AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 3
I regret this already.
– Marcella
Penny: AHHHHHHHHH. I HATE YOU.
I smile at my phone as Penny’s texts come in.
Penny: Please marry ME. Forget about your boss. You deserve the housewife, bb girl.
Penny: I cook. I clean. I provide ROCKS. Full pakidge, right here.
Making my way back inside after getting Mr. Marsh’s and my lunch from the delivery guy at the front of the building, I fit myself into a cramped elevator and watch a stream of images appear on my phone. Penny’s big green eyes and short curly blond hair make her look like a professional model—regardless of the fact she’s doing a romantic spoof with the Coca-cola cake I DoorDashed to her on company time.
Penny: Would it be weird if I start making out with this cake? It’s still warm. I’m sobbing. Why are you the best? Marsh needs to fall in love with you during these next few months, or else I’m throwing hands.
Adjusting my food bag, I reply:
Marcella: That’s not a good ending. I don’t want to turn down a simpering puppy dog guy who will then have to let me go on account of it being too difficult to work with me. I want one date to end with: “Wow, this was an expensive realization, oops, see you tomorrow with my coffee and schedule.”
Penny: But then you won’t get all your debt paid off.
Marcella: Fine. I want him to tolerate me for a few months and be too stubborn to admit he was wrong before he accepts that he made an expensive mistake.
Penny: Fair enough. Sadly, you are much too lovable. Make sure he, in all his love-struck can’t-bear-to-be-around-you-and-not-kissing-ness, writes you the best recommendation letter ever. Get him to hook you up with a female CEO. They probably don’t come with this drama.
Sadly, they also don’t come with this pay.
I guess I forgot to consider that no matter what happens, I’m toying with a difficult balance if I agree to this. If he dislikes the real me way too much, I may be able to pay off half my debts, but he may fire me. If he likes the real me too much for some lunatic reason, I might still be forced to give up this position if I don’t go through with whatever he will want from me after the dating period is over.
I need to crunch these numbers before I confirm or deny this insanity…
And I don’t have much time before this elevator empties, leaving just me on Mr. Marsh’s top floor.
Getting a job that pays this well was pure happenstance. Even if I don’t get a bulk sum now, I’ll be able to pay off my debts with this salary, right?
Probably the college one…
The other, though?
The other isn’t exactly on the up and up. It’s a loan I took out when I was in college full time and Dad had to have an emergency surgery for cancer, followed by treatment. I panicked when Mom called me, sobbing and saying we couldn’t afford it.
The amount we needed was a blur of numbers with too many zeros.
And the consequence of not paying that outrageous amount would have been losing my father.
No one was accepting my parents’ credit score.
So I made a skeezy deal with interest rates through the roof, no clear record amounts, and a bill every month that seems to only cover interest. Even paying monthly thousands, I still owe tens of thousands. And the only way I have a chance of getting rid of it is if I drop the kind of money Mr. Marsh is offering all at once at their business front with witnesses. I need proof of an all clear and to get out of there once and for all.
Even if Mr. Marsh doesn’t keep me through the full three-month term, having half of what I need gives me a head start that will take years off this battle. I have to do this. At least part way.
I have to take the risk and accept.
Taking a deep breath, I swap my phone for my LeoPad once I reach my desk right outside Mr. Marsh’s office.
Just…be honest.
