Chapter 2 #2
Luckily, I’m at least somewhat used to the lifestyle of the wealthy, so I’m not too uncomfortable sitting down in Cole’s kitchen, letting Riley serve me a scoop of cherry-flavored gelato. My gaze does linger on a few of the fixtures of the house, though—mostly the artwork.
There’s no real art in my place, only some cheap prints and posters. But Riley is an art enthusiast, and Cole has the means to get his hands on original paintings.
“So,” Riley says, settling at the counter next to me with her own cup of gelato. “Tell me what’s going on.”
I explain everything that happened, the tight feeling in my chest growing with each new sentence. Riley looks at me sympathetically.
“He’s disgusting,” she says once I’m finished. “You did the right thing. You don’t have to stand for that.”
I brush a tear out of the corner of my eye. I can’t cry. I don’t have time to cry right now. “But that’s the thing. I think I do have to.”
“What do you mean?”
“I did the math on my way over here. The way things have been going, I think I have enough saved up to get me through three months—and that’s if there are no drastic expenses. I don’t know if that’s long enough to get a new job.”
“I don’t see why not,” Riley says cautiously.
“Let me show you what I’m up against.” I grab one of Cole’s legal pads, lying on the counter—he won’t mind, he has over a dozen of them—and start to scribble down all of my expenses. Rent, groceries, bills. The amount that I send my parents monthly.
“Three months is plenty of time.”
I shake my head. “If I don’t figure this out, I’m totally broke.”
“I can’t take chances on something as important as this.” I take a deep breath, trying to calm myself down, but I can’t seem to inhale slowly enough. I can’t believe it—I’m really going to cry. Over Keller. “I’m never going to be able to get a job that pays as much as Keller did—”
“Why not?”
“I won’t have a good letter of recommendation. That’s the whole reason I’d never quit before; he would never recommend me for anything, especially not after what just happened.”
Riley’s brow furrows in worry. “It’s gonna be okay. Just—calm down. Let me get you a glass of water, or something.”
While Riley gets up and goes over to the fridge, I keep babbling.
“I turned him down, and now he’ll never give me a letter of recommendation—and I wouldn’t be surprised if he ruins my chances of employment.
I can’t put his number down or anything.
My resume is totally screwed. What if someone calls him, and he says that I—”
“Olivia,” Riley interrupts, “take it easy.” She sets a glass of water on the granite countertop, then wraps her arms around me, holding me tightly. The hug was exactly what I needed. I was about to fall to pieces.
“I’ve fucked myself over so bad,” I say, my voice muffled by her shoulder. “And I screwed my parents, too. My mom’s not getting any better. They need my help.”
“It’ll be okay,” Riley assures me. “Something will work out. I’ve known you for a long time, which means I know that you’re a total badass, okay? You can handle anything.”
I swallow hard, trying to force the tears away. “Okay.”
Riley releases me, stepping back. I take a second to get control over my emotions. A few bites of the quickly-melting gelato don’t hurt, either.
“Do you want to talk about something else?” Riley asks. “Just to take your mind off things.”
Seriously—she’s the best. “God, yes. You’re a mind reader.”
“You gotta come up with something, then.” Riley scoops up the last bite of her gelato.
“Well, I think we should focus on the obvious distraction,” I say.
“Yeah? What’s that?”
“Your engagement party, of course.”
Riley smiles. The engagement party is mostly happening because Cole idly floated the idea one day, and I pounced on it. Of course, they need to have an engagement party. They need to have about a million parties.
“Have you had any ideas?” I ask. “Venue, menu, anything like that?”
“Well, we could just have it here,” Riley points out. “It’s a nice place, and I only want friends to be there, you know?”
“But there still has to be some decoration,” I insist. “Go on. Give me color palettes.”
“This is just the engagement party, not the wedding!”
“I’ll be damned if there aren’t balloons. And a cake.”
“Okay, fine,” Riley sighs. She stands, taking both of our cups over to the sink. As she rinses them out, she says, “Better keep it tasteful with the balloons, though. Silver, maybe. This isn’t Archie’s birthday party over again.”
I grin, relaxing a little now that we’ve fully moved to a new topic.
I dig around in my purse for the ball of yarn and knitting needles that I carry around with me at all times.
I’ve been working on a scarf, and I might as well use this time to keep it up.
Keller never let me knit at work, so I’ve fallen behind on my goals.
“Have you thought about who you want to invite?” I ask, looping some lavender yarn over one of the needles.
Before Riley can answer, the doorbell chimes. I frown over at her, wondering if Cole and Archie are supposed to be back this early. She gives me a shrug and wanders into the foyer.
Then I hear her exclaim, “Oh, hi, Reed!”
“Hi, Riley. Is Cole around?”
That voice, as always, sends a spike of a different kind of panic through me. As Riley’s and Reed’s footsteps approach, I throw the bulk of the unfinished scarf over my budget scribbles.
Unfortunately, I acted a little too slowly, and Reed sees me cover up the scratch paper. He gives me a strange look, an arched brow; he knows I’m hiding something. But to my relief, he doesn’t ask.
I don’t want Reed to see that I’m struggling. I grew up around his money. Something about that experience makes me want to prove that I can take care of myself without it.
“Cole’s not here right now,” Riley tells him. “It’s field day at Archie’s pre-K, so he decided to go watch him.”
“Oh, yeah?” Reed grins his classic, lopsided grin. “What’s the little man doing at field day?”
“The twenty-five meter dash.”
“I didn’t know they came in distances that short.”
“They don’t,” Riley chuckles. “But when you’re six, they sure do.” She shakes her head fondly. “He was really excited this morning. Apparently they get to go to a high school field and run on a real track.”
“Oh, so he’s big time now,” Reed says. “Next time I see him, I’ll be sure to ask for his autograph.”
Even as he talks to Riley, I can feel his eyes on me. I busy myself with my scarf, the knitting needles clinking together.
“What are you two up to?” Reed asks pleasantly, leaning on the counter.
“Planning my engagement party,” Riley says. I nod, not looking up from my knitting. I know that Reed saw those papers before I covered them up with the scarf. There’s no denying it. But hopefully, he’ll have the tact not to ask.
“Oh, yeah. That’ll be a good time.” He pauses, then adds, “I’m assuming I’m invited?”
Riley laughs. “Well, that’s up to Cole.”
“Neither of you ladies has any say in the matter?”
“Why would I get to decide?” I shake out the yarn a little, being careful to keep my budget notes covered up. “It’s not my party.”
“Well, you’re invited,” says Reed. “You can take me as your plus-one.”
Heat creeps up into my face, and I duck my head so that my hair falls in my face. I don’t want him to see me blush. I’m usually so composed, but Reed has always managed to fluster me. I have no idea what to say to him.
“Anyway,” he continues, smiling as if I didn’t just sit in awkward silence for two seconds, “I’m looking forward to it. I’m sure you guys will do a great job planning.” There’s a buzz from his pocket, and he pulls out his phone.
“Thanks,” Riley says. “Do you want a drink or anything?”
“Actually, I probably have to head out.” He indicates the phone in his hand. “Cole just texted me back. I swear, this man has the worst timing. He leaves Archie’s field day in ten minutes, so he’s gonna meet me for a late lunch.”
“Glad you got ahold of him.”
“I’ll see you around, Riley.” His gaze turns to me, and he lingers for a moment, like he’s weighing what to say—or even reluctant to leave. After a moment, he nods and says, “It was a nice surprise to see you, Olivia. Take care.”
“You, too,” I reply.
He’s out of the door before either of us can say anything else. When I hear the front door slam, I breathe out a sigh of relief and push the scarf off of my budget scribbles.
A second later, I realize that Riley is staring at me. I brush the hair out of my face and huff, “What?”
“Oh, boy,” Riley sighs. “This is still an issue for you, huh?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about. Or have you forgotten about that gala?”
I grimace; no, I haven’t forgotten about the gala. I think a thousand years could go by, and I’d still have flashbacks to the art auction that Riley brought me along to while she was working for Cole.
I spent almost the entire event hiding by the open bar, avoiding Reed. I hadn’t expected him to be there, and the sight of him had sent me into a near-panic. At the time, I’d thought that he couldn’t remember me from our shared childhoods, but I ended up being dead wrong.
“You must have had one hell of a crush on him as a kid for it to still be bothering you this much,” Riley says sympathetically.
I wave a hand, trying to dismiss the notion. “It was a childhood crush. We were both, like, ten. Puppy love, you know?”
Riley squints, tilting her head. “You sure about that?”
“Of course,” I scoff. “Come on. Like, I guess he’s good looking—he’s a charming guy—but I don’t really notice him.”
“You seemed like you definitely noticed him. You barely said a word while he was here.”
“I’m just having a rough day,” I insist. “I didn’t want to get emotional, or something.”
“Sure,” Riley says dubiously.
I don’t bother to keep defending myself; the more I try, the more obvious it’ll become that I’m lying through my teeth.
No one really needs to know about the slow-burning torch I carried for him for years, or about the fact that the whole time, he barely seemed to see me. I’ve never talked about it fully, not even with Riley. No, I’ll be taking that to my grave.
“Anyway,” I say, trying to change the subject, “c’mon. Party planning. All we’ve talked about is balloons, and that’s nothing. How about hors d’oeuvres? Is this a hors d’oeuvres kind of event?”
As Riley ponders the question, I breathe a small sigh of relief that she let the Reed issue drop. Right now, all I need is a solid distraction, not a new thing to worry about.
I throw myself into the party planning, doing my best to put Reed and my money troubles out of my head.