Page 19 of Til Death
Rodrick put his hand up, silencing her. “I’ll take over here. Go ahead to the dressing room and see if there are only clothes that need to be re-racked.”
Her face fell and she shifted her eyes over to me. A smug look formed on my face while I flicked my hair behind my shoulders and tilted my face upward.
“Yes sir,” Mariah finally answered and slowly walked off.
“So worry about that, dear. Good help is so hard to find these days.”
I snickered. “Just make sure she’s retrained and this time properly.”
“Don’t worry, she’ll be handled accordingly.”
I waited while Rodrick did a few things. “Go ahead and swipe?” He nodded.
Satisfied to be dealing with someone who knew what they were doing, I tapped the card again.
I checked my watch for the time. My appointment at the jewelers was drawing closer, which meant I needed this to hurry and be sorted out.
“Xylina, dear, I’m so sorry, but your cardisdeclining.”
My mouth gaped and my eyes bounced from his unimpressed face to my card.
“That’s impossible,” I mumbled.
“Oh…” I cleared my throat as heat flooded my cheeks. “Silly me, it seems the card expired last month and I must have forgotten to switch it out for the current one.” It was a lie, but there was no way I couldn’t admit something was going on with my card. “I’ll just use my debit card.”
Quickly, I opened my wallet and swapped the cards. This time the sale went through.
“Mistakes happen. I just did the same thing last month.” He snickered. “I’m glad we could get everything sorted out.” Rodrick planted the five bags of clothes on top of the counter.
“Of course.” A tight smile formed on my face. “Just a duh moment for the books.” Quickly collecting my bags, I gave Rodrick a wave and turned, hurrying toward the exit. EverythingI had planned for the day was gonna have to be put on hold. Right now I needed to find out why my card wasn’t working and there was only one person who could answer that for me.
To say I was frustrated was an understatement. The credit card company refused to give me any answers because I wasn’t the primary on the account, and when I tried to call Daddy, he was unable to be reached. I didn’t bother with Mother since she never paid attention to things like this. I made sure to let my dad’s assistant know I needed to talk to Daddy immediately and to have him call me when he finished his meetings. That was hours ago and I still hadn’t heard from him.
Yosiah was nowhere to be found when I got home, so I couldn’t even express my frustration to him. Princess was the only one there to help keep me grounded.
“If you were going to be a downer, you should have just stayed at home, Xylina!” Aaliyah expressed, bringing her glass to her mouth.
I cut my eyes at her. “Why does what I’m doing affect you?” My head cocked to the side.
I’d agreed to come out with the girls tonight because after the stress of earlier, alcohol was much needed. Plus the jumpsuit I was wearing tonight was one of a kind and it was only right I showed it off.
“I’m just saying liven up some.” She flicked her blond bundles over her shoulders.
“How about you worry about not throwing up tonight and let me handle myself.” I flashed a fake smile her way.
Savannah snickered and passed me a drink she’d just poured from the bottles on the table in front of us.
“Ignore her. You know how she is.” She lifted her glass to me.
I smirked. “Yeah, being a hater is just in her DNA. I forgot.” I tossed the drink back.
Aaliyah scoffed across from us.
“Can we all just get along tonight? It’s been too long since we’ve all been out and I want to party!” Angel announced. She had just gotten out of rehab and was supposed to be clean now, but by the way her eyes were dilated and her words slurred, I was sure she’d already relapsed.
“You’re right, Angel! Let’s get fucked up!” I announced, leaning over for one of the bottles before standing.
“That’s what I’m talking about!” Tiara shouted. “Shout out to us being rich bad bitches!” She lifted her cup, prompting all of us to do the same.
