“Is that what he told you it was for?” Allison stares at me open mouthed and a frown wrinkling her forehead.
“Not in so many words, how could he? I haven’t spoken to him since the last time we...”
“Asshole. He hasn’t called you?” I shake my head, no.
“No, I told you, we haven’t talked since that night at the stupid function. And I’ll be damned if I’m calling him, I want nothing to do with him right now…you know what I might do though? I heard from a couple of the guys on the catering crew that they’re having another function at Lambert Estates. I’m sure I still have the woman’s contact from last time. I could get a job from her and dump the check right back in to the donation bucket. That way I don’t have to see his arrogant ass again and the money will go back to someone who actually needs it.”
“I actually need it, Missy. You should see what my bank account looks like at the minute, I’m pretty sure that I qualify as a charity. Besides, won’t he be at the event? Won’t he see you trying to be all sneaky slipping that money in to the donations?”
“Not likely, he said himself he hardly ever goes to his functions. If he is there then so what? What’s he going to do, chase me down and shove the money back in my purse? I’m pretty sure for one that I’m faster than him and I’m also pretty certain that he wouldn’t risk his reputation to chase me down and cram money in to my hand.”
“Wouldn’t it just be easier to give it back to him, maybe you could leave it with his secretary or something?” I shake my head, no.
“Besides he wouldn’t take it so giving it to him would be of no use at all, it’d just get us right back where we started.” Melissa gets up and squeezes on to the chair next to me. Her legs press up against mine and she lays her head on my shoulder.
“You know Missy…” I eye her suspiciously. “We could do a lot of things with ten thousand dollars. That’s almost like…a whole car!” I shake my head again.
“No! I need your support on this one Allie and you may as well support me because I’m not going to budge.” She huffs and brings the left side of her mouth up in a reluctant half smile.
“Fine, fine, whatever you want.” I lean my head over on to her shoulder, her long hair mingling with mine.
“Thanks Allie.” Registering her disappointment I add, “And I’m sorry about the money, I really do wish we could keep it but I just can’t. Remember that guy you dated who ended up being married and seeing you on the side? It’s sort of like that sort of thing, I think. You wouldn’t have taken money from him right?” Allison snorts with laughter.#p#分页标题#e#
“Honey, I would have taken everything from him, but only to make sure that I left him with nothing.” Her hand goes instinctively to her wrist. “Roger, his name was.”
Roger had been a complete dick, he’d met Allison at a club one night and convinced her that he was single and wanted to ‘get to know her.’ Well after a few sessions of really getting to know her, Roger told her that he had been married all along, that Allison was getting too clingy and that he needed to move on, dumping her. Not only had he dumped her though, but he had grabbed her by the wrists and threatened her life if she ever dared let on to his wife that he was cheating on her. Allison was the wrong type of person to threaten like that though and she had gone straight to the police. The situation had blown up quite quickly and Roger ended up getting much more than he had bargained for.
“Asshole” We both say this in unison before laughing.
“Seriously though, Allie. I don’t want his money, I don’t want his payoff. I know I’m just a barista but I’d rather spend my life making other people’s coffee than spend it on the arm of another woman’s husband.”
“Good for you.” Allie pats my thigh with a smile and a reassuring nod. “Besides, there’s more to life than money right? So…” she rolls her head back on to my shoulder, “what’s the plan?”
“I’ll call in the morning, get a gig at the estate like the first one and while I’m there I’ll dump the money.”
“Easy as that?” I nod, Allison’s hair tickling the side of my face.
“Yup. Easy as that and then I don’t want anything to do with that estate or that man ever again.”
Chapter Nineteen
Getting a place on the catering team at the next Lambert charity event had been as easy as I had thought it would be. It had simply been a matter of calling up the number that called me last time and offering my services. The woman on the other end of the phone was more than happy to accept my help and I couldn’t help but smile as my evil plan fell in to place. I’m fairly certain that it can’t be called an evil plan however, since it’s actually a plan to donate $10,000 to a charity I know nothing about rather than keeping it in my own pocket. Sure, Gideon Lambert would be pissed, but let him be pissed, he has plenty of money to spare and if the money is mine I will do with it as I see fit, including donating it to charity. I admit there is part of me that wants him to know that I have returned the money, I suppose it’s this part of me that decided to donate it at the next one of his events rather than over the phone to some PBS telethon or something. Leaving $10,000 cash in a donation bin at one of his events would hardly lead back to me though; there was no check to trace and it’s not like he’d be there to see me drop it in to the donations basket.