Was he flushed?
I cleared my throat. “Sir, nice to see you today.”
“Yeaaahhhhhh…” He leaned so far over the receptionist desk that I shoved my rolling chair back. Huh, maybe if I spun in it, I’d pass out and wouldn’t have to have this conversation. “I’m gonna have to let you go, squirt.”
Oh yeah, and he called me squirt like I was ten, not twenty-two.
Wait, what?
“Excuse me?” My eyes narrowed. “I don’t think I understand.”
“You…” he said slowly as he pointed his heavily jeweled hand in my direction, “are being let go.”
I gulped. Was I really getting fired from Fancy Fred’s? Really? “Can I ask why?”
“’Course, squirt!” He stood to his full height and clapped his hands. “Nancy over there has a girl in high school who needs a job. She’s half the price of your fancy college education, and I was gonna need to cut your hours anyway since things haven’t been so great around these parts with that damn Audi dealership moving in across the street.” He muttered a few more curse words, and I followed his gaze.
As if she knew I was getting fired, there Olivia stood, greeting a customer with a bottle of Evian and a drop-dead smile.
Damn it!
This was all her fault!
Or her boss’s fault.
Whatever… it had all started with her, hadn’t it?
And now it was ending with her.
I shoved my chair back. “I’ll just grab my things.”
I reached for my things only to discover the only object that was mine was the travel mug I’d brought from home with “this is probably gin” scrolled across it.
“Yeah,” I picked it up. “So, um…got ’em…” My wallet and keys were still in my pocket as I silently left my stupid ass job. Damn it, I didn’t even have a plant or box to carry out!
How humiliating.
With a grimace, I unlocked my old Dodge truck and crawled in. What the hell was I going to do now?
Rent was going to be due soon.
And as much as I would have loved to move back in with my parents, they were divorced. My mom was in Palm Springs, my dad golfing in Florida. I’d been on my own since I was eighteen.
I slammed my hands against the steering wheel when a knock sounded on my window, scaring the shit out of me.
It was Fred again.
I turned on my truck and hit the electric window button. Fred shoved his head inside my space with that dumbass smile on his face again. “Gonna need the keys, squirt.”
“I’m not squirt,” I said through clenched teeth.
His smile didn’t even falter; he just shrugged. “You’re young, kid. You’ll land on your feet. Hey, maybe try the parts lot down the street. I heard they’re giving kids an extra nickel on top of the eight bucks an hour they pay if they can salvage extra equipment.”
“Yay.” I deadpanned. “A nickel.”
“Or two, if you’re lucky.” The man looked seconds away from roughing up my hair and slapping me on the cheek.
I dug into my pocket and grabbed the cool metallic key to the building. “Here.”
“Okie dokie!” He pulled back. “Chin up, squirt!”
I had a sudden image of me yelling, “I’m not squirt,” then tackling him to the ground as I punched the smile right off his face. The daydream was better than naked tits…” I shook myself out of it and sent the window sailing back up as I quickly pulled out of the parking lot, completely and utterly fucked.
Chapter Two
Olivia
“Lucky bastard,” I whispered under my breath. Mark was getting sent home early.
In the last year, I’d seen him greet customers, wearing whatever the hell he wanted, coming in an hour later than I had to and leaving at six when I had to stay until eight, which was ridiculous by the way, because most customers came in either during the day or right after work. Rarely did we have anyone I needed to greet at eight. Rarely was anyone even in the showroom other than some of the diehard salesmen who refused to go home even if it wasn’t their shift.
I squeezed the Evian bottle with my right hand, condensation dripping down the sides.
He’d lucked out.
He had gotten the easy job.
The one where he could probably eat at his desk and spike his own coffee and nobody would so much as blink, whereas I—
I adjusted my Spanx—again. And tried to take a deep breath. I had to wear black every day, and unfortunately for me, all my black dresses were a bit too small.
I blamed being single and using my parents’ Netflix and their Postmates account to deliver food, but really, I was stuck in a rut. I knew it. My friend Amelia knew it. It was just, this was not how I saw my life going.
I was driven.
And I knew that I was even overqualified at times, but the best jobs were going to people with experience or master’s degrees. Nobody really cared about a business major and how good her grades had been through all four years of studying.
If anything, my lack of experience worked harder against me than if I had failed all my classes.
A little growl escaped my lips when Mark’s truck disappeared down the street. He was probably getting out early so he could hang out with friends, which he still had because he got off on time. Meanwhile, I hadn’t seen Amelia since last weekend, and even then, she was acting like something was wrong and kept checking her phone. She finally came up with this lame-ass excuse of not feeling well and left me alone at the bar to fend for myself.
Well, I guess I wasn’t totally by myself since Mark had stopped by to punish me with his good looks, killer smile, and all-around annoying presence.
“This seat taken?” He’d grinned.
I glared. “It was.”
“Hmm, looks empty, feels empty, seems like you’re all by yourself, Olive.”
“Don’t call me Olive. It’s not
