Read Online Almost Doesn't Count by Angela Winters - Free Book Online Page B

to be to manage twenty people.
    Sherise felt like a loser. The few times she tried to contribute, she could talk of only her past accomplishments and it made her seem sad. She pretended to tend to Cady to avoid the conversation, but she felt sick to her stomach inside. Life was passing her by while she was feeding her baby overcooked eggs.
    She hadn’t intended to take her anger out on Justin, but every time he tried to talk to her after they’d gotten home, she just snapped at him in return. He didn’t even tell her he was going out. She just heard the door slam. She tried to call him. He didn’t answer, only texted her back, saying he was going into the office for a few hours and would be back by dinner.
    And now, she’d even ruined that.
    When the phone rang, she quickly turned the water off and grabbed it with her dry hand. She recognized the name on caller ID. LaKeisha Wilson was an old coworker of hers when she was a legislative assistant on Capitol Hill. She hadn’t spoken to her in a few years.
    â€œHello?” Sherise cradled the phone in her neck as she dried her hand.
    â€œSherise Robinson?” LaKeisha, born and raised by a middle-class family in Texas, had a strong southern-belle accent.
    â€œYes,” she responded flatly. Calls from the past always made Sherise suspicious.
    â€œSherise! Girl, it’s me, LaKeisha Wilson. You remember me, don’t you?”
    Sherise faked the most excited voice she could, given her current mood. “LaKeisha? Of course I do. How you doing, girl? What’s up?”
    â€œIs it true, what I hear? Are you doing the real housewives gig? Stay-at-home mom and all that?”
    â€œActually I am. How did you hear?”
    â€œBelieve it or not, your name came up in a conversation I had last night with some women at an FCBA event.”
    FCBA stood for Federal Communications Bar Association, an organization for people involved in federal regulation of the communications industry.
    â€œSo you’re working in regulation now?” Sherise asked.
    She didn’t really care what LaKeisha was up to, but thought she’d be nice before she found out which bitch was talking about her. Sherise tried to catch herself, realizing how malicious her thinking was without even knowing what had gone on.
    â€œI was at the FCC for a year and a half,” she answered. “I’m with the Northman campaign now.”
    Jerry Northman, former chairman of the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission, had recently quit his position at the agency and announced he was considering a run for president in the next election just under two years from now.
    â€œHow nice for you,” Sherise said. “Who were you talking to?”
    â€œWhat?” LaKeisha sounded disappointed that Sherise wasn’t more interested in what she was doing. “Oh, well, yeah . . . it was . . . I can’t remember all their names. It was just a group of women. I think her name was something Ross. Jessica or some Jacquelyn, something that started with a J.”
    Sherise picked her brain, thinking of all the Jessicas and Jacquelyns she knew. “What did she look like?”
    â€œShe was pretty, black, and . . . that’s really all I can remember. I didn’t really talk to her. I was talking to Lucy Adams, who was with her. Anyway, your name came up because I was talking about people that were really good at communications.”
    Sherise was at least happy to hear she was still being talked about in relation to her professional skills. So maybe she wasn’t that much of a has-been after all.
    â€œWhat for?”
    â€œFor the Northman campaign,” LaKeisha said. “I mentioned how I’d heard a while ago that you were doing good things at the White House, and this woman . . . Jessica or whatever, said you were a stay-at-home mom now.”
    â€œIt was my decision,” Sherise said strongly. “They were very upset that I left,