Down & Dirty (Lightning 1)

Pulling out my phone, I text my bff, Sage.

Me: FML

Sage: What’s up????

Me: Going to be fired on my first day

Sage: Employment is highly overrated

Me: Just like eating and paying rent

Sage: Exactly

Sage: What happened?

Me: Hunter Browning happened

Sage: Who?

Me: You really should crawl out of your yoga studio every once in a while

Sage: FYL

Me: Exactly

I shove my phone back into my bag, take another look in the mirror. Then, figuring I’ve done the best I can with what I’ve got—and promising myself that I will never again leave the house without a makeup kit and a change of clothes stashed in my bag—I square my shoulders. Take a deep breath. Tell myself that once the worst has happened, everything from here on out is smooth sailing. Well, right up until I get fired, at least…

Feeling a little more human, and a lot more calm—maybe Rajiv is right, the secret is accepting what the universe has planned instead of fighting it—I make my way back through the suddenly bustling office to the front desk. I was only in the restroom a few minutes, but in those few minutes, the place filled up. There are suddenly close to a dozen agents sitting at their desks or milling around what I assume is the break room, coffee cups in hand.

I met most of them last week, when Kerry had me come in to do all the paperwork for the job, and Alice—one of the younger agents—waves to me from where she’s waiting in line for coffee. I wave back, and start to walk over to say hello (and maybe get some tips on how to salvage the mess I’ve already made of my first day) when the door to Kerry’s office flies open hard enough to slam against the wall with a bang.

Her eyes scan the room, obviously searching for something before locking onto me. “Emerson, could you come in here please?”

For a moment, just a moment, I can’t help hoping that she means some other Emerson. I even glance behind me, just to make sure no one else is standing there. Unfortunately, no one is. And when Kerry quirks a brow, silently asking what’s taking me so long, I start walking. And planning Hunter Browning’s murder with every step I take.

It doesn’t take a genius to know that Kerry isn’t happy. Her body is stiff, her fists the next best thing to clenched and her smile is way too aggressively bright. Looks like I won’t be surviving until this afternoon, after all. That’s okay, I tell myself as I follow her into her office. Eating is highly overrated.

“Have a seat,” she tells me, nodding stiffly to the only available chair in the room. Which just happens to be next to Hunter. Of course.

He grins at me as I slide into the chair next to him, way more relaxed than either my boss or I at this point. When I glance back at Kerry, her eyes are darting between us like she’s looking for something. God only knows what.

Another look at Hunter doesn’t give me any clues and I can’t help wondering what’s going on. Am I expected to apologize for what happened outside even though he’s the dick who started the whole thing? Or is Kerry going to fire me in front of him in order to appease him? I’m searching her face now, looking for some cue to how I’m supposed to behave. But she’s still smiling that fake smile, looking like she wants to stab me with the pen she just picked up.

“So, Emerson,” she finally says, her voice so sickly sweet that I find myself sitting on the edge of my seat, waiting for her to slide that damn pen between my ribs like a shank. “Hunter tells me you two really hit it off this morning.”

Hit it off? Umm, okay. Definitely not what I was expecting to hear. But Kerry is obviously waiting for me to speak, so I say, “I think that might be a bit of an exaggeration.”

“Oh, don’t be modest. He’s been singing your praises.” Her smile turns razor sharp. “He’s particularly impressed with your initiative. So impressed, in fact, that he insists you be the one to show him houses from now on.”

Shock holds me immobile for long seconds, my brain refusing to compute what she’s saying. When it finally sinks in, though, I start to stutter. “But it’s my first day. I just got my real estate license a few weeks ago and I haven’t done any research on homes in the area. I—”

“All valid points,” my boss agrees. “Points that I’ve already explained to Hunter at great length. But he says you two have a connection and he is certain that you’ll be able to figure out what he wants better than anyone else. Even someone with fifteen years’ experience in the real estate market who owns her own firm.”

Wow, she doesn’t sound bitter at all.

Kerry takes a deep breath, then fixes a saccharine sweet smile on her face before sliding the folder across the desk to me. “So, here are the houses I was planning on showing him today. You can start with these, and then go from there.”

“Go from there?” I ask faintly.