Her Sexiest Mistake

Mike's not-quite-real smile faded entirely. Gee, Mom, relax.

You were nearly late.

Nearly doesn't count except in horseshoes and hand grenades.

Yeah, yeah, let's go. He moved to the door but then hesitated, fighting the urge to give Mike a list. Remember to look into their eyes. Remember to keep your cool. Remember…

But determination and pride blazed from Mike's eyes, and Kevin didn't sign a word except It's going to be fine.

Mike stared at him, then let some of the smile come back. Always is.

***

Hope tried to not seethe with resentment watching Adam play Ping-Pong with Amber, a popular girl with perfect hair, perfect makeup, and a perfect body clad in bright sunshine yellow. Hope needed sunglasses just to look at her.

Feeling someone's eyes on her, she looked up and found Cole watching her. She hadn't talked to him since that day she'd seen him go out Kevin's classroom window and had driven the Audi over the field to give him a ride-or would have given him a ride if Kevin hadn't stopped them.

She hadn't avoided him on purpose-well, maybe she had a little. It was just that he was no more popular than she was, and she'd wanted something different here.

Not that that had materialized for her.

Cole smiled. Embarrassed to have been caught staring at Adam, she looked away. Her metal belt cut into her hips, her stud bracelets clanked together noisily as she walked to the electronic dartboard on the wall, and suddenly she wished she wasn't wearing any of it.

There was a game in progress, with a group of middle schoolers. These kids were younger and actually seemed to like her, so she stayed, regaling them with her stories, all of which were made up, of course. She had an entire background fabricated: she was the lone daughter of a wealthy couple who were older and traveled to places like the Greek islands and east Africa. At the moment, they were on a world cruise and she was stuck here with Mia against her will because her nanny had run off with their chef. In fact, her aunt hated having her here, hated it so much that she threatened to beat Hope every single night if Hope didn't perform a long list of chores like she was Cinderella or something.

Just yesterday Adam had been totally impressed by the story, but today he was busy with Amber.

It was because she hadn't put out the other night, she knew it. He'd been into her then. She should have just done it, gotten it over with.

Cole gestured to the darts. 'Can I play?'

'All yours,' Hope said and handed the darts over without looking at him. Undoing the top two buttons of her top, she headed for Adam.

He looked up when she got closer, and then took a second look at the visible mark he'd put on her neck.

Next to him, Amber frowned.

'Coming over tonight?' Hope murmured to Adam.

His gaze dropped to her breasts. 'I don't know.'

'Because I'm feeling much better,' she assured him and absorbed his hungry smile.

***

Mia's day did not go as planned. She spent the morning at a client's office, and when she checked her messages, she had a cryptic 'Call me' from Dick, and another, even more cryptic 'Oh, boy' from Tess.

Neither answered her return call, and when she got back to her building and pushed the elevator button, the doors opened to reveal Tess.

She stepped off, holding a box with her personal items, and Mia's stomach rolled over. 'What the hell?'

'Well, it's a good news, bad news sort of thing,' Tess said like always, but utterly without the usual smile. In fact, her eyes were red, she wore no lip gloss, and her face was pale.

Mia's cell began to vibrate, but she ignored it, her eyes locked on Tess's face. 'Bad news first.'

Tess stepped off the elevator. 'I quit.'

'Oh, no you didn't.' Mia tried to grab the box out of her hands.

Tess held firm. 'Ask me for the good news.'

'Tess-'

'Ask me.'

'Fine. What's the good news?'

'After I quit, Dickhead fired me, so I think that means I can get unemployment.'

'What?'

'Yeah.' Tess shook her head and began to walk. 'Ted is such an asshole.'

'Tell me something I don't know.' Mia turned and followed her through the huge lobby, with no idea where they were going.

'He got this sort of sick thrill by pushing my buttons, you know?'

Mia did know. It drove her crazy that Ted picked on Tess. But to work there without her warm, easy support… Damn it, Mia couldn't even imagine. 'Go on,' she said tightly.

'You've already heard all this. He kept giving me stuff to do that wasn't my job and wanting me to do it ahead of everyone else's stuff. It was rude, but I could have dealt with that.' Tess was talking like this was no big deal, but Mia knew Tess needed this job financially.

And Mia needed her. Not financially, but in every other way. 'Oh, Tess.'

Tess stopped in front of the donut stand, put down her things, and bought a dozen. 'He talked to me like I was an idiot, but I could handle that, too.' She offered a donut to Mia, who felt like eating the whole box. 'But this morning he was going through the other reps' sales files, yours included.'

'What?'

'Yeah, looking at the trafficking reports, at your media research, all for the Anderson account. When I caught him at it, he had the nerve to tell Dickhead that I was setting him up to fail, that I wasn't giving him important messages, that I was giving confidential information to other reps, doing everything I could to sabotage him. And then he told Dickhead that's how you got the Anderson account.'

Mia stared at her. 'This is insane. I'm going to get your job back, Tess. I'm going to-'

Tess's eyes filled with tears, and Mia wanted to kick something. Preferably Ted's balls.

'No,' Tess said with a sniff. 'Don't. Don't jeopardize yourself.'

'I don't care about that.'

But Tess was shaking her head. 'I won't come back here.'

'Tess-'

'I mean it, Mia. I won't, not even for you. I have better things ahead for me.'

'Like what?'

'Like… Cookie Madness.'