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“Richie!”I’m shouting and waving my arms now.Just a model of calm and collected.“I think they’re Googling me and seeing the news stories, or I dunno, he’s somehow sending them terrible recommendations from his holding cell.”I point a finger at her before she can shoot that idea down.“He’s a bad man, Charlotte Jane.He’d figure out a way to do it.”
She bobs her head in agreement.“I’m sure he would,” she says soothingly.
“It’s like my Canadian perp walk is never going to stop,” I say in a small voice, sinking to the couch.“I cannot believe Richie did this to me.”
I’m not crying—I’m too mad to cry—but CJ pulls me into a hug and strokes my hair like my mom used to when I was a kid overwhelmed with the unfairness of life.Slowly, everything in me starts to unclench.
“We’ll figure it out,” CJ says once the last of my tension dissolves from my limbs.“You said you had a good lead in Minneapolis, right?”
“A former boss there, yeah.We’re talking next week.”
“And if that doesn’t work out—which it will, obviously—but if it doesn’t, then you can reach out to former clients about freelance opportunities.You love those shoestring budget projects.”
“True.”I sniffle and try to join CJ in seeing the bright side.“That meal kit company I worked with last year already dropped me a line about creating some Instagram ads for them.”
“See?”CJ says.“You got this.”
Unfortunately, bringing up Instagram reminds me of my other grievance with today.
I poke at a hole in the cuff of my wallowing sweatshirt and say casually, “Do you think Jonesy’s out with that girl tonight?”
After listening to the start of his fight with his brother on Wednesday, I may have done a tiny bit of digging.Turns out, his account was easy to find once I tracked down Darby and scrolled through her feed until I saw him laughing at a grill with Gabe during a cookout this summer.And then I regretted it immediately when I followed his tag and saw the pictures Wyatt was upset about.
Jonesy spends a lot of time surrounded by very hot, very young women.This weekend in particular, he seemed to mostly be in the company of a gorgeous twenty-something blonde with the biggest blue eyes I’ve ever seen.If that’s who he’s slinging his arm around during a house party, what use does he have for a thirty-two-year-old unemployed ad exec?No wonder he blew me off when I tried to ask if he wanted to hang out.
CJ doesn’t answer because there really isn’t a good response to “is my hot coworker out with an equally hot girl tonight?”Instead, she props her feet on the coffee table and rolls her head to face me.
“Know what might make you feel better?”
“Have Richie arrested by the Mexican authorities too?Go for a North American sweep?”
“That’s plan B.”
“Hmm,” I say.“It’s Saturday night.”
CJ’s cheek is squished against the back of the couch, which makes her delighted smile lopsided.“Why, yes, it is!”
“So we’re thinking snake-hips Santa, right?”I ask.
“I’m like a proud mama right now.”She pretends to wipe away a tear.“Look at this personal growth.Fromoh no, no, don’t take me to see hot men prance naked onstagetoI will have my revenge on unworthy men with a very worthy stripper.”
“Would we call that personal growth?”
“Think about it while you’re changing into something cute.I’m taking you to dinner, and then we’re going to North Village and I’m buying you a private dance from Luke Lawless.”
“Oka—what?”
CJ’s still listing the pros of a private dance as we cross the North Village town limits.
“It’ll be fun.You deserve fun.”
“I do deserve fun.”I was convinced before we cleaned up and left the house, but I’ve been enjoying watching her try to talk me into it with an assist from the margaritas over dinner.
“And you’ll be helping Luke pay his way through medical school or support Mrs.Lawless and their brood of little Lawless children or whatever it is he’s got going on.”
“Also true.And it’s not like I’d be up onstage for it.”
“Exactly,” she says as she turns into the Crimson Lounge parking lot.“I’d never volunteer you for a public grinding session.I don’t want you to die of embarrassment.”
