Chapter Two
Meredith
“They fired you?” Rosalind exclaimed as I fought back tears. “Of all the shit they’ve done, this has to be the lowest.”
Truthfully, I was surprised it took them this long to fire me.
Officially, I was an assistant. Pick up dry cleaning, make a few calls, the usual.
Unofficially, it was my job to keep an eye on Rosalind and Violetta, the two adult daughters of the Huxley family.
Huxley, as in Huxley Enterprises, the biggest entertainment company in Vegas.
A stupid task considering they were both almost thirty.
“I’m so sorry, Mer. This is my fault. I started all of this.” Rosalind’s shaky voice came through the phone.
“Stop, it is not. You fell in love. That isn’t exactly a felony.”
When one daughter, Rosalind, ran off to live in Canada with a contractor she had drunk married, they didn’t fire me. They expected nothing but bad press from Rosalind anyway and seemed okay with tucking her out of sight.
When the good daughter, Violetta, ran off to Canada to be with a mechanic, well, they gave me my walking papers.
So, what is my master plan?
Also running off to Canada.
Not for a man, although I hooked up with a fucking sinfully sexy guy last time I was there.
No, I planned to move here for a few reasons.
One, I was a dual citizen of Canada and the US thanks to my Canadian mom.
Two, I have friends there now that Rosalind and Violetta had relocated.
Three, my US currency goes way further up north.
“So, what are you going to do?” Rosalind asked.
I sniffled as the tears dried up. “I was looking through job sites and figured since the Huxleys kind of run Vegas, I’d need to find a job elsewhere. I replied to an ad, and I got the job. It’s a short-term contract helping a tattoo shop do some rebranding.”
“Mer, that’s great! Is the shop on the strip?”
“A little north of that.”
“So, downtown Vegas then?”
I laughed for the first time since I’d been fired a week before. “Keep going north, like all the way to Springwood.”
“Shut the front door! You’re moving here?”
“I’m packing as we speak. I’m going to load up my stuff and drive.
My new job starts next week, and the owners even helped me find an apartment.
” It had been an emotional rollercoaster the last week.
The shame of being fired, the fear of not knowing what to do.
Now I got to enjoy the high of having a half ass plan.
Rosalind let out a girly scream. “I am so excited! I can’t wait until you get here. Whatever you need, you know Vi and I will help you out.”
I did know that. I may not have my ridiculously good paying job anymore, but I have real friends. Starting over was going to be rough. Being fired stung like a bitch, but I could do this. I was strong and smart and capable and all that self-talk bullshit. I could make this work.
******
I was scheduled to begin my new job at Think Ink tattoo shop at eight o’clock the day after I arrived in Springwood.
I was exhausted but excited, so I stopped at a cute little cafe, Oh, Beans!, for coffees and muffins. Caffeine and carbs for me, good first impression on the new bosses.
As I stepped through the door of the tattoo shop, I was greeted by the owners, Roxy and Dane.
“We’re really happy to have you,” Roxy said. She was a short woman with colorful tattoos over both arms and a shock of purple in her otherwise brunette hair.
“We really are. We ran into a problem we had no idea how to deal with.” Dane was taller than Roxy by a lot, but if it wasn’t for the tattoos and stretched ears, I could have mistaken him for a banker.
“Thank you.” My stomach was in knots, but they seemed nice enough.
They led me to an office and then got right to the point.
They explained about being review-bombed by a wannabe customer and their friends.
How they were already competing with a cutthroat new shop down the road and that business was suffering.
“We are hoping to get a bunch of positive reviews to drown out the negative ones, but with business going down, we need some help. There’s another shop that opened up down the block six months ago or so.
If someone plans to do a walk-in, they’ll go to the place with the best rating. That was us until a few days ago.”
We bounced ideas around for a half hour or so before the staff arrived.
“Meredith, this is Ivy, our piercer. Dax and Nova are our other tattoo artists.”
“Have you been to Springwood before?” Nova asked politely, snagging a muffin from the box on the table.
I nodded. “My friend, Rosalind, got married here a few months ago, and I was in town for that. She and her sister are both friends of mine, and both moved here in the last year.”
“How do you like it?” Dane asked. He was dunking a tea bag in an oversized mug that said Have the Day you Deserve on the side.
“It’s a really cute city. Smaller than Vegas obviously, but the commute doesn’t take an hour, and I’m excited for the mix of downtown vibes and hiking and skiing.”
I had lived in Nevada for a long time, so I wasn’t sure what the winter would be like , but I could worry about that later.
This city had one thing that Nevada definitely didn’t, and that was the guy I had slept with when I was here in the summer for Rosalind’s wedding.
At my previous job, I had hung out with the rich and famous — although not as an equal — seen the nightlife, met the movers and the shakers.
Yet the only one who had ever left me actually shook was Luke
I pulled myself out of my head and continued to make small talk with the staff, trying to be friendly but professional.
I had been fired from my last job.
Fired.
I felt like the stink of failure clung to my skin. Even if this was just a one-month contract, it gave me a chance to prove myself. To either set my career in the right direction or fail again. I couldn’t let anything keep me from my goals.
“I’m here, sorry,” a voice I recognized said, coming down the hallway.
“And last but not least, this is our apprentice, Luke.”
Luke and I locked eyes across the lobby, and my heart stopped.
Shit, he still looked as good as he had the last time I’d seen him.
Tall and muscular. Tattooed and thick. I knew all too well what was under the jeans and crisp white t-shirt he wore.
I had thought of him often since our night together, usually with a hand or shower head between my thighs.
Under other circumstances, I’d be trying to figure out if he was interested in another round. Having just been fired and lucked into a new gig, I had to put my most professional foot forward. Which meant keeping both feet on the ground, not wrapped around Luke’s head.
I had a problem to solve to make this shop work. I already knew that was going to be tough. Keeping on task and professional when temptation in human form was working beside me? That would be a whole extra challenge.