Page 41 of Come in with the Rain
She huffs out a laugh. “Yes, ajobjob.”
I feel like I’m holding my breath, waiting for her to tell me that it’s a joke, but she doesn’t. I settle onto a stool, my legs feeling the way they do when I’ve had too much to drink. “You said no, right?”
Her eyes shoot to mine, a crease appearing between her brows. “Why would I say no?”
I blink at her. “Why would you say yes?”
She lets her mouth fall open in aare you kidding?way. “90K a year, health insurance, and a retirement account.”
It feels like she’s laying bricks on my chest, one at a time.Mickey, job, money.I grind my teeth together. It’s not her I’m angry at. It’s Mickey. Mickey fucking Kline and all the shiny objects he holds in his hands every day to get people to do what he wants them to. “Stella, this is Mickey we’re talking about. He treated you like shit.”
She comes around the front of the island and leans back against it. She’s wearing this little summer dress, and I have to look away from her legs so that I don’t get distracted. “Sure, as a boyfriend, Mickey wasn’t the best. But this is Mickey the professional. He’s respected, and he runs a company that—"
“You’re defending him now?”
She stutters, this strange little noise in the back of her throat. “I can’t say no to an opportunity like this, Adam, regardless of what happened between him and me.”
Hearing her say that makes me sick. It feels like I’m back in Mickey’s condo, with the two of them on one side of a line and me on the other. “Yes, you can.”
The kitchen falls silent for a second, our words like particles floating in the air, until she opens her mouth. “I don’t understand. You’re the one who told me it was okay to accept help.”
“I didn’t mean fromhim.” The words burst out of me, and as soon as they do, I know that whatever wall we were building between us, I just put the finishing touches on it. She’s looking at me like I told her to go straight to hell.
“Is your ego really so enormous that you can’t handle me working for my ex?”
Her words smack me in the face. “This isn’t about my ego, Stella. No one is ever going to see you as anything but Mickey’s girlfriend if you do this.”
“No one is going to see me as Mickey’s girlfriend!” she shouts, slamming her palms flat on the counter.
I lunge out of my seat. “Yes, they are, and you’re going to be a fucking joke at that job!” Her face goes pale, the color sliding out quickly, and I’m shaking my head, already trying to figure out a way to take it back. “Stella, I just mean—"
“I can’t believe you just said that to me.” Her voice comes out in a shattered whisper. First her lips part, then her chin wobbles, then she slams her mouth shut. “Get out.” The whisper is gone, her voice laced with ice.
My chest is puffing, in and out, in and out, something like panic starting to set in. “Stella, I didn’t mean it like that.”
“I said, get the fuck out!” she shrieks, marching around the kitchen island and pointing one ominous finger toward her front door. I stand there for another minute, feeling desperate, feeling lost, wanting to stuff everything back into my mouth. I want to scream and cry and beg her to pretend that I didn’t say any of it. Because I feel the way we crack, the way I just started to irrevocably shatter what’s between us. But I can see it on her face. If I say one more thing, she’ll snap. So, I turn and leave.
CHAPTER41
ADAM
Istorm into Berserkr and go straight for an empty punching bag. I don’t even put on gloves or tape. The canvas immediately rips at my skin, until my knuckles are burning and there are smears of blood on the bag.
I’m still going at it, still pounding again and again, when a figure appears out of the corner of my eye and a voice says, “Hey, idiot. Those are brand new bags. You going to pay to have them cleaned?” I stop punching, and Ford wraps his arms around the bag to stop its swaying. “What happened?”
The pain in my hands is starting, throbbing and burning, and I like the way it feels. The pain in my hands is pulling focus from the pain in my chest, the burning in my knuckles distracting me from the burning behind my eyes.
“She’s going to work for Mickey.”
Ford’s brow crinkles. “Okay. And?”
I reach up and grab the chain on the bag, until Ford and I are almost nose-to-nose. “And I don’t want her working for that asshole.”
He’s quiet for a moment, the sound of grunting and running and punching filling up the silence. I can see him making an assessment in his head. Ford will always reserve judgement in any situation until he has all the information. Until he’s lined it all up and can make an informed decision. He’s never going to take my side just because we’re best friends. And on a normal day, that would be fine. Today, not so much.
“So, what, he’s asked her to be his secretary or something?”
“No.” And that’s when I realize I don’t actually know what Mickey asked her to do. I didn’t even give her a chance to explain. “I don’t know what the job is.”
