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It was hell to see her like this, especially since I was still feeling like I’d played some small part in her present unemployment.
“Anyway. Been whining enough, right now I think I need some damn pie in me—”
I heard the soft vibration of her phone buzzing in her pocket. She took it out and looked at the screen, letting out frustrated squeal as she did.
“More bad bank news?”
“No. It’s the weirdest, creepiest thing. Some psycho’s been messaging me. Look.”
She held up the phone to my face, and I looked it over.
“Sorry to hear the sexiest massage girl in the city’s out of a job. Hopefully that doesn’t mean I won’t get the happy ending I’ve been fantasizing about; )”
“Something about that winking face makes the whole thing even creepier.”
“I know, right? I mean, the whole thing’s level after level of gross. And you know the worst part? I keep blocking the number, but then a few hours later I get another message from a different number.”
“That’s weird as hell. Any idea who it is?”
“I’ve got my suspicions. But considering the references to my job, I’m thinking it might be one of the many, many sleazy friends of Stump he’d let relax there for cheap. More than one of them had made it clear he was into paying me for massages of the private sort.”
“Sorry to hear about all this bullshit. If there’s anything I can—”
She cut me off. “Thanks, but I’m good. I got into this situation, and I can get the hell out of it.”
Right at that moment a trio of cars pulled up: Pepper and Noah in one, Theo, and Katy. They parked and got out. I smiled at them, but my mind was still on Shania’s situation—situations.
She was stubborn as always, which I kind of loved, and she was determined to solve it all on her own.
But part of me wanted to help. And a small tinge of panic came over me as I realized it wasn’t because it’d be doing the right thing.
It was because I had feelings for her.
Chapter Nineteen
SHANIA
I couldn’t believe how quickly the next week had flown by. Who’d have thought time could pass so quickly when you were unemployed and getting closer and closer to total, big goose-egg bankruptcy?
A sick, cold feeling gripped my stomach at the prospect of not having a single dollar to my name. I’d found myself trying to think about the last time that had happened. It had been all the way back in college.
But even then it had been a week or so of living off my dormmate’s mac and cheese while I waited for the next round of scholarship money to drop into my account. Now, there was no such light at the end of the tunnel.
Spread out on the tiny, round kitchen table in front of me was a small collection of applications from some local coffee shops and restaurants. I’d been loathing filling them out and turning them in. Not because I thought I was better than the work, of course—I’d made my fair share of triple-skinny-half-caf-vanilla-bean lattes during college—but more that it felt like a step backward, away from me dream.
I mean, I’d busted my ass so hard to get to the point where I could even think about opening my own place, but there I was, considering taking a job that was more suited to me-minus-ten-years. Not to mention the fact that paying for my apartment, tiny as it was, would likely be impossible on a barista’s wages. I’d have to move out, get some roommates, and…ugh.
I’d be in my early thirties, living like I was ten years younger and with nothing to show for it.
But I kept telling myself that this was the final wall between me and total destitution. I’d had a couple interviews at some local massage places over the last week, but when the matter of my job at the Circus Maximus came up, they’d all gone south. Sure, Stump was a dick, but that didn’t mean he and his spa didn’t carry some weight in the biz around town. And that weight had been in the process of making sure I didn’t find gainful employment any time soon.
Didn’t matter that I was damn good at my job, maybe one of the best massage therapists in the city—and I had the reviews to back that up. Nope. It mattered that Stump was pissed and didn’t want my hands gracing the knotted traps of even a single person in the city.
Then, on top of all that, the weddings had been pushed up. The gossip buzz had been kicked into overdrive over the last week, and when a sooner spot at the venue happened to open up, both couples were in total agreement to take it. And that, of course, meant everything related to the planning had been kicked into overdrive, with me and the girls putting in some serious crunch time to make sure it all went off without a hitch.
