Page 75 of The Encounter
“Only good?”
Maddie sighed. “There was this awful reporter there. She kept popping up everywhere trying to get an interview with Jace, but he turned her down. Then I bid on this necklace in the silent auction, and she purposely outbid me and then rubbed it in my face. She was awful.”
Kailynn scrunched up her nose. “She sounds awful.”
“She told me she dated Jace.”
“Did she actually?”
Maddie frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Did she actually date Jace, or was she just saying that to make you jealous?”
She hadn’t thought of that. She wouldn’t put it past Samantha to say something to get a rise out of her. So it was certainly possible that she was lying about it.
“That’s a good question. I don’t know. I didn’t ask.”
“Maybe you should ask him about it. Get his side of the story to see what game she is trying to play.”
Maddie nodded. “I think you’re right.”
“So what did the necklace look like?”
Maddie sighed. “It looked like my mom’s. It looked exactly like my mom’s.”
Kailynn stopped sewing and turned around to face Maddie. “The amethyst one?”
She nodded. She and Kailynn had discussed most everything about their lives. Kailynn was one of Maddie’s closest friends next to Kayla. While they had both tried to keep it professional in the beginning, it quickly turned into a close friendship.
One of the biggest turning points in their friendship had been when Kailynn and her boyfriend Chase had broken up briefly, by Kailynn’s choice, when she wanted to make sure she wasn’t using him as a rebound. Kailynn was devastated and moped around for a week. Maddie helped her plan a way to get him back.
“That bitch took it from you?”
Maddie would have laughed at Kailynn’s question, but the thought of losing the necklace still stung. “Unfortunately. Jace was really sweet and offered to buy me one.”
“Are you going to let him?”
“No. I need to do it for myself.”
“I think I would probably feel the same way.”
A smile crept onto Maddie’s lips. “But the hilarious thing is that Jace had arranged for this live auction dessert thing to be my favorite dessert, since he planned to bid on it. Samantha realized he was trying to win it, so she kept bidding against him to raise the bid.”
“Oh my God. Did he stop bidding so she won?”
“Even better. The auctioneer made it so both of them won, so we still got the dessert as well, but Samantha also had to pay TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS!”
Kailynn’s mouth dropped open. “No!”
Maddie laughed loudly, still giddy over the fact that Samantha screwed herself over by trying to be difficult.
“I would have loved to see that,” Kailynn said.
“It was seriously the best. The look on her face. Oh man.”
They both giggled together before going back to work.
Kailynn asked Maddie’s opinion on several projects she was working on, and they spent even more time talking about things unrelated to work.
