Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 67468 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67468 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
She had her shit together.
She was living on her own—in an apartment above The Marina, yes, but she paid for said apartment just like her brother did with the one right next to hers—and she had her own outside job away from the family business.
Something that, according to Silvain, Jr., Alice’s father, was what Alice craved.
I knew that he wasn’t putting Jaycee at the helm of this business for shits and giggles.
It served two purposes. One, to get Jaycee doing something to force her to grow up and work for the money she was freely given. And two, to give Alice the out that she wanted.
At first, I’d thought it’d been rather dickish of Silvain, Jr.
But then I’d realized over the last six months of my witnessing it from far off, that something else—something that she could excel at—was exactly what she wanted.
“Alice, please,” Jaycee cried. “I need help!”
Alice said something low only Jaycee could hear, and Jaycee came stomping out of the room looking mad as a wet hen.
She stomped toward the corner of the room where the Wi-Fi router was and then pulled a cord.
There was a long moment of silence, and then Alice stormed out of the room looking madder than I’d ever seen her.
Something else I’d spent the last six months doing?
Avoiding the hell out of Alice Paradis.
Why?
Because she was a weakness I couldn’t afford to have right now.
I had enough on my plate at that moment in time. I didn’t need to add Alice to the mix.
Because that wouldn’t be fair to either one of us.
So I’d done what I had to do, and that was make her think that I hated her.
Which I kind of did.
It was very annoying to find out that you had a weakness in the world when you thought you no longer had one. But the more time I spent avoiding Alice, the more I realized that she meant a whole lot more to me than she should.
Like right then. I felt bad that Jaycee had interrupted her. I felt even worse that she had to deal with Jaycee.
Alice’s gaze went around the room, taking in the plethora of customers that were standing around, waiting to get fueled up, checked out, or reimbursed from a fuck up.
“You’re fired,” Alice snapped.
Whoa. I hadn’t expected her to say that.
“What?” Jaycee cried. “You can’t do that! Dad or Grandad would have to fire me!”
Apparently, Jaycee couldn’t read the room.
“You’re fired,” Alice repeated. “And Dad will wholeheartedly back me up. Every single one of these people in here right now will back me up. You’re childish, conniving, and you purposefully act like you can’t do something so that you can work less. That’s a lazy little shithead in my book. And Dad will agree. If I have to do your job, I’ll be doing it right now, without you anywhere near me.”
I walked over and plugged the Wi-Fi router back in, then turned to find that my movement had caused Alice’s attention to return to me.
She looked away quickly, not wanting to make eye contact.
In the last six months, my anger and indifference had caused her to be just as angry and indifferent back to me. It’d been interesting seeing her around, yet her trying to act like she didn’t notice me.
It was apparent that neither fuckin’ one of us could control ourselves when it came to the other person.
Just like I was trying hard not to get defensive of Alice when Jaycee was fucking her over, she stepped in when people were giving me shit she didn’t like.
Like last week when Oberon came into the damn marina with his yacht—this one newer and better—and asked me to ‘fill it up.’ As if I was just the hired help, when he damn well knew I wasn’t.
Alice had stepped in when she saw me reacting and had asked the new gas pump attendee—yes, they had to hire someone to do this on the days that Jaycee worked because apparently, she couldn’t handle that and checking people out—to fill Oberon’s boat up. Meanwhile, she kept herself in between me and Oberon, keeping me in check until Oberon left.
Fuckin’ prick.
Even a week later, it still pissed me off.
He fuckin’ knew damn well and good I didn’t work here. He also knew who the hell I was.
The fact that he was acting like he didn’t was telling.
I.e., he was fuckin’ scared of me and didn’t know how to act around me.
“I am not leaving,” Jaycee snapped. “I’m going to stay here and do the work, because Daddy said I had to, or I couldn’t have any more money.”
I’m sure we all assumed that was why she was working, but having it confirmed only worsened the situation.
“I’d like my two thousand dollars refunded to my card,” McKees said, breaking into the argument between the two women.