Page 105 of My Lucky Charm

I don’t know why Gray is the way he is, and normally I can roll with it, but sometimes, even I need a second to regroup.

I start walking through the diner, eyes focused on the back wall where the word “Restrooms” is painted above a doorway, when I hear someone say my name.

I stop and see him sitting at a table with two other men, hand raised at me.

Jay.

A city with 2.697 million people, and I pick the one place where he is.

Come on.

He stands, and I instantly feel small. How does he do that? How does he make me feel like I did something wrong simply by saying my name?

“Jay.” I glance toward the front of the restaurant where Gray is looking at Scarlett’s iPad. I take a few steps away from Jay’s table, near an empty space at the bar, backed into the only dead space I can find in this diner. But my conflicting feelings for my new boss and my conflicting feelings for my old boss both have me wanting to disappear.

I’m over Jay. But I’m still angry with myself for believing him. For being such a cliché.

And I don’t like being angry with myself.

“Hey, El, looking good, looking good. Oh! I heard you were working for a hockey player.” Jay raises a brow, looking over at Gray and Scarlett. “You all getting along well?”

“Yeah. It’s been great,” I say, hoping a waiter with a full platter would accidentally trip and dump a plate of spaghetti down the front of his shirt.

“You almost look . . . like a couple,” he says, his words are like wiping your hands with a greasy towel. “The kid’s a nice touch. But hey, I guess you do what you have to to move up in this world, right?”

I glare. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just that, you know, your plan is working.” His smile seems to suggest he’s in on a joke I’m not telling.

I’m incredulous. “My plan?”

“New Year’s Eve?” He leans closer. “Well played, Eloise.”

I stiffen. “I don’t have a plan,” I say. “I needed a job, and he needed an assistant.”

“Is that what he calls you?” Jay presses his lips together, and for a second, I wonder what it might feel like to punch someone.

With a chair.

I’ve never done it before, actually punched someone. Would it hurt my hand? And if so, would the pain be worth it?

“That’s what I am.” I straighten my shoulders, trying to mentally make myself bigger, a tactic I learned from Rebecca in Ted Lasso.

“Yeah, right, for me too,” he says smugly. “But, not really. Let’s be real here, nobody is hiring you,” his eyes drop momentarily then come back up, “for your brain.”

My mind spins for a witty comeback, but I’m too shaken to find one. I want to hurl some clever insult at him, but instead, I respond with a silent, stunned stare.

Then, a moment of clarity.

This is the way Jay talked to me when I worked for him.

This is the way he treated me.

He straightens. “Hey, do you think you could get me an introduction? Your new boss is kind of a big deal.”

“No.” I start to walk away, and Jay grabs my arm. “Aw, don’t be like that, Eloise,” he says. “Come on, for old times.”

“Let go of me,” I say in the strongest tone I can muster.

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