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“I messed up. I flipped out about the price of the ring, which is crazy, and now I feel like someone might come cut my finger off in my sleep to sell it.”
“Nobody is going to try to cut your finger off.”
“You don’t know that. You have no clue what it’s like to be broke and out of options.”
“Is that how you felt when you started working for me? For the company, I mean.”
“Yes. I almost got fired that day…before you asked me to fill in for Lily.”
I take a seat on the coffee table facing her, my legs spread on either side of hers. “You had just set the breakroom on fire.”
“Totally an accident.”
“Your white shirts were a little bit see-through.”
“Only in the light!”
“And your skirts were incredibly tiny.”
“Only when I was sitting or bending over.”
“Good thing you were the only one who knew how to fill in for Lily when she was put on bed rest.”
“Yeah, or I would’ve been begging on the streets.”
“I would never have let that happen. Never,” I promise her.
She stares at me silently, no doubt seeing the truth on my face. Finally, she says, “I’m sorry your mom already likes me.”
“Me too. She’ll be devastated when I tell her it’s over.”
I wish I didn’t have to tell her that.
I wish this were real.
But it can’t be.
“Will you tell her it was a mutually agreed upon split?”
“Of course.”
“Thanks. I don’t know why I care what she thinks. If she knew the real me, she would tell you to take me out into the ocean and leave me there, so I don’t spend all your money.”
Nobody could ever think anything but the best about Kendall.
She practically glows with goodness.
12
Kendall
Dinner was uneventful. The live band playing tropical tunes at the restaurant was so loud we couldn’t hear each other, so there wasn’t much time to talk.
Back at the bungalow, after I shower, change into my pajamas, remove my makeup, and comb out my hair before braiding it, I expect Monty to already be sacked out in bed.
But the bedroom is empty, and it’s getting late. Also, one of the pillows is missing.
I wander into the living room and find his six-foot-plus frame contorted to fit on the sofa with a pillow jammed halfway under him and a thin blanket pulled over his legs.
