“This job sounds wonderful.” Her head drops back down, causing her jet-black hair that she has in a messy bun to shift with her. She’s always able to pull off the messy bun look. You’d think I’d be a master at making something a mess but that’s not how things work. When I tried to do the whole disheveled hair look, it turned out looking perfectly kempt. Only I would manage to mess up the messy bun. “Plus you’re getting double paid.”
I am making more than I ever have in my life.
“No,” I admit. “It’s more like quadruple the pay. I got the paperwork showing my salary today.”
MJ narrows her dark eyes. “He isn’t asking you to do other things, is he?” I bite my lip and shake my head no, but she’s on to me. “Spit it out.”
“He might have brushed his mouth against mine,” I admit. She clicks her tongue, a habit she does when she’s thinking. I don’t want her to think badly of him, so I rush to add, “He told me if there was ever a problem or I felt uncomfortable that I could go to HR.”
He isn’t a creep trying to bang his assistant. Well, it hadn’t felt that way. He’s been nothing but good to me, saving me from the pigeons, making sure I didn’t spill the giant Slurpee on myself when I stumbled off the elevator, encouraging me in this job even though I have no real office experience. I didn’t know there were men like him out in the world. It’s refreshing and making me wonder if this is the something I’ve been searching for. I might have made a few mistakes today but I never felt as though I was messing everything up. Maddox was there with me each step of the way as a guiding hand.
I am the one with a hidden agenda. I am the creeper in this situation, if we are being honest. He practically invited a stalker into his life, thinking that I really needed a job. He is being kind, and I am taking advantage of that. The guilt of this situation is threatening to eat me alive. I’m not good with subterfuge. One way or another, I’ll crack and this will blow up right in my face. At least I’ll have MJ. She’ll always be there for me.
She puts her knife down before she starts putting the vegetables in a pan. “I poked around,” MJ admits. She says it with no apology. Nor do I act shocked that she went digging into Maddox. I bet she found out more about him than I did. I might know financials and things you could Google but she can get dirty details. She always knows gossip. I guess cooking for the rich and famous has more perks than money. “He’s clean. Maybe too clean.” She clicks her tongue again.
I laugh. She doesn’t want him to be a creep but doesn’t like that he’s all nice and upstanding without a blemish on him. My phone dings. I pick it up, hoping it’s a text from Maddox, but I see it’s my PI email address I set up. I click the mailbox, knowing I need to answer Ms. June soon. She’ll want an update. I haven’t told her about getting hired on yet; something is holding me back.
I see it’s another email from Freddy Malachi. I think the name is fake. It has to be because that name is scary. He emailed me a few days ago about a PI job. I deleted his first email because of his name. When MJ saw that I put my PI ad on Craigslist, she made me take it down and told me not to take any clients that came from that site. She insisted that I stop posting pictures of myself with my ads. She thinks it’s too dangerous to have that information so readily available. Think of the irony of that. MJ doesn’t want people knowing what I look like but I am advertising services to pry into people’s lives for money. I tried to reason with her by showing that the other PIs use photos but she wasn’t having it. She pointed out that they are all old men and I was going to get creepers and she’d have to cut a bitch. I think she was making a big deal out of nothing but I kept that to myself. I don’t want anyone to get cut and she might be right. This Freddy is pushing the boundaries. I click the email to tell him I’m not taking any more jobs again but scream when I see a dick.
“What?” She spins from the stove to look at me.
“I got dick pic’d!” I turn my phone to show her.
“I don’t want to see that shit.” I hit delete, doing us both a favor. “Block the email, Luna.” She uses her mom tone on me and I make sure I do it. “Told you about that Craigslist ad.” She shakes her head, going back to cooking. The smell of steak fills the room and I wish Maddox was here to taste MJ’s food. Where that thought comes from I don’t know but it sounds right, him being here with us.