13. Thirteen
THIRTEEN
I n hindsight, throwing the pitcher of water at Kyla had been a bad idea. Did I regret it? Not so much. Still, the fact that Cora Stone, Zach’s mother, insisted on a session with the casino psychologist for everybody involved was not a good thing for any of us.
“This is all your fault,” Ronan hissed as he sat in one of the chairs provided in the therapy room. Six chairs were arranged in a circle, and we were the first ones to arrive at our mandatory session.
He wasn’t wrong. Still, I felt the need to argue.
“It’s not as if she didn’t have it coming.
” I studied my fingernails. I was due for a manicure.
I never paid for one—why would I when I could do my nails just as well myself?
—but always made a point of keeping on a regular schedule.
Nobody wanted their drinks delivered by someone with chipping and flaking nail polish.
It denoted a lack of general hygiene, and that was a big no-no.
“That’s beside the point,” Ronan hissed. “We have to sit through therapy now.”
I shrugged. “I’ve been through so much therapy that it doesn’t even register, at this point.”
Ronan sent me a sharp look. “You have?”
I realized my mistake right away and tried to backtrack. “I was speaking generically.”
He studied my face for an extended beat. “I don’t think you were. Are you in therapy?” His voice seemed to echo across the room.
“Hey!” I jabbed a finger at him. “Speak a little louder. I don’t think the woman in the nosebleed seats heard you.”
“Oh, I heard him,” Olivia replied in a petulant voice as she walked into the room. Yes, even she had been ordered to the therapy session. I felt more guilty about that than about Ronan being here.
Zach was with her. He looked more amused than upset.
“You too?” I asked, momentarily horrified. Dragging my best friend into what would amount to a psychiatric experiment gone awry was one thing. Forcing her husband—one of the biggest of bosses on the premises—into the mix was quite another.
“Technically, I’m not required to attend,” Zach replied.
He cast Olivia a sidelong look. “I figured that maybe I should be present just in case.” He led Olivia to the chair next to me then seemed to think better of it.
“Maybe I should sit here.” He plopped down in the open seat and gave me a sidelong look. “You’ve been a bad girl.”
I rolled my eyes. “I still maintain this isn’t my fault.”
“Oh yeah?” Zach challenged. “Did you trip and accidentally lose control of the water pitcher?”
“Will that get me out of this?”
He laughed. “No, it most certainly will not.”
“I don’t see why I have to be here,” Olivia complained as she sat next to Zach. “I didn’t do anything.”
“Join the club,” Ronan muttered under his breath.
“I didn’t really have a choice in the matter,” Zach replied.
“You’re the boss,” Olivia argued. “As the boss, you should be able to excuse your wife from ridiculous therapy sessions.”
“And her best friend,” I added.
Zach sent me a scolding look. “Um, you’re sitting through the entire thing. This is on you.”
“It is,” Ronan agreed. His gaze was pointed forward, as if there was something fascinating on the wall garnering his attention.
“I’m the one who decided that mandated therapy for employee issues was better than immediate dismissal,” Zach offered. “I can’t very well excuse my wife from it simply because it’s inconvenient.”
“How about because your wife—your pregnan t wife—didn’t do anything to warrant punishment?” Olivia argued.
Zach openly cringed. “Baby?—”
“Don’t you ‘baby’ me.” Olivia shrank away from his stroking hands. “I’m mad at you.”
“Are you mad at me?” I asked, honestly curious.
“I am, if you’re interested,” Ronan replied.
I ignored him and kept my gaze on Olivia.
“Of course not,” Olivia replied automatically. “It was an accident.”
Ronan and Zach made twin faces of disbelief. Before either of them could comment—not that I wanted to hear what they had to say—Kyla joined the party.
“Oh, well, isn’t this just … lovely?” she muttered as she stomped into the room.
Seriously, she acted as if her feet were made of cement and it was some huge ordeal to move them across the floor.
She sat in the chair one over from Ronan, meaning it looked like it was going to be a four-on-one fight to the death.
“Hello, Kyla,” Zach said in his most amiable voice. “Sorry this is necessary. It’s company policy, though.”
Kyla didn’t respond. She crossed her arms over her chest.
Zach pursed his lips and sent Olivia an amused look. She refused to meet his gaze, however, so he turned to the only other male in the room for solidarity. Ronan was too busy staring at the wall to look at our boss.
“It’s going to be a long day,” Zach lamented as he slumped in his chair.
On that one point, we could all agree.
OUR THERAPIST’S NAME WAS CANDY CARLINGTON. She told us not to think of her as a therapist but as an emotional engineer. Personally, that sounded like a load of crap to me. I’d been through therapy numerous times—that wasn’t an exaggeration—and I recognized exactly how this was going to play out.
Given my mother’s proclivities—she liked to take off for weeks at a time and leave me to fend for myself without money for food or bills—I’d been shuffled between therapists when I was younger.
Social Services had removed me from my home no fewer than five times before I hit the age of fifteen.
After that, nobody seemed to care that I was left on my own whenever Sharon decided to take a vacation from her job … and being a mother.
The therapists all agreed that I had anger issues.
Who wouldn’t? They tried to instill in me coping techniques, and I did utilize some of them.
What I became really good at was faking it, however.
I would pretend everything was okay until things built to the point where my control began to crumble.
Once I lost it—my temper, I mean—there was no getting it back.
That was what had happened with Kyla. I’d been battling my anger and resentment toward her.
Then she was mean to my best friend—the one person who had always been there for me —and I lost my cool.
I recognized the point where I stepped over the line.
I couldn’t fix that about myself, though. I was too broken.
“So, if I’m understanding things correctly, there has been static from the very first day?” Candy prodded, her eyes on Kyla. “Would you say I’m correct on that matter?”
Kyla gave Candy a “you poor, deluded idiot” look. “That is not the word I would use,” she replied icily. We were only twenty minutes into the conversation, and Kyla hadn’t thawed a single bit.
“What word would you use?” Candy asked reasonably.
Kyla responded without any hesitation. “I was friendly, and she was obnoxious.”
“Oh, that is such crap,” I said.
“No, it’s not crap,” Kyla fired back. “You’ve been full of yourself because of how you got the job since the moment you walked into my lounge.”
“That’s not how I remember it.”
Candy held up her hand to head off further argument before Kyla could respond. “Let’s talk about that,” she said. “How did you get the job?”
I bristled at the question and the way she looked at me. “I was hired, and I started in the lounge,” I replied darkly.
“Yes, you were hired.” Kyla rolled her eyes in theatrical fashion.
“Was there anything odd about how you were hired?” Candy asked. Nothing in her tone was accusatory, but I didn’t like the question, regardless.
“She got the job even though she didn’t earn it,” Kyla answered for me. “There were numerous people lined up for that job, but it was handed to her on a silver platter because she’s the boss’s wife’s best friend.”
Candy studied my reaction, but I was careful to keep my face expressionless. The key was never to give these people anything to work with. I could play that game all day. “Is that true?” she asked finally.
I merely shrugged.
“It’s not true,” Olivia replied. She was always going to be my biggest champion. “Tallulah is a hard worker and a stellar server. She’s done great at that job.”
“Shouldn’t I be the judge of that?” Kyla snapped.
“No, because you’re mean to her.” Olivia shook her head. “You’ve had it out for her from the very first day.”
Candy opened her mouth but didn’t say anything because Zach was clearing his throat. He raised his hand to draw her attention.
“Technically, Tallulah did not go through the normal hiring process,” he conceded. “I made arrangements for her to get the job in the lounge.”
“Ha!” Kyla jabbed a finger at him, then seemed to realize she was poking the boss and not a fellow employee. Her shoulders slumped immediately, but she didn’t apologize.
Zach gave her a pointed look, one full of warning, before continuing. “It’s no secret that Tallulah is a friend. She’s a good worker on top of being a friend.”
“Do you think she’s a good worker?” Candy asked Kyla.
Kyla, of course, snorted. “No, she’s a terrible worker.”
Olivia narrowed her eyes. “You’re just saying that because you wanted the job for your sister, you big hypocrite.”
“Livvie.” Zach reached over to gather his wife’s hand, but she leaned away from him. He might have been her greatest ally, but Olivia was in no mood to play nice with him or anybody else.
I had to say, I was right there with her.
“Let’s break this down into the basics,” Candy suggested. She turned to Kyla. “Did you want Tallulah’s job for your sister?”
“She was next in line,” Kyla replied. “That job was supposed to be hers. She waited forever for an opening.”
“That doesn’t mean the job automatically goes to her,” Zach fired back. “While I’m sorry for your sister, the fact of the matter is that I get to have input on hiring in my casino.”
“It’s not just your casino,” Kyla fired back.
“If you would like me to get my mother down here, I can arrange that,” Zach said.