Page 61 of Latte Girl
Have aCookie
Hailey
“Hailey?”repeats Steve, staring back and forth between me and Jordan as if he’s waiting for someone to tell him this is apracticaljoke.
I’m suddenly very aware of the fact that I’m holding my apron in my hand, with my hair flying wildly around me and the front of my blouse askew. I might as well have a condom wrapper stuck to mypants.
“What, Steve?” I snap, all the anger I feel focusing itselfonhim.
He just gapes at me, one hand still raised and making a fist like he’s about to knock on the door. I try to step past him but hewon’tmove.
“You— You shouldn’t be here!” he stammers. “He’s— He’s abadguy!”
“This really doesn’t concern you, Steve. Now would youpleasemove?”
He drops his arm but stays rooted to the spot. “Hailey, I don’t think youunderstand.”
“I don’t thinkyouunderstand. I don’t want your inputonthis.”
At that he turns around and marches towards one of the rows of cubicles. I think he’s finally gotten the message, but then he starts to shout at one of the employees sitting in front of a computer, and I notice several dozen heads turn in hisdirection.
“Show her what you were looking at!” he thunders, pointing a finger over at me. “Yeah, you heard me, show her what you were all looking at when Iwalkedby.”
Curiosity gets the better of me, and despite everyone’s stares I walk over to Steve, shooting Jordan a wary glance beforeIgo.
“Look at this.Thisis the kind of guy he is,” exclaims Steve, gesticulating towards thescreen.
The man whose desk we’re at sits stiffly in his chair between us, looking like he’d rather be anywhere else, but I forget all about him and Steve and everyone else in the room when I see the picture on thescreen.
Some sort of celebrity news website is open, and right under a headline that says ‘Nina Felina Gets Frisky with Dinner Guest— Who Is the Mystery Man?’ there’s a picture of a woman in a green ball gown standing on a balcony with a man in a suit. His arm is draped around her and she has her head resting on hisshoulder.
I lean towards the screen, willing the pixels to reorganize themselves into a man that isn’t Jordan, but it’s him. I know it’s him. The balcony is dark and the picture is zoomed in so far it’s barely above flip phone quality, but there’s no mistaking his tousled hair or Hollywood-worthy features, even when they’re a bitblurry.
My hand takes control of itself and grabs hold of the mouse to scroll through the article. My eye catches on a few emboldenedquotes:
The two shared a few cozy moments on the balcony during a dinner party thrown by Nina Felina lastnight.
A source in the company says Jordan is “quite the ladies’ man, with a new girl every week.” Is Nina just asking to have her heartbroken?
A friend of Nina’s and an exclusive correspondent of ours says Nina is “totally wild over him,” and that she’ll definitely be seeing him a wholelotmore.
I reach the bottom of the page and a sharp pain stabs through the numbness that’s filled me since I saw the first picture. There’s a second image at the end of the article, this one even more pixilated than the first, but I can still make out the same woman in the green dress. She has her arms thrown around the man’s neck, their faces close enough that they can’t be doing anything other thankissing.
“See!” crows Steve. “And that’s not even the half of it. Tell her what you call himaroundhere.”
He glares at the man sitting between us, who looks about ready to crawl under his desk. The entire office has gonesilent.
“Tell her!” thundersSteve.
“The— The Wolf... The Wolf of 19thStreet,” is the stutteringreply.
Steve fixes his eyesonme.
“The Wolf of 19thStreet,” he repeats, in the tone of a lawyer resting his case. “I’m sure you can tell they don’t call him that because he’s good at stocks. You should hear the things they say about him here. Look at this email I got forwarded about our meetingtoday.”
He pulls out his phone and scrolls through it before thrusting it under my nose. I go to push it away, but notice the sentence he’s zoomed in on just beforeIdo.
Glad to see you’re moving on from latte girls and hitting the bigleagues.
