Page 25 of Freedom Ride

“No,” I spat, “Your daddy owns Sun Studio, and he’s too busy running his construction company to see how you’re running this place into the ground.” Everyone gasped, but I couldn’t stop.

Everything I was saying was the truth.

Mindy acted like some god lording over all of us, and I was sick of it. It was great to be able to work so close to home, but I wasn’t going to put up with bullshit for it.

“You’re fired!” Mindy shouted.

I shook my head and pulled my apron over my head. “No, sorry. I quit. I can find a million other jobs that will pay me better and treat me like a human being.” I liked working at Sun Studio because the work wasn’t that hard, and I like Melody.

“Not around here, you won’t,” Mindy spat. “You’re going to be blackballed once Daddy hears about this.”

I rolled my eyes and grabbed my purse from behind the front desk. “Whatever, Mindy. Have fun working the late shift from now on. Though I’m sure you’ll just make Melody work it by herself now because you can’t divide up your little minions.”

“Oh, hell no,” Melody called. She pulled her apron over her head and tossed it at Mindy. “I was only working here for some extra cash. I can live without manicures and pedicures. I quit, too.”

“Melody, no,” I called. I didn’t want her to quit just because I quit. I was messing up my life, not hers.

“Girl, I don’t need this job. It just gave me something to do. I can take up knitting or something.” She threaded her arm through mine and smiled at me. “Ready?”

Ready to quit my job and have no source of income no, but I needed to do it. Things weren’t going to get better here, and this had been the final straw. “I’m ready.”

“Later, Mindy. Have fun telling Daddy you lost your two best employees.” Melody blew Mindy a kiss, and we stormed out.

We didn’t stop until we made it to our cars, and adrenaline pumped through my veins.

“Oh my god,” I gasped. “I just quit my job, Melody.”

“Wejust quit our jobs.” Melody pulled out her keys and unlocked her car. “And I, for one, am fucking happy to have. You were the only reason I stayed as long as I did. Perry asks me at least twice a week why the hell I was working there when I can easily live off my inheritance from my grandma.”

“What?” I gasped. “I thought you needed that job just like I did.”

Melody shook her head. “I can liveverycomfortably for at least fifty years without having to worry about money, Lennox. I just got a job at Sun Studio because I was bored, and Perry runs the newspaper for the insurance, so we don’t have to pay out of pocket when we go to the doctor.”

I ran my fingers through my hair and paced back and forth. “I just quit my job, Melody.” I’m pretty sure I had already said that, but I was in shock. “How am I going to be a stay-at-home dog mom when I don’t have any money? I maybe have enough to cover me for a month, but then I will be completely broke.” Oh my god. I was going to be broke.

Melody chuckled and put her arm around my shoulders. “You’re not going to be broke, Lennox. You just said you have enough money for a month. That gives you thirty days to find a new job.” She splayed her arm around. “It’s a big world, Lennox. Sun Studio was not your forever job. It was a feed yourself and dogs job.”

“Yes, Melody, I wasn’t going to work there forever, but I needed to work there until I had another job.” What in the heck had I just done?

“And you will get another job,” she reassured me, “and you need to remember why you just quit.” She grabbed my shoulders and stared at me.

“Because she wouldn’t give me time off?” I squeaked.

Melody rolled her eyes and smiled. “Yes, honey. You need time off with your man, and she was going to give you a freaking Wednesday,” she spat. “Who the hell wants a Wednesday off?”

My thoughts exactly. “Maybe I should have asked if I could get, like, Thursday through Sunday off.” That would have been better than Wednesday, and I would still have a job.

“Lennox. I need you to think past right now. Past the next week. What were you going to do if Jonas came here, and you fell head over heels in love with him?” she asked.

“I, uh, well, he was coming so we could get to know each other.”

“Honey,” she sighed. “You have been talking to this man for three years. If you don’t know him by now, you will never know him. Next week was a formality to make sure you tripped each other's triggers in all the right ways. What were you going to do after?”

“Well, what if we don’t trip the triggers? Or whatever you just said. He could see me and be like gross, she has way too many piercings and tattoos.”

“Did you have all your tattoos and piercings in the pictures you sent him?” she asked.

“Well, yeah. They are kind of hard to hide.”

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