Chapter 25

Jackie hid until lunch. That’s when Patricia pulled her from her room. She might as well go out and eat while she could, since she wouldn’t be able to afford groceries in a couple weeks. She’d run the numbers; she should tell Patricia to start looking for a new roommate soon.

“Hello, Miss Raccoon Eyes. What happened? Did you talk to Doug? Do I need to beat him up for you?”

Jackie’s eyes welled up with tears again, but she rubbed them away harshly. “I didn’t talk to Doug. I talked to Mr. Lang. He fired me. No more contract at the end of the month. They want me to be permanently on call,” she wailed.

“What did you say?”

“Nothing. I freaked out at being unemployed.”

“Jackie, you’re my best friend. You know I love you, so listen to what I’m telling you. I get you don’t like conflict, but if you don’t start standing up for yourself, things will keep getting worse. You’ll lose more than your job, which is ridiculous, by the way. Doug will walk away too. He’ll have to. I’ve known him forever. You’re sweet and funny and an excellent radiologist and an even better cook. But Doug’s a doer. He’s going to want somebody who can keep up with him, not hold him back. Right now, you aren’t keeping up.”

Her roommate delivered her advice kindly, but it still hit Jackie like a freight train. Mostly because she recognized the truth in it. Slackers didn’t skip a grade and get out of Hopewell with multiple scholarships. They didn’t graduate from medical school in record time.

They didn’t date unemployed doormats.

She was being a doormat. It wasn’t fair. “I’m a hard worker. Why can’t I find a job?”

“Because you don’t ask for them. Your mom told you about the radiology position at the hospital. You didn’t have to go out to get it,” Patricia reminded her.

“I have my own business,” Jackie protested.

“And you wait for clients to come to you. You don’t go out to find them.”

That was also true.

Patricia finished her yogurt and grabbed an apple. “I’ve got to get back to work. Are you going to be okay?” she asked.

“I’ll be fine.” As soon as she got over the shock.

“What are you going to do?”

Jackie took a deep breath. “Keep up.”

She had to start somewhere.

But she didn’t have the heart to start with Doug. Not yet. She needed something in her back pocket when she asked him about his breakfast date with Kashvi. Something to show him—her—both of them, that she was worth the answer.

Patricia beamed. “That’s my girl!” She pulled Jackie into a hug. “I’ll be here for you no matter what. If Doug is seeing someone else, I will…” Her voice trailed off. “We’ll think of something.”

“Let me get some stuff done first. I can do all of this. It just might take me some time,” Jackie said.

“Yes. You can. Go do it.”

She could. She would. As soon as she stopped hyperventilating. She knew exactly where she was going to start.

She didn’t call Scarlett or Alice St. James to warn them she was coming. She simply showed up at Ruth’s Place with a copy of her food-handling licence and a recipe for blueberry saskatoon muffins in her pocket. A dozen sample muffins later, she and Alice sat at a table in the corner negotiating a deal.

“Two dozen fresh baked items every day,” Scarlett’s mom said.

“Four dozen, every two days,” Jackie countered. “They’ll still be fresh the next morning.” And it meant she had to get up at the crack of dawn three times a week instead of six.

“What if I need more? Or less? These are fantastic, but I don’t know how fast they’ll sell.”

“We’ll renegotiate after the first four weeks for another month. After that, we’ll make a longer contract because the novelty will have worn off and we’ll know what the real numbers are.” Jackie should have been more nervous, but she wasn’t. She’d already done the math.

Alice St. James stuck out her hand. “It’s a deal. When can you start?”

Logically she should wait for her contract with the hospital to run out in case they needed her. But that was the old, pushover Jackie. This was the new, take-charge Jackie. Since the diner was closed on Mondays, “Tuesday.” It was time for her to go for broke, or just go broke.

With one new contract under her belt, Jackie took a muffin for courage and returned home for her next call. This one took longer. She had to write a script in advance to keep herself from falling silent in intimidation.

Jackie fumbled the keypad as she called the hospital administrator in Virden. She’d met the woman two years earlier; she’d filled in at the hospital an hour northwest of Hopewell on a casual basis for the regular radiologists during a particularly flu-ridden winter. “Hi, Helen. It’s Jackie Dunn. A couple weeks ago, Annie told me she’s going on maternity leave at the end of the year.” This was the hard part. She took a deep breath. “Have you decided who is going to get her hours? I want you to put my application at the top of the pile.”

She’d never spoken to Helen before about a regular position. She’d always been happy to get whatever was offered to her. Now she was charging full steam ahead.

“Are you serious?”

“Totally serious. My contract at the Hopewell Hospital is up, and I want to stay in the country. I have a car, so the commute won’t be an issue as long as the weather cooperates.”

“I’ll move you to the top of the list,” Helen said, much to Jackie’s surprise. “I’d love to say yes right now, because I know you’d be a good fit with the staff. They already like you, and you’re great with the patients. I’ll send you an email. The second you email me back, I’ll take it to the board. You made my week, Jackie. Thank you.”

“No, thank you.” Her heart was flying. The Hopewell Hospital never made her feel as valued as Helen just had.

Twenty minutes later, Jackie was sitting on the sofa in shock, reading Helen’s email for the third time. Not only did they need a maternity leave replacement, but the Virden administrator had also gleefully told her that Annie wanted to drop to half-time early, and they’d been looking for someone.

With one phone call, she’d picked up enough hours in Virden to keep her busy for five half-days a week. When she added in her new baking contract, she was almost at full time before she added in her catering gigs.

All she’d had to do was stand up. She should have done it long ago.

Next up was to call Victor Lang.

“Mr. Lang, I’ve decided not to sign the on-call agreement as it stands. I’m rejecting your offer.”

She heard sputtering on the other end of the line. “What do you mean? You can’t reject our offer.”

Jackie couldn’t blame him. He’d never heard the word “no” from her before. “Obviously, I was sorry to hear you weren’t interested in renewing my contract. However, Virden was happy to give me one. You had to know I couldn’t survive on what you were offering. I don’t think you and the rest of the board expected me to stand by and agree to something that restricted my ability to make a living.” Actually, she did expect him to think that she’d submarine her own future to mollify him, but she’d done that long enough.

“I’m very disappointed with your attitude, Jackie.” She could picture him tapping his index finger against his desk calendar, scowling at the phone.

“I was very disappointed with receiving the letter terminating my employment without even a ‘thank you for your service’ comment at the bottom.” Jackie tugged her stress-sweat stained T-shirt away from her chest.

“I think we need to discuss this in person, Jackie.”

“There’s nothing to discuss, Victor.” She covered her mouth. She wasn’t even calling him Mr. Lang anymore. “If you’d like to make another offer for me to be on call for weekday afternoons, there is no reason the doctors on staff can’t schedule their X-rays accordingly.”

“Jackie, I’ll have to discuss this with the board. I wish you’d be more flexible.”

“I’ve been more than flexible with you and the board for the last two years. It’s time for some reciprocity”—she took another huge breath—“so if you’d rather not have me in the mornings and want to hire someone else entirely, you can discuss that with them as well.”

He sputtered some more. Jackie was relieved. It was so much better than the yelling she’d expected. He hadn’t said yes, but he hadn’t said no yet either.

She felt her resolve wavering. “I’ll let you talk to the board. Have a good afternoon, Victor,” she said, ending the call with his first name again. She wiped her brow with her forearm, and it came away wet with sweat.

In order, those were the hardest two things she’d ever done in her life, and she was about to bump them down the list.

Jackie didn’t know if she had it in her to make another call, so she sent a text before she could chicken out.

Free for a drink after work? Have a question for you.

She supposed it would be good to get everything over at once.