Purposefully Accidental

Chapter Forty

Now, Fall 2023

"Hello?" I say to the phone, which is wedged between my shoulder and my ear, as I wave goodbye to the teachers walking out of the room and collect my stuff at the same time.

"Hey. You home yet?" Freddie asks, his voice a bit breathy like he's been running.

"No, I'm still at the school. Running late from a staff meeting." I shoulder my bag, now I can properly hold the phone to my ear. "Why? You in the city?"

"School? Staff meeting?" he sounds a bit distracted. "Sorry. Seems like there's a lot of things I need to catch up on."

"Yeah, I just started student teaching last week."

"Oh. That's cool." There's a pause where he talks to someone, before he returns to the phone, the volume of his voice considerably lower now. "Yeah, so I finally have a week off from all the bullshit Harvey's had me take care of this past month."

"That's great, Fred. A bit of a break, huh?"

"Well, it's more likely that I'll still be working at the Manhattan office every day. But at least I get to see my own bed again."

"Where have you been, anyway?"

He sighs tiredly. "I'll tell you all about it when I see you. Anyway, your Code Maroon situation. That talk's so long overdue. I'm so sorry about it. I was going to call you about it but got distracted by other stuff. You and your guy alright?" he asks quietly into the phone.

"It's all fine. We're taking it slow for the moment."

"Alright. Okay. Well, there's a situation. Can't really talk about it here," he pauses, "too many people around me. I'm getting on the jet right now. I'll see you in a few hours?"

"Sure. Let me know when you're arriving—I'll make dinner."

"Oh, don't stress about it. Just order something or whatever."

"I don't mind. I gotta clean out the fridge, anyway," I tell him. "Text me when you're on the ground, yeah?"

"Will do." There's another pause, and there's muffled noises of people talking around him. Seemingly close enough to listen in on his call, because his voice gets a bit louder when he talks again, "Missed you, baby. I'll see you at home. Uh-huh. Love you too, Jo."

I snort out a laugh. He sounds so stiff and unnatural, like he's reading off a teleprompter. "See you soon, loser."

I end the call and stop to stare at my lock screen. I feel a small smile bloom, and I don't even try to hold it back. It's a picture of me and Jonah at the Eras Tour last month.

I was in a terribly fitted dark auburn wig, wearing a pink cardigan and pink plaid skirt, and red sunglasses on my head—my take on Taylor Swift's mean girl character from her "You Belong with Me" music video. He was wearing an army green shirt and jeans, since he refused to wear the "I <3 TS" cropped t-shirt and black shorts I got for him. Coward.

We took this selfie minutes before Taylor came on stage. He was kissing me on the cheek, and I had my arm around his neck. We didn't take any more pictures together after that, since I was busy screaming-singing-crying for over three hours. He was singing along to some of her songs too—surprisingly, he knows every lyric to the songs from folklore—so I knew he was also having fun.

It was easily the best night of my life. Every time she came up on stage wearing a new outfit in blue, and how she ended up announcing an album release in the middle of the show? The whole stadium went crazy. It was priceless. Jonah couldn't have picked a better date for us to go to, and afterwards, I totally made sure to let him know how much I appreciated it.