“Brady,” Bernard keened. “They cut off the money. I can’t get you tickets.”
My eyes flared and I stared at my friend. “The hotel?” Bernard had gotten a suite with two rooms—an expensive one, as an apology for the last-minute late nights we’d spent cramming before flying out.
“Sapphire Jewel, I’m so sorry, my hands are tied.” His breath hitched dramatically and I could picture his hands flailing.
“Bernard, money doesn’t just run out,” Brady said evenly. “How long has the company been in trouble?”
All Bernard’s last-minute meetings and travel, his new car, and the eco-friendly suit he’d boasted was locally crafted and hand-tailored flashed through my mind. Why hadn’t I seen it before?
“Wha— I can’t—” Fake static came through the line.
Brady leaned closer. “What about our last paychecks—”
“Bad connect—” The line went dead.
I blinked at the phone.
“I can’t believe he did that.” Brady spun around, hands on his hips. “Slimy bastard. How am I going to make rent this month?”
“I’ll never be able to move out of my parents’ house.” I shouldn’t be worried about that when I was stranded in Las-freaking-Vegas. “How are we going to get home?”
He shoved a hand through his dark hair. “I don’t have any cash and my card is at the limit.” He blew out a breath and leveled his knowing gaze on me.
“No.” I scowled, shaking my head. “No. He already thinks I’m helpless and he’ll do nothing but say I told you so.”
“Savvy. It’s our only option. You know my parents won’t help.”
“Brady.” We were at an impasse. It was either call my father or walk home. We couldn’t afford a bus ticket across town, much less across the country. I’d gladly pay for the bus fare if I could. It’d cost less than whatever life lesson my father would teach me. “Fine.”
I could call Mother, but she had less compassion when I was in a tough spot than my father. She wouldn’t have let me move home if Father hadn’t talked her into giving me a chance to job hunt and save money. You don’t want the girl to end up like that poor friend of hers, living in a fetid box with others who have God knows what morals.
Brady’s roommates were nice enough and his apartment wasn’t fetid. It had. . . a smell, but with five guys and three bedrooms, it could be worse. It wasn’t the other guys, or the tiny space they resided in, it was that they lived one unexpected bill away from being homeless.
I didn’t want to be in that position again. I’d had my own little rebellions over the years and they’d all failed miserably. I’d made it through college with massive debt, using my last name to accrue too many loans, and it was nothing less than anyone expected. I was impulsive, a pampered little Sapphire.
“Sapphire,” Chief answered, his gruff tone not the comfort I wanted in the moment.
“Hey, Chief.” My oldest sister, Emerald, had coined the term and I think he liked it. Instead of Dad, he was Chief. “I, um. . .”
“Confidence, Sapphire. If you don’t speak with it, everyone will know you don’t have it.” Said as if I didn’t have any.
He was right, but only because I had been raised by a family who questioned every decision I made. I hated proving them right. I sucked in a breath and let the story pour out, every humiliating detail. The lack of transportation funds, the hotel room, and that Brady was stuck with me.
My family didn’t hate Brady. Once it’d become clear he and I didn’t have the chemistry needed to date, they tolerated him, and they helped us if we needed it. Like when Bernard had been two weeks late with our paychecks and Brady was going to get kicked out. I’d asked Chief for a cash advance—for both of us. And I’d paid it back—with interest.
It’s an important life lesson, Sapphire. Money isn’t free. You have to contribute. That usually meant a weekend or two helping Chief out in his office, on top of my regular job.
“Savvy,” he said, exasperation gusting my name out. “What if you couldn’t call me? What would you do?” He didn’t wait for my answer. I didn’t have one and I was fighting anxiety. Was this when I’d get cut off again? Left stranded? “It just so happens that I’m heading to Vegas.”
“You are?” I looked up at Brady and he cocked his head.
“King Oil was able to rearrange their schedule for a last-minute meeting.” Chief chuckled, and it was full of all the derision I’d known was coming. “Now, I know why.”
I closed my eyes. Would the humiliation ever end? Bernard’s epic fuckup was Chief’s gain. He’d never let me forget this.
“He’s agreed to meet me for lunch tomorrow. I’ve been trying to get his account for years. I’d like you to be there.”
My eyes flew open. “Why?”
Mr. King had no idea who I was, and Chief wouldn’t want to explain that I was the account that had dropped out last minute because the owner was too flighty to run a business.
“You need a job, don’t you? You still have school loans, or do you have a plan to pay those off? You can start tomorrow.”
I hated working in his security consulting company. The place sucked the life out of me. Chief was old school and had refused my insights on ways to go paperless. Instead, I had been given a yellow legal pad and a box of Bics. Then, he’d scowled at me when I’d dropped the box of pens in the middle of a meeting with a new client. Everyone had stared over their laptop screens at me while I’d picked up every pen and put them back in the box. “Chief—”
“And Lexington will be there.”
“Lex?”
“You remember him, of course.”
Chief tried to throw me in Lex’s path like I was the rare sapphire that Lex couldn’t live without. It didn’t help that Lex was interested and constantly flirted with me. A man
