Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99494 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99494 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Thinking about you.
XO Bax
“Who are they from?” Holly asks again, and I bite my lip. “Stop,” she whispers. “They’re from Bax, aren’t they?” I nod, and she presses her hands against her chest. “Oh my God, I need to take a picture for my grandma.”
“You’re not sending a picture to your grandma.” I laugh, putting the card back in its holder.
“Come on! I have to give the old ladies what they want. I’m their inside scoop.” She pouts.
“I’m going to get my stuff together. Can I trust you with these for a few minutes?”
“Of course,” she lies, pulling out her phone and I shake my head but leave the flowers where they are. After I clean up from Alisha’s appointment, I shut down my computer and gather all my stuff together before I put on my coat and grab my bag.
As I’m walking down the hall to the front desk, I hear Julie asking about the flowers and hear Holly tell her they’re mine. Turning the corner, I find Julie with the card in her hand and Holly with a look on her face that says she can’t believe Julie had the audacity to open the card and read it.
“Bax sent you flowers?” Julie asks with fake hurt in her voice.
“He did.” I pluck the card from her hand and tuck it back into the bouquet.
“Are you seeing him?” she asks, and Holly’s chair squeaks.
“Yes.” I don’t lie. If this situation with Julie will be an issue, I would rather deal with the fallout now and start looking for another practice to work at before I get too comfortable here. I’m already stressed about what might happen with my family, especially since my mom sounded concerned last night. And Liam has yet to find out about us, and I don’t know what his reaction will be. The last thing I want to have to worry about is how my relationship might affect my job.
“Even after what I told you yesterday?”
“I spoke to him about that situation, and he was honest about what happened.” I hold her stare and let her see I know the truth, that she was the one who messed around on him and also tried to sleep with my brother. How she thought that would all play out in her favor is anyone's guess. Unless she assumed that with the way my brother is with women, he wouldn’t care if he was messing with his best friend’s girlfriend or whatever she was.
“I see.” She presses her lips together, then looks at my coat and my bag. “Are you leaving?”
“I am.”
“It’s not even four.”
“I don’t have any other clients scheduled today, so I’m leaving a little early.”
“What if there is a walk-in?”
I’m not a hair stylist, a tattoo artist, or even an esthetician like her, who solely deals with facials and other treatments that can be done on a whim.
“I don’t take walk-ins,” I inform her as Eva walks around the corner and cries out.
“Oh my God, who got flowers?”
I like Eva. From the moment I met her, I felt a kinship with her. We both traveled the same path to get to where we are in our careers and share some of the same outlooks on dealing with clients. But her relationship with Julie has me questioning if she really is genuine, which sucks.
“Bax sent them to Olivia,” Holly stage-whispers, and Eva looks at me.
“The guy I saw you with on Halloween?” I nod, and she smiles. “They’re beautiful.”
“Thank you,” I murmur.
Julie tenses, then snaps at me, “When Eva hired you to work here, your schedule was set for nine to five.”
“What’s going on?” Eva asks, obviously confused by the change of subject, having missed what we’d been talking about before she came around the corner.
“She’s leaving early.” Julie points at me.
“She’s not paid by the hour. If she wants to leave and doesn’t have anyone on the schedule for later today, she can.”
“What if someone comes in?”
“Then I’m here, or Holly can schedule an appointment for them to come back. I’ve never once had someone just walk in asking for Botox like it’s a haircut,” Eva tells her with a scoff, and I press my lips together so I can keep myself from smiling.
“It’s unprofessional to just leave in the middle of the day.”
Eva sighs. “What’s unprofessional is this conversation.”
I always assumed that in cartoons, when the character turns red with anger, it was just a comedic representation of rage for little kids. But as I watch Julie’s face get bright red, I see clearly it happens in real life too.
“I’m trying to run a business—a business I’m part owner of until you can get the money together to buy me out like you said you wanted to,” Julie says through clenched teeth.
I glance over at Holly to see if she knew Eva was working on buying Julie out of the spa, but she looks just as surprised as I am by this news.