What Jonathan was probably bumming about was that he himself couldn’t lurk and drool over candid pictures of Daisy doing a yoga pose with the sun setting in the background, or the bowl or organic soba noodles with root vegetables Daisy was about to indulge in, or the way Daisy looked in a bathing suit, the ocean as the backdrop. Actually, she didn’t seem like the sort of person to post any of those pictures. Well, maybe the food one, but that was such a cliché.
“Again—how is any of this my problem?” I asked. “I own a business, Jonathan. I don’t run a charity.”
“You’d be employing her. It’s not charity. And we’re in the security industry—doesn’t stalking fall under that realm?”
“She’s not a client.”
“So we only help people who are giving us money.”
“If you want to talk about charitable donations or underwriting a public radio station, we can do that at another time. I’ve already decided to go with Lynn.”
“Lynn?” He made no attempt to hide his displeasure.
“Yes, Lynn.” So what if she was overweight and had teeth that could rival any equines? I didn’t need another situation like the o
ne I just had with Annie.
“I looked at her resume,” Jonathan said. “She doesn’t have an iota more of experience than Daisy does. And Daisy’s a hell of a lot better looking.”
I made a tutting sound and gave Jonathan a look as though I was very disappointed in him. “This isn’t a beauty pageant. Look, Jay, I said I’d do you the favor by interviewing her; I never said that I’d give her the job. What’s it to you, anyway?”
I knew what it was though—he liked her, though he wouldn’t admit it.
“Well, let’s see. She’s just as—if not more—experienced with admin duties than Lynn is, she’s my friend, and she’s hot. Oh, she’s also a freak in bed.” He added this last part and then looked at me to see if I’d go for the bait.
It was a risky gamble though, what he was doing. He was banking on the fact that I wouldn’t be able to resist the idea of hiring this freak between the sheets (yeah right) while at the same time hoping she would be far more beguiled by his charms than my own. Not impossible, but not likely. Although, if she were more into the boy-next-door-type then Jonathan certainly would be her man.
Jonathan sat there, giving me what basically amounted to dog-begging-for-treat eyes. Christ, he was whipped. How had I not seen this before?
“Okay,” I said finally. A grin broke out onto Jonathan’s face before I’d even started my next sentence. “I’ll hire her. I already called her and told her it was a no-go, but I’ll call her back and tell her I’ve reconsidered. Which is going to make me look like an indecisive asshole, of course, but I’m willing to do that for you.”
“That’s awesome, man,” Jonathan said. If he had a tail, it would be wagging.
“Just remember to send me an invite to the wedding,” I said.
Chapter Two
Daisy
After I had gotten off the phone with Ian, I sat there at the kitchen table and stared at a water stain in the shape of a heart. How long had that been there? Why was I just noticing it now? I was asking myself these ridiculous questions because I was trying not to think about the fact that I hadn’t been hired, despite me foolishly thinking that the interview had gone pretty well.
He hadn’t even waited a day to call and tell me that I didn’t get the job; had it even been two hours? I took a deep breath and then forced myself up. I got a glass from the cupboard and had some water.
You didn’t get the job.
No one is ever going to hire you.
You shouldn’t have left the hair salon.
Except, I hadn’t left Shear Genius—I’d been fired. And what had Rosie, the manager that I’d turned in for embezzling, said to me? That I’d never get hired anywhere again?
Something along those lines.
I went into the living room, which looked out onto Locust Street. My apartment building was right on the corner of Locust and Pine, Pine being the busier of the two roads. I looked out the window and saw a maroon Rav4 parked on Locust. The glare was hitting the driver’s side window just right so I couldn’t make out who was sitting there, but I knew anyway: Noah. I took a deep breath as I felt my heart rate accelerate, and not in a good way. It was fairly warm out, but my arms were suddenly covered in goosebumps. I hurried out of the living room and grabbed my phone and my purse and left through the front entrance on Pine, hoping that I could make it to my car and drive out of there before he saw me.
I went to my best friend’s apartment. Caroline lived on the top floor, so there was no chance of anyone peeking into her windows, five stories up. We’d been best friends for years, and had seen each other through some pretty bad breakups. Well, she’d been the one doing most of the dating; I’d been on a few dates that had been disastrous, and now this, with Noah—we hadn’t even dated, yet he was acting as though I’d scorned him.
All we’d done, in fact, was get a smoothie at the gym’s café one afternoon. We’d seen each other around the gym for a while, and he seemed perfectly nice. Quiet, maybe, but then again, I could seem quiet, too. I had just been coming out of a spin class, probably five weeks ago, now, and he caught up with me and asked if I’d like to go to the café with him. I could tell he was nervous and that it had probably taken a lot for him to work up the courage to ask me, so of course I agreed. He wasn’t awful looking, but he wasn’t the sort of person that you’d probably look twice at, were you to pass them on the street. Not like some of the guys Caroline had dated, certainly not like Ian, but I liked to think I wasn’t so superficial. That just because someone wasn’t a ten on the hotness scale didn’t mean I couldn’t give them a chance.