Page 15 of Catch Me
“Which means he wants to keep them interested in future endeavors.” I think for a moment. “Blue is your color,” I remindher. “Wear the blue one, but put that black lace camisole underneath and pair it with the black Jimmy Choos Jason you bought last summer.”
“Perfect, I was going to ask what shoes to wear, too.” Mya runs over and kisses my cheek before she exits the kitchen.
Another meow from Ms. Shelby reminds me to get in motion. I put away the groceries I bought, and then pull out the specialty cat food and serve it in Ms. Shelby’s silver bowl before placing it on the floor for her.
After changing out her water, I head to my bedroom to change out of my work clothes.
“How’d the fitting go?” Mya calls from her bedroom.
“Strange,” I reply without thinking.
“What happened?” The closeness of her voice prompts me to look over to see her leaning against my bedroom door frame, fixing her earrings.
“Are those the diamond studs?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “Silver.”
“Wear the diamonds.”
“Your fashion advice is better than mine,” she murmurs, removing the earring she just put in and going to switch them out.
“Did you meet Andreas Knight?” she asks excitedly when she returns to my room.
“You could say that.”
She gives me a look. I give her a brief rundown of what happened at work.
“That bitch. I knew that damn Rebecca was going to be a problem,” she says fiercely.
“She’s fine.” I do my best to calm my best friend down. “I can handle Rebecca. At least, I still have a job.”
“Thanks to Andreas. And he wants you to call him by his first name.”
I hold up my hands, waving her off. “He was probably being nice or something. The fitting is over, and this is likely the last time I’m ever going to see him.” I hold up my hand when Mya tries to intervene.
“I don’t have time to think about Andreas Knight or any other Hollywood star, unless it pertains to my job. The last thing I want to do is to look like some crazed stalker or like I only took the job to be some kind of Hollywood groupie. I need this job. I can’t afford to get fired.”
Mya’s face drops. “Ivy, you know you can stay here as long as you need. I just signed another twelve-month lease before Trisha moved out.”
Trisha is her former roommate who she met in law school. She moved to Northern California for a job, not long after they signed a new lease. Which is how I was able to take over so easily.
But Mya pays a larger portion of the rent.
My heart squeezes. I know she means every word she says, which only makes me feel worse.
“I know, and I love you for it, but I can’t be in your way too long. Jason’s practically begging you to move in with him already. You can’t keep putting him off on my account.”
Their wedding isn’t until next year, but Jason has been wanting Mya to move in with him since before he proposed. She had planned to break her lease, once her previous roommate moved out, but then Ms. Baldwin died which meant I had to move off of her property.
“Jason will be fine. Besides, as much as I’m over at his place, it feels like I live there already.”
I give her a small smile.
“Still, I need this job. The pay is better than I could have hoped for, and once I make it through these ninety days, I’ll get an increase plus benefits.”
So what if I had to deal with a few verbal jabs from my boss in exchange for the job’s upside. I’m used to it.
“For someone without a degree in?—”
