Page 112 of Jake Forever
Chapter 40
Still driving, Jake asked, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," I assured him. "It's just that…" I hesitated. "Well, I've got to work."
He gave me a quick glance. "What?"
"Yeah," I said. "For the next three days, actually."
At the next red light, Jake turned his head and gave me a long look. "I thought you were fired."
"Well, I wasn't absolutelysureI was fired." I summoned up a smile. "Remember?"
He didn't smile back. "And about the uniform?"
I felt my face grow warm. The last time he'd seen me in my work uniform, he'd literally torn it off my body.
And I'd loved every minute of it.
But now, I wasn't sure what, exactly, he was getting at. The uniform was definitely an issue, especially after that stupid picture.
Hoping for the best, I said, "I have a spare."
When his gaze dipped to my breasts, I could read his thoughts all over his face. The way it looked, his question had nothing to do with torn fabric and popped buttons.
It had to do with the fact that, in my work uniform, I was always one rainstorm away from a girlie show.
Lamely, I said, "I've got a tank top that I'm gonna wear underneath. And honestly, I think we'll be getting new uniforms soon."
I gave a shaky laugh. "There had to be some mistake with the fabric. After all, I can't be the only one who had problems."
Problems – like flaunting my goodies all over Detroit. Yup, that was a problem, alright. But I was hoping Jake would let that slide.
Watching me, he said nothing, and his expression became unreadable. But there was one emotion I could definitely rule out – happiness.
I made a sound of frustration. "In case you don't know, when you keep your job, it'sgoodnews."
"Yeah? Is that why you didn't tell me?"
"No. It just didn't come up. That's all."
"Right."
"It didn't," I insisted.
"Uh-huh."
Under his penetrating gaze, I started to squirm in my seat. It was true that it hadn't come up, but itcould'vecome up. Regardless of what else had been going on at the time, I surely could've spared ten seconds to say something like, "Oh, by the way, my boss is giving me another chance."
So why hadn't I?
I tried to think. Was it because I knew that Jake wanted me to work forhiminstead? Or, was it because yesterday, when I thought I'd been fired, I'd been bucking for sympathy, and had loved it when I'd gotten some?
I recalled Jake's arms, strong and hard, wrapping me up in a warm cocoon of oblivion. It had been kind of nice, actually.
Or who knows, maybe I hadn't mentioned the job thing because it was getting a little embarrassing to be hired and fired all the time. It had gotten so bad, in fact, that my brothers – and Jake, too, come to think of it – had been placing bets on my employment status.
Talk about humiliating.
