Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 129460 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 647(@200wpm)___ 518(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129460 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 647(@200wpm)___ 518(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
“So why did it take you twenty minutes to come say that?” When my question is met with silence, my anger hits an all-time high. “Is she the cause of your weirdness the past week?” I thought we were getting close, that maybe his issues were slowly dissolving, but now I feel more stupid than confident.
“No.” When I call out his lie with a slanted brow, he mutters, “Yes. But once again, it isn’t as it seems.”
I scoff at him before spinning away. If I don’t walk away, I’ll do something I will regret, and it most likely will occur to the region of his body I’m reasonably sure has already been hurt.
My spin alerts Caleb to the flowers on my entryway table and the reminder of their delivery has me confident I am a fool. “And here I was thinking they were some kind of apology for your coolness of late.” When shock replaces the jealousy hardening Caleb’s face, I snatch the invitation off the table and shove it in his chest. “I’ll guess you’ll be wanting this back.”
He takes a moment to read the invitation like he doesn’t know what it is before sliding it into the pocket of his trousers, stunning the living hell out of me. “That’s it? That’s your reply?”
“What do you want me to say, Jessie?”
“Fucking words would be great.”
When a creak sounds through my apartment, in sync, our eyes snap to the stairwell. I’m anticipating a blonde to interrupt us, that being the norm around here. I just had no inkling it would be Caleb’s ‘date’ and not his cousin.
After signaling to the unnamed woman that he won’t be a minute, Caleb shifts his focus back to me. He sounds remorseful while saying, “I’m taking Keira to the gala as my date so it will probably be best for you not to go. Okay?” But all I hear are the whiny words of a condescending man.
“Okay, Jess?” he repeats like he’s seeking approval.
He won’t get it from me, so instead of answering him, I give him the stink eye to rival all stink eyes before pivoting on my heels and returning to my makeshift office in my living room.
I pound on the keys of my laptop so brutally I shouldn’t hear his sigh before he exits my apartment, closing the door behind him, but I do.
It is as pained and sorrow-filled as the one that escapes my lips when I realize he took the bouquet of flowers he gifted me with him.
CHAPTER 40
JESS
While shifting my eyes away from a poor representation of Latina women on a series I once loved, I sigh. After an impromptu meeting with Jack and the chief editor of Seattle Socialites yesterday, I should be riding high.
Regretfully, I am as miserable as Octavia.
I wasn’t the only one duped out of an invitation to an event Jack’s Fortune 500 company is hosting tonight. Octavia was too.
Jack bought her a dress, then backpedaled faster than Caleb.
What an asshole!
With my attitude returning stronger than ever, I push out with a groan, “Stuff this. I’m not doing this anymore.” After standing from the couch, I pluck Octavia from the seat her backside hasn’t left in almost three hours, then push her toward her room. “Come on. Let’s go. I’m not taking no for an answer.”
“Go where, exactly? I’m penniless, dateless, and…” With disappointment strangling her vocal cords, her last word is too soft for me to hear.
The same cruel defeat is clutching my throat, but I refuse to let it hold me back a second longer. “To the gala.”
Octavia’s neck cranks to mine as her eyes pop out of her head. “We can’t go to the gala. We’re not invited.” I add more oomph into my next shove when she continues, “I also don’t want to go. I’m too old to play games.”
“Too old? Puh-leaze. You’re a baby. You just feel a little worn down because you’ve been here before, fighting the same damn battle.” I shuffle through the dresses in her closet while muttering, “And we are invited. All employees are. It is one of the perks of being umbrellaed under Global Ten Media.”
Hope surges through my veins when I find a risqué little number with a highly inappropriate hemline at the back of her closet, but like a balloon with too much air, Octavia pops it. After snatching it out of my grasp, she places it back on the hanger. “How did you find out about that perk?”
I shrug like my news is nowhere near as big as it is. “It was included in the employment package I was offered yesterday.” It takes Octavia a couple of seconds to click on, but when she does, a mammoth smile stretches across her face. Her enthusiasm is contagious, and for a second, I forget how badly I want to strangle her cousin. “I finally got my foot in the door. It isn’t a huge position, only small editorials, but it’s a start.”