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"Exactly. She's letting her dad pay." My mom's tone is cutting. "So technically, you're not taking care of yourself."
"Yes, Mom, I know that, but I just?—"
"You're not sleeping with him, are you?"
"Sleeping with who?" I ask in confusion.
"Oh Lord. Billy, come here," she calls out to my dad loudly. "Billy, you need to talk to your daughter. She's sleeping with her friend’s dad to?—"
"Mom!" I shout into the phone in shock. "Stop it. I am not sleeping with Elisabetta's dad. Are you crazy?"
"Why then, is he letting you live in his condo for free?"
"Mom. Elisabetta is the one letting me?—"
"So, if Dad and I lived in New York, you'd want to live with us? If we moved to New York, you'd move back home?"
"No, Mom." I say quickly. "That's not it. I want my independence." I can hear the panic in my voice. "Please do not move to New York. Look, I love you and I will try and come to Florida for Thanksgiving, but I’ve really got to go. Okay?"
"Fine," she says after a long silence. I will definitely be getting a call from Dad later to tell me off. "I guess I'll just go and sit next to your dad and watch hockey and crochet."
"Okay, Mom. Enjoy," I say and hang up quickly. I'm not going to let her take me on another guilt trip today. Those seem to be the only trips I'm getting to go on these days. I feel bad about hanging up, but I've already got way too much going on.
I hurry down the street toward the restaurant. I'm running ten minutes late now, and I know if Fabricio catches me walking in late, he's going to write me up. He's already given me a verbal warning. I don't know what it is about the guy, but he makes my skin crawl every time I see him. My phone rings again and I'm about to tell my mom off when I see that it's my main boss, Kingston Chase. He's an attorney at the law firm I work for as an assistant. Even though I find him annoying as well, he doesn't make my skin crawl. My heart races slightly as I debate whether or not to answer. Curiosity gets the better of me and I answer on the fourth ring.
"Hello?" I say breathlessly as I'm practically running down the street now.
"Is that you, Skye?" He sounds confused.
"Who else would it be?"
"I don't know." He pauses. "I didn't catch you doing something reserved for later at night, did I?"
I roll my eyes at his comment.
"No, Kingston. What do you want?"
"I was wondering if we could meet up for dinner?" he asks, and I frown slightly. Why on Earth would my new boss want to meet me for dinner? For a few moments, I think it's because he wants to take me on a date, but then the thought immediately flees my mind. Kingston Chase has not given me any reason to believe that he wants me. In fact, I was shocked that he'd even hired me in the first place. "I need to speak to you about something important."
"Nope," I say, looking at the time on the screen. "And honestly, I have to go. Can this wait until Monday?" My brain is screaming at me because I want to know why he wanted to ask me to dinner and what he wants to talk about. Though I'm not going to let my inner thoughts run away with me like my friend Lila did when she first met her boss, Max.
"No, it can't really wait till Monday," he says, as if I've asked him to wait to eat for seventy-two hours or something. Men can be so dramatic. "I saw the stack of files on your desk this afternoon. And it concerns me that you're not getting through the work as quickly as I think you should be."
"What?" I can hear the irritation in my tone and I don't care if he hears it as well. "What are you talking about?"
"I told you that I needed you to get through all the files by this evening. And it appears to me that you didn't even make a dent."
"You gave me over a hundred files, Kingston," I snap. "I'm not superwoman."
"Obviously," he drawls, and I swear that if I were with him in person, I'd give him a look so fiery that he'd melt into the ground like a snowman when the sun comes out. "In fact, I think you should be in the office right now working, if that's what it takes."
"Really? If a free dinner wasn't possible for me, do you think working was going to be."
"What do you mean it's not possible?"
"Because I have plans this evening and they don't revolve around you. Not having dinner with you and not certainly not working for you."
"Where are you off to?" he asks innocently, but I don't trust him.
