Page 94 of Happily Never After

Mindy dropped down into her eye level and grabbed her hand. “Hey. I meant what I said. This isnotthe end. Screw Brad.” She jabbed a finger at his office window. “Sure, we might have to do a half dozen smaller proposals to make up for the lost revenue on his, but we have faced worse odds. We can do it. It’sjust one interview since Heather and Jenna can’t meet until next week. Let’s meet Ashley and then we’ll go home and eat pizza and be a little bit sad.”

Claire rose again, numb. Mindy might as well have been speaking Portuguese. How could she concentrate on interviews when they had just lost their biggest client ever?

“Onward and upward. Let’s go.” Mindy grabbed her hand and tugged her toward the car.

Claire’s limbs were like jelly as they trudged through the parking lot. The failed apology basket weighed her down like an anchor. Brad’s steely gaze was burned into her brain as if he had taken a brand to her. Surely he didn’t mean it.

Maybe she hadn’t apologized hard enough. Should she have brought a different rum?

“Hey.” Mindy nudged her. “You’re fixating. There’s nothing we could have done to change his mind. You want to check the car for murderers? That usually makes you feel better.”

Claire took a deep breath and performed her vehicle safety check. It was time to compartmentalize. They needed a new plan. She pulled her interview binder out and grasped it like a lifeline.

“Alternate nostril breathing?” Mindy suggested as she flopped into the driver’s seat. “We have plenty of time.”

It couldn’t hurt. They both plugged one nostril and took deep, steadying breaths, then switched sides. The storm inside her subsided just enough to refocus. Was this really wise? An interview when they had no clients? She was so upset that at this point she welcomed the chance to think about something else. Anything else.

The interview binder might as well have weighed a thousand pounds. She flipped through the pages unseeingly, willing it to distract her. Line by line, she re-read Ashley’s resume.Focus, Claire.Don’t think about Brad.

The weight of what they were about to do settled in her chest. Dread and anxiety swirled around her insides like a black hole.

“Why am I so nervous?” Claire stared at the sheet protector that enclosed Ashley’s resume. A breakdown of her social media profiles and a list of potential red flags followed. “I shouldn’t be nervous. We’re the ones doing the interviewing.”

Mindy flopped into the driver’s seat. “It’s a big deal. We’ve never added a permanent staff member before.” She swept her dark hair over her shoulder and started the car. “Let alone one that would be running things pretty independently three thousand miles away from our home office.”

Ah, yes. Their home office which was currently a pile of ashes. “What if they don’t like us? We can’t even offer health insurance yet. Who wants to work for someplace that can’t even offer them a comprehensive benefits package?”

“They wouldn’t have applied if they weren’t interested,” Mindy said as she pulled out into the parking lot. “And they’ll buy their own health insurance just like we do.”

Without announcing their intent, both of them lifted a hand and flashed a middle finger at Brad’s office building.

“Should we have a code word in case the interview is going really poorly?” Claire asked. “So we don’t waste our time?”

“Should we just go classic ‘platypus’?” Mindy suggested.

Claire nodded. It wasn’t going to be easy to work into conversation, but they’d find a way. Alice had suggested the safe word long before Claire had been kidnapped. It hadn’t really helped yet, but it had stuck.

“Okay, I’ll give the company spiel and an overview of our services,” Claire said, running down her checklist. “And you can ask the first question.”

A tiny sliver of hope slid into the mire of her mind. Maybe Ashley would be exactly what their crew needed. She might even come up with a plan to save everything.

“Sounds good,” Mindy said. “I asked Sawyer’s mom for tips, so she forwarded some stuff about body language and traits of narcissists.”

“Great. How is Sawyer doing?” Maybe running Mindy through the pre-marital questionnaire would distract her from the fact that her life had just imploded.

“Good. Missing me too, he says.” She sighed wistfully. “This weekend can’t come soon enough. Oh, I guess I can leave sooner now since we got fired. Maybe we can move Heather’s interview up and I could check for flights on?—”

“Have you guys thought about kids?” Claire interrupted. “It’s been on my mind since Nicole told us.” Okay, that wasn’t super subtle.

“Kids?” Mindy arched a dark eyebrow. “I’m only twenty-seven.”

Claire tried to look nonchalant. “But you’ve talked about them? With Sawyer? Since you’re planning on getting engaged, I mean.”

The car rolled to a stop at a red light, and Mindy turned to look at Claire. Her mouth was hanging open, and she looked like Claire had just gravely insulted her mother. “Stop it. Right fucking now.”

“Stop what?” Whoops. She should have given Mindy more credit.

“You’re questionnaire-ing me.” Mindy slid her sunglasses down her nose. Her green eyes burned into Claire’s with laser intensity.

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