Page 37 of From You to Me

I smiled as I stood to meet her. “Hey, Aimee.”

“Evelyn, it’s so nice to meet you.” She shook my hand with a little too much excitement as she slid inside her seat, which took about a minute with her huge belly.

“Sorry, as much as I love being pregnant, I swear these last few weeks have driven me crazy. I just want this baby out already.”

I laughed. “I’m sure it will be worth it.”

“Yeah, I know.” She smiled, rubbing her belly. Although I hadn’t seen her before, I could tell her face was glowing from the pregnancy. “Also, I’m very sorry to call you here on such short notice. I’m sure you must be busy with starting your new job. Wasn’t today your last day at work?”

I frowned. New job? What new job did I have? “Yes, today was my last day but…”

She interrupted before I could continue. “I have a proposition for you. I would like you to really, really consider it.” She pulled out a paper from her satchel and slid it toward me.

Okay, now I was very confused. I blinked as I glanced at the papers. They looked like some sort of agreement.

“This is the agreement. I would like to offer you the position of J.J.’s tour assistant.”

My eyes widened in shock. Jay’s tour assistant? How? Why? I’m sure he didn’t ask for me. And I wasn’t sure how a maid was considered for a tour assistant position.

“Please, tell me you will take it. Usually, I’m J.J.’s full-time assistant, but as you can see…” She blew out a breath as she gestured to her belly. “I can’t possibly run around behind him.” She leaned closer with a pleading look in her eyes. “Honestly, I’ve been searching for my replacement for months now, and I can’t seem to find anyone. And with the tour starting next week, it’s stressing me out. I know it’s very hard to work with him. You don’t know the number of people I have fired for him, but he hasn’t had any complaints about you, so you would be perfect.”

I was still shocked. My mind was literally screaming to her,oh, he’s going to have so many problems with this. The only reason he hadn’t complained was because he didn’t want to talk about me.

“I know you are just starting a new job. I mean, that’s why you must be quitting after a month, right? But I promise you’ll be compensated very well. I hope you’re satisfied with the pay.” She nodded to the paper.

My stunned eyes drifted across the papers until they landed on the number. I didn’t think it was possible, but my eyes widened further as all the air left my lungs. Is this what they paid assistants? Because with that money, all my problems would disappear forever. It meant that I would finally be free.

Even though I was still confused, my head automatically nodded as I met her eyes. “I’ll do it,” I rasped.

“Yay. Thank you so much!” She clapped excitedly. “I’ll go through the contract with you. It’ll be for a period of six weeks. J.J. follows a strict routine when he’s on tour, but don’t worry, I’ll explain everything to you. I’ll take care of the logistics and administrative tasks. You just need to be my eyes and ears, well, and probably my feet.” She laughed. “Thank God you said yes, or else I would’ve gone crazy. Actually, you didn’t even cross my mind until Lily mentioned you. She told me you went to Yale and used to work part-time as an assistant during college.”

The realization dawned on me then—this was Lily’s doing. I recalled what she said the other day. She must have already thought of this when she asked me that question.

“Wait, I remember reading your résumé. You never mentioned Yale. What did you study at Yale?” Her brows furrowed.

Fuck. I actually never set foot in Yale. My gut instinct told me to lie because I was never coming across another opportunity like this. And the taste of freedom was too tempting for me to give this up.

“I studied creative writing.” Her brows were still furrowed. “With a minor in management,” I added, which seemed to satisfy her.

I exhaled a sigh of relief.

Soon enough, I was signing the papers to be Jay’s tour assistant, but even as I was signing them, I knew that I still didn’t fully have this job until someone agreed to it.

“Lily, what did you do?” I asked through the phone as I made my way to the subway. “Ouch,” I muttered as some guy literally knocked the breath out of me as he hurried away. I sighed; walking slowly in NYC should come with a hazard warning.

“Evy, are you alright?” Lily’s voice filled in from the other side.

“Yeah, but don’t change the subject. What the hell did you do?”

She laughed. “What?! It’s my way of playing Fairy Godmother. I swear I’ve had enough of whatever foreplay you both have going on.”

“Lily!” I admonished. “Your brother is going to hate this; you know that, right? I don’t even know if I have the job yet.”

“Yeah,” she mumbled, “but I’m sure you’ll convince him. My brother could never say no to you as soon as you give him your puppy dog eyes.”

“Lily, that was six years ago. He despises me now.”

I could hear her sigh. “I mean, who cares if you get the job or not? I’ll be joining them on tour this time, so I’m pretty sure I can invite my best friend to come along with me. And no one can say no to that. So you are coming on the tour either way.”

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