Page 14 of Treat

“The same hell it’s been for the last six weeks, or a new one?”

There was nowhere to sit except the bed, and she couldn’t sit there—it might smell like Jude. So she perched on the floor with her back to the bean bag, Tilly’s rumbling snore turning it into a vibrating chair. “Jude came home early last night.”

“Uh-oh. Busted?”

“I was asleep in his bed.”

“Big busted. What happened?”

“I fell out of bed and hit my head, so he put me through concussion protocol.”

“You’re kidding.”

“I was a little dazed,” Brynn admitted. “But that was because he was wearing boxer shorts. Only boxer shorts. And he grew a mustache.”

“Ooh. Does he pull it off?”

“It doesn’t look bad,” Brynn said, forcing herself to sound casual.

“Uh-huh,” Amy said, clearly not buying casual. “How were the thighs?”

“He’s not skipping leg day,” Brynn said with fondness.

“Let’s have a moment of silence for leg day,” Amy said reverently, then after a few seconds, said, “Okay, how’d you play it?”

“I mostly just stared.”

“Not the thighs, the getting caught.”

“I thought I played it off—told him there was a burst pipe in my building, and I just needed a place to stay for a night or two, but he didn’t buy it.”

“So, he knows you’ve been squatting.”

“Don’t say squatting. It sounds so sordid. Accurate,” she admitted, “but sordid.”

“Sorry. Did he fire you?”

“No. I figured he was going to—I mean,Iwould fire me—so when he asked me why, I kind of…let him have it.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope. I told him he was a cheap bastard who could find someone else to buy his sweaters and stock his fridge.”

Amy let out a delighted laugh. “Seriously?”

“No. I was too scared.” Brynn confessed. “But I did say that five hundred a week wasn’t enough to live on, and the whole not paying me in the off-season thing was a dick move.”

“Atta girl,” Amy cheered.

“I was feeling pretty righteous,” Brynn said. “Then he said I was supposed to get a raise in February and I kind of deflated.”

“What?”

“Yeah.” Leaning her head back against Tilly’s flank, Brynn laid it out.

“Wow,” Amy said when she’d finished. “So your money problems are over, then?”

Brynn drew a deep breath, realizing for the first time that the awful tightness that had been living in her chest for the last several months was gone. “Once it gets straightened out, however long that takes.”

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