“It’s easier to show you. How much longer are you going to be?” he repeated.
“I don’t know. Probably not that long, but I need you to tell me what happened because a lot of things you think might be messed up, can be fixed,” I said, trying to sound calm, but just thinking about how much him screwing up might eat up my time when I got back left a tight feeling in my gut. It was already almost five, and I wasn’t too crazy about staying late. Not today at least. I was supposed to go to the gym with Lenny.
Jason decided to pretend he hadn’t heard me. “How long? Twenty minutes?”
Kill him with kindness, kill him with kindness, kill him with kindness. The words alone felt like a boulder right in the center of my entire freaking existence. I’d been having to tell myself those exact same words way too often lately, and they weren’t being as effective as usual. “Jason, tell me what you did.”
He ignored me like he always did. “It doesn’t matter. You’re going to have to fix it.”
The truck starting up broke through my thoughts, but I kept my gaze forward on the building we were parked in front of. “I’m not going to fix anything. You need to learn how to fix it. So even if I get there, you’re still going to have to do it, okay?”
There was silence on the other end and then, “This isn’t my job.”
Oh, no.
A big hand landed in front of me, palm up, and I glanced over to see that obviously it was Rip’s.
He opened and closed those long, forever-stained fingers despite the bulk-sized Orange hand cleaner in every bathroom.
Did he…?
Screw it. Fine. I had already come in between these two, I wasn’t about to volunteer to do it again.
I dropped the phone into his hand, and he didn’t waste a second bringing it up to his ear and grumbling, “What did you do?”
I wasn’t sure if I’d answer that question if I were Jason. Honestly, I’d probably hang up.
“You’re calling Luna when you know she’s busy, with me, so I wanna know what you did that’s making you call…. You didn’t do anything? Then why are you calling?.... So you did fuck up?.... That’s what I thought…. Again? What did I tell you yesterday?.... Go upstairs, tell Cooper what you did…. Yes, Mr. Cooper. Yup, the one who hired you. That one. Go tell him right now. Don’t wait until she gets there. She’s not doing shit.” There was a pause and then, “The fuck did you just say?” Rip snapped, and I had to press my lips together, if only to keep my mouth from opening... in almost glee.
He blinked.
I blinked.
Then he pulled the phone away from his face and stared down at the screen.
“Did he hang up on you?”
He was still staring down at the phone when he muttered, sounding pissed, “This motherfucker….”
He’d hung up on him.
And… it made me laugh.
Maybe it was Rip’s facial expression, maybe it was the idea that he was genuinely outraged, but I laughed, and I didn’t stop laughing. The frustration I’d felt toward that motherfucker, in Rip’s words, instantly disappearing. Maybe because it was nice to see that I wasn’t the only one who got treated like crap. I seriously couldn’t believe he’d hung up on him. It made me cackle and forget I was supposed to be professional and stuff. “Watch, he’s going to pretend the phone dropped the call, but he’s on the landline,” I warned him.
Rip kept his gaze down on the black screen before thrusting the cell back in my direction. His tone was freaking grumpy as he asked, “He always this much of a piece of shit? He already knows he’s got one strike against him after yesterday. Now he’s gonna have two after this bullshit. He can’t play the dumb card too much longer.”
So he had gotten in trouble then. That made me feel just a little better about yesterday. But I would have liked it more if he’d gotten the ax. I mean, Rip had gotten rid of people for less, but that was none of my business.
Fortunately, he didn’t wait for my answer, probably knowing that was a yes. “He always act like that with you?”
I closed my eye, still looking forward. “What do you mean exactly?”
I was pretty sure Rip clucked his tongue. He rephrased it, bless his heart. “He always act like a prick like that?”
“Well…” I trailed off, but inside, I thought yep, which was why he had reamed me the day before—because Jason was a prick.
There was a rough, “Hmm.” Ripley’s cheek did that twitch thing, and I almost laughed again at the reminder of how mad he’d just been. “He gives you shit like that again, you tell me. Got it?”
I made a face to myself, telling myself to let the day before go—and only partially succeeding—but still managed to say, “Sure.” If it came out sarcastic, that hadn’t totally been my intention.
Those blue-green eyes swung to my direction, exposing something in them I couldn’t pinpoint. “Luna, just fucking tell me, all right?”
Like I wanted to deal with Jason’s attitude more than I already did. Rip could have him if he wanted him. I felt a little like I was cheating on Mr. Cooper by going through Rip to get rid of him, but I had told Mr. C about how he acted around me, and he’d still thrown him my way. “Sure,” I agreed again, knowing I didn’t sound convincing.
I was choosing happiness. I was going to move on and forgive Rip for the day before. He would have done it to anyone.
I shouldn’t take it personally.
I could see his hands flex on the steering wheel, but it took a minute for the next round of words to come out of his mouth. “Say, think of something else you want.”
My body froze, instantly choosing that to focus on instead of… before. Because, we were back to this? Again? “Rip,” I almost groaned. “No, we’re done. We’re even. We’re fine, whatever you want to call it.” I almost started to say we were good, but that felt like a little bit of an exaggeration. In a few days, we’d be good. Right now, we were just fine.
He didn’t look at me though. “We’re not.”
“But we are.”
“Nah, Luna, we’re not. Choose something else,” he insisted, still focused ahead.
Was he being serious? He’d spent fifteen hours in my company, including the time he slept in a room down the hall from mine. If that didn’t count as a massive favor, a favor that should make us totally even for all intents and purposes, I wasn’t sure what else would.
Unless….
Did he really feel that bad about getting mad at me?
“Rip, it counted. Just because—” My sister kicked me out, I thought but didn’t say. “—we didn’t end up having to stay or do anything, doesn’t mean it doesn’t count. You went with me. That’s more than enough.” I just wanted to… move on.
He had other ideas though.
“Too fucking bad.” Those blue-green eyes slid back to me for a split second, and I could see the tightness at his jaw. “Figure it out and let me know what you want.”
“Nothing. I promise. There’s not a single other thing you need to do.” Because there wasn’t. There really wasn’t.
Those long fingers tapped along the steering wheel, and his jaw did that tightening thing again. “Yeah, there is. The other one doesn’t count. All we did was take a fucking ride and eat a late dinner. Figure it out, Luna. I don’t wanna be sixty when you decide.”
I pressed my lips together.
Don’t do it, Luna. Everything is not fine and dandy. Don’t do it. Don’t—
Let it go. Let it—
I didn’t.
“So I have… two years… before then?” I whispered, grimacing at the joke that I shouldn’t have made so that we could focus on the serious topic of our conversation. So I could hold on to the distance I was supposed to put between us because he was my boss.
What I got was silence.
Freaking silence.
The sigh that came out of him reminded me of what I figured a hot air balloon would sound like if it deflated. “I should’ve fired you the other day.”
I sucked in a breath, and my entire upper body turned to him.
He was smirking.
He thought he was being funny.
He was… joking.
These mocking, laughing eyes I had never seen before slid over to me, and the second they spotted my expression, they changed. My name came out a grumble. “I was playing.”