on some dark red lipstick for good measure.

Was it excessive for work? Yes. Did she look a bit like a vampire now? It was definitely possible. But if nothing else, she was a more attractive than usual vampire.

Confusing thoughts about Robert and not knowing what she even wanted from him had kept her up late the night prior and she had to put more energy than usual into concealing the dark circles under her eyes this morning. Yet after waking up early and making the decision that staring at paperwork was better than letting her mind endlessly spin like a carousel, she'd arrived at St. Catherine's twenty minutes prior to when she actually needed to be there.

She was early enough to beat Jude, which was a rarity. He was as diligent with his work as he had once been with his academics (according to Celie, at least—Jen met him well after he was out of college) and could often be found in the library outside of the hours he was required to be there. She herself couldn't imagine sitting at her desk for much longer stretches of time than she already did, but she saw the appeal of wanting to stay in his library all day. Books were excellent company, and it was surely much more peaceful when the students weren't there.

Today, he was absentmindedly nibbling on some sort of pastry as he came through the front doors. She glanced up at him as he made himself at home in one of the spare lobby chairs and scooted it closer to her desk so that they could chat.

"Whatcha eating?" she asked.

"Pain au chocolat. At least, I think so, but sometimes Celie kinda just shoves food into my hands and I don't give it too much thought," he admitted.

She couldn't avoid smiling a little bit at that. No matter how often she was annoyed with her brother – or at least pretending to be – Celie could never help herself from taking care of him. Jen wondered with a flicker of amusement how often Jude would forget to eat three meals a day or fold his laundry or wash the dishes if his sister didn't keep him in line.

"I had sausage and toast." She figured coworkers were supposed to talk about mundane things such as the weather and what they had for breakfast and not the other coworker that one of them had a crush on.

An uneasy tension settled in her shoulders as she noticed that Jude suddenly looked very smug. "What?" she demanded.

He leaned forward in his seat slightly, lowering his voice so that only she would hear his God-awful pun. "Was it...Italian sausage?"

Jen's face and neck abruptly felt like they were even redder than her lipstick. "You can't say that here!" she hissed, equal parts alarmed and horrified.

"Are you saying I could say it anywhere else?" he asked diplomatically. She had never felt the urge to strangle him, but there was a first time for everything.

"No!"

"You never actually said you didn't-"

He was just trying to torture her now. She raised her chin slightly and spoke with an air of superiority, refusing to allow herself to be mortified any further. "I have not – nor will I ever – have Italian anything. I don't even know what Italy is."

"You sound like you're in denial."

"I am not in denial."

A new voice interrupted. "Denial about what?"