“This is something we can’t overlook.”
“I can’t fucking believe you’re doing this to me.” I can’t afford to lose this job. My house, car, utilities, if I don’t get them paid soon, I’ll lose everything.
“I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re not!” Dammit, I need to calm down. I drop my gaze to my lap and take a deep breath. “Mr. Gamboni, please, I need this job. I’ll do whatever you ask. Just give me another chance. Please.”
He shakes his head. “Sorry, orders are from Cavat. I’m just doing my job, Eve.”
Oh, now he knows my damn name. Fuck this.
I grab my purse and stomp around the desk. Inside the top drawer are a few of my personal items—nail file, lip gloss, bottle of aspirin—that I shove in my purse. I snag the pen he has tucked into the breast pocket of his shirt. “This is mine too.” After dropping it in my purse, I storm out of there and slam the door behind me.
“Sayonara, assholes.” I head out to my car and point it toward the Slade’s house.
My coffee date with Raven at four-thirty just got upgraded to a tequila date at ten a.m.
##
“Fuckin’ dicks!” I throw back another shot of tequila and cringe against the flame that slides down my throat.
“I’m so sorry, Eve.” Raven’s sitting next to me on the top step of her pool. She’s wrapped in a cool fifties-style black halter maternity swimsuit, her hair piled on top of her head and black oversized sunglasses shading her eyes.
I called her after leaving Nori, and she got out of work to hang out with me. I guess Guy has been trying to get her to back off on her workload anyway since she’s getting closer to her due date. The second I stormed in her house, she tossed me a bikini and handed me a bottle of tequila. Best friends don’t get best-er than that.
I put the shot glass down by the bottle on the pool deck. “I don’t know what I’m going to do now. I can’t put Nori down as a reference. What if they ask why I was let go?”
Raven’s eyebrows drop below her frames. “Why didn’t you come to me? I had no clue you were hurting for money.”
“I can’t ask you for money, Rave. It feels so wrong. I mean we came from nothing, ya know? I know you have like zillions now, but I need to find my own.” I flick the water a few times. “Although, looking back, I guess coming to you would’ve been a better option. Hindsight’s a dirty whore.”
She doesn’t say anything, and I’m grateful for that. I can’t believe I did something so stupid. What was I thinking?
“Maybe you should try to fight it. I’ve heard of companies getting sued for not making sure employees get breaks.” Raven munches on a plate of grapes.
“Even if I had the money to hire a lawyer, which I don’t, they’ll never give me my job back.” I shrug. “I don’t know. Maybe that little troll Seth was right. I could use something new.”
“Too bad you don’t know crap about cars. I know Guy would love a mechanic to take over for me. Then I can just lock myself up at home and become the perfect little princess, safe in the tower while I await the birth of my baby.” She chucks a grape to the far end of the pool.
“Oh boy . . .”
She turns her shades toward me, and even behind the dark lenses, I can feel her scowl. “More like oh men. I tried to get him to let me take the Nova to work the other day so I could change the oil on it, and you would’ve thought I was asking him if I could shove razor blades up my nose.”
“I don’t see what the big deal is. If he’d give just a little, you wouldn’t be pulling so hard in the opposite direction.”
She grunts and inhales another cheekful of grapes.
“Um . . . speaking of men. There’s the thing I wanted to talk to you about, you know, before I got fired.”
“Oh, yeah.” She finishes chewing and swallows. “That’s right. What is it?”
I push off the step and wade into the shallow end of the pool. “Turns out you were right, and I, uh . . . I don’t think I’m gay.”
She tilts her head, and this time shoves her sunglasses up to her head to shoot daggers in my direction. “No kidding.”
“Ha-ha.” I take a deep breath. “I’ve been kinda seeing someone.”
Her eyes go wide, and a big grin pulls at her mouth. “That’s awesome. Where did you meet him?”
“That’s the funny part. You introduced us.”
She blinks, and her eyebrows pinch together. “Huh Oh!” She snaps and grins. “Mason. I mean, technically I think Jonah or Blake introduced you, but it is Mason, right? You were at the party with him the other—”
“No, it’s not Mason.”
“Oh.” Her expression turns sour. “Who is it?”
“It’s, uh . . . Cameron.”
Her entire expression goes slack.
“Unexpected, I know. We just . . . We slept together, and I thought that’s all it would end up being, like a seriously amazing one-night stand, but . . .”