The Fake Engagement
When Juliet failed one of her tests through college and thought her dreams were over, shattered, Eliza wouldn’t allow that. For three weeks straight, she forced Juliet to study her ass off until finally, she was more than ready.
She’d aced that test.
Positivity in life was the key.
Glancing at Mackenzie, she remembered when she first started to work for Doug’s Advertising. She’d been so down. Where Eliza and Juliet had gotten work with some of the biggest companies in the city, if not the world, Mackenzie had struggled. There were very limited openings for her kind of skills as a design artist.
There had been a time Mackenzie thought she would have no choice but to return home, but that didn’t happen. It may not be a big firm, but Doug’s Advertising was one of the best, and Mackenzie worked as one of their designers.
They’d always wanted to move to a big city to follow their corporate dreams. This was part of their plan, to learn everything they needed to know before branching out into their own company, one that was female driven and competitive in the male market.
She handed her glass for another tequila. “I’m going to have to quit.”
“No quitting,” Juliet said. “Remember. That’s our motto. See the bigger picture. We’ll all be happy eventually.”
“Yeah, there’s happiness and then there’s wasting your skills picking up your boss’s laundry. Or better yet, finding an adequate cleaner to handle his apartment. If that’s not good, maybe it’s a quick trip to a jewelry store to buy something to help him deal with his one-night stand?” She shuddered. In the past three years, she’d done all of that for Preston Boone. “I don’t get it. Why do women fall for him? He’s an asshole.”
“He’s hot,” Juliet said. “Come on, guys, we’ve seen pictures of him, and you, Eliza, get to see him up close and personal every single day.”
“Exactly, I know what a toad he is.”
“You know what happens when you kiss a toad?” Juliet asked.
Eliza glared at her friend. “You get toad lips, nothing else. There are no princes waiting in the wings. We all know this.”
“True!” Mackenzie ate another jalapeno.
“I’m sorry. I’m not going to worry about this.” She put her glass down and ran her hands over her face, trying to clear her mind of her worries. It wasn’t exactly happening.
She was so tired, like all the time.
Preston was a full-on, all-the-time boss.
Even in the middle of the night. He’d called her to make notes. The first time he did that, she thought she was going crazy. She’d been working for him for two days, and he called her at three in the morning for her to make a couple of notes about what he wanted to broach at one of the meetings he had booked.
The next day, he told her to scrap the ideas because they were the ramblings of a tried man. He rarely used the notes he asked her to take first thing in the morning.
A giant asshole.
She had gotten used to it though. Beside her bed, she slept with her cell phone, coffee, a notepad, and even some migraine relievers.
A full night’s sleep was rare.
“At least you made it home for girls’ night,” Juliet said, putting a hand on her knee.
“Yeah, but look at us, we’re all tired,” she said.
Juliet looked exhausted.
Mackenzie kept stifling a yawn behind her hand.
“We’re fine.” Mackenzie waved her hand. “It’s been months since we last got wasted and just stopped caring about what our bosses, or bosses’ sons, did. We need to learn to switch off, you know.” She nodded. “Give me the tequila and let’s turn some music on. We’re still young and carefree. I’m not going to let my boss put a downer on this evening, like ever.” She took the bottle from Juliet and gulped it down.
It must have been worse than Eliza thought.
For Mackenzie to drink from the bottle, it meant she wanted all her worries to disappear. They were all going to be in a bad condition tomorrow, but right at that moment, Eliza didn’t care.
“You’re right. We need to shake off all parts of work.” She got to her feet and right there in front of her friends, who were more like sisters, she tugged open her blouse and then wriggled out of her pants. Standing in a pair of matching panties and bra, she held her hand out for the tequila.
Mackenzie handed it right to her, and she took several gulps.
Tomorrow didn’t matter. She was tired of being perfect, or at least trying to, and her boss finding small insignificant details to complain about. That was all he did, and she hated him for it.
If she got the wrong coffee, he’d spend a good ten minutes telling her the importance of using the right coffee from the correct company. She had dared to buy him a bagel for lunch with full-fat cream cheese, and he’d started to complain about the damage of eating full-fat anything. Personally, to Eliza, if you were going to spend your time eating something, then eat what you loved. Don’t go for low-fat. Enjoy everything in moderation. It was how she worked.