Page 153 of Charming Like Us
“You’re really putting me in this position?” Akara asks, staring at me like I’m a ghost of a person.
“He’s my brother,” I say.
Akara looks between me and Quinn. “You both want your job? You want to stay on SFO? Then you have two month’s pay-cut and mandatory therapy together. Once a week.”
Quinn barely even looks my way. How is therapy going to work if he can’t meet my eyes?
I’ll try anything, though.
We go over a few more security matters. Like scheduling for training temps. And I’m biting my nails watching time slip by.
Meeting ends, and I bolt out of the van. I’m going to drive another security vehicle, the Black Widow, and I’m halfway to the SUV when my phone rings.
No, no, no.
If he’s calling, then that means his meeting is over. His fate has been decided, and I wasn’t there. I’m not there.
Don’t be Jack.
Don’t be Jack.
I dig for my pocket and glance at the screen.
Caller ID:Highland.
My stomach sinks. I missed it.
Why in the ever-loving hell would anyone want to be with me?
30
OSCAR OLIVEIRA
Jack drove backto New York to be with me after his meeting. He’s still in limbo. He said they’re still “evaluating” the situation, but Maximoff and Jane have been putting pressure on the execs to keep Jack on in the same role. Like I thought they would. They really care about Jack.
My boyfriend was a wreck last night. Not in a typical meltdown fashion. There were no tears. His leg kept jostling while we hung out on the couch. He hardly ate the takeout dessert, which I brought home as anI’m sorry.
His career is in purgatory, and that’s stressing him out more. If they’d given him a direct final answer, I wonder if he’d be this anxious.
“Sorry, I’m such a buzzkill right now,” he told me, trying to swallow the cake with a knot in his throat.
That hurt my heart. “Do you think I expect you to do cartwheels and throw glitter around me?” I asked him seriously. “You had a bad night. We both had a bad night. Let’s wallow together and eat cake.”
Light touched his eyes.
I slipped a strong arm around his waist.
He slouched back, his smile slowly ascending. After a minute or two, he asked, “You want to kiss it out?”
Yeah, we did a lot more than kiss. It was a freeing cap on an emotional night. And waking up to a new day is like waking with a massive hangover.
It’s already the afternoon, and mentally, I’m scrolling through the charity golf event with a nauseous cringe.
Kitsuwon Securities 1 – Triple Shield 1.
Alpha and Epsilon bodyguards have been boasting all day about our face-in-the-mud failure. How they cleaned up Omega’s mess. It’s a far fall from our high when SFO found the girl squad in Anacapri.
I’d put myself near the topof Omega, at the risk of being an arrogant ass. Mistakes and I aren’t friends. We’re not even acquaintances. I’m the bodyguard who has the brilliant ploys, who has the correct reads on threats, who sneaks around chaos before chaos catches my ass—and now I’m the bodyguard who cost Omega a win.
