Page 96 of Happily Never After

“She’s still screening my calls.” Claire rolled her eyes as she picked up the phone. It was already ringing.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

To Do:

- Leave dog poop in Brad’s car?

- Figure out how to start over

“Why are the garage walls vibrating?”Luke’s voice rang out, louder than usual over the whining guitar of an emo song. “And why is Winston wearing a rainbow wig?”

Claire whirled around, a chocolate chip cookie clutched in her right hand. A half-empty bottle of cabernet sauvignon dangled from the other one. The world was swimming, but at least she wasn’t having a panic attack. Alcohol to the rescue.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“I would. That’s why I asked.” He pulled the wig off Winston and set it on the couch. If he noticed the eyebrows they had drawn on Rosie with eyeliner, he didn’t say anything.

The bottle hit the end table with a clunk. She picked up a hot pink party hat. “Put on your hat, fancy boy. It’s a pity party.” Shewrestled the hat onto his head. The elastic slapped against his Adam’s apple, but he didn’t even wince.

“Luuuuuuke!” Mindy continued bopping to the beat, hair gathered into a top bun and stunner shades hiding her green eyes. Her cheeks ballooned with cheeseballs. Orange dust particles settled over one of Sawyer’s shirts, which draped down to her knees. She took a swig out of a bottle of rosé.

The anxiety Claire had carefully been ignoring all day had reached a fever pitch the second she came home and saw Brad’s binders sitting on the kitchen table. Self-medicating with wine and cookies was not as effective as she had hoped. They had been fired.Fired. All because she couldn’t trust her client. Where could they go from here?

Claire poked Luke in the chest. “Lemme tell you what happened. You know the thing I was worried about? The whole Brad-might-fire-me thing? Guess what happened. I’ll give you three guesses.”

Luke narrowed his eyes. “He didn’t.”

“Bingo.” She booped him on the nose, then stared at the ceiling. The tears she had been fighting back with early 2000s pop punk music were threatening to leak out. She picked up the wine bottle again. “I don’t know what I did to piss off the big guy upstairs, but it must have been a doozy.”

Mindy whirled around like she had just been struck by a great idea. “We should set his house on fire.”

“No,” Luke and Claire said together. The last thing she needed was to be arrested for arson.

Mindy went back to dancing, and Luke turned to Claire. He cupped her face in his hand and brushed a calloused thumb down her jawline. “I’m sorry.”

She shrugged and took another swig out of the bottle. “It’s okay. It’s only my entire career. Down the toilet. All because I spied on a middle-aged man doing the cha-cha. And now hisreceptionist is taking over and she’ll either drive it into the ground or take credit for all my ideas. This is fine. Everything’s fine.” A giggle escaped. It didn’t even sound real.

“We could burn the saddle,” Mindy whispered loudly. She pointed to the corner, where the saddle they had painstakingly distressed to match Karen’s childhood one rested.

“Does leather burn?” Luke asked.

“It does if you have enough gas.” Mindy slid her stunner shades down and wiggled her eyebrows.

Claire considered it for a millisecond. It would be freeing. “Nah, we’ll probably need to sell it.”

Mindy pouted. “You guys are no fun. I’m going to go pack.” She disappeared down the hallway. It had taken all of fifteen seconds after arriving home for her to book an earlier flight to West Haven.

Claire yawned. Even her bones were tired. The twenty-minute catnap she’d had the night before clearly hadn’t helped.

Luke took a step closer. “Hey. It’s going to be okay.” So serious for a man wearing a hot pink party hat.

She stared up at him. “I think you’ll find the kennel full of three-legged dogs in Pennsylvania begs to differ.”

He took her by each arm. His touch was like fire, but she was drowning.

“No, they won’t.”

She raised an eyebrow. “No? You don’t think they’ll mind being brutally murdered?”

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