What You Need(101)

“Sound like you really thought that through.”

I rolled over to face him. “I saw a lot in ten years. I mean, technically, I wasn’t old enough to be serving drinks, but I had an ID that said I was. So by the time I turned twenty-one for real? I’d been a cocktail waitress for five years.”

“None of your bosses ever said, ‘Hey, you don’t look older than seventeen, girlie’?”

“At first. But after I’d worked a few nights, they didn’t care.” I ran my fingers through the dark hair on his chest. “So I’m also living proof that a work ethic isn’t inherited. My mother is lazy.”

“Then I’d say your work ethic was learned from what not to do, which can be just as powerful a motivator, Lennox. Sometimes even more so.” He bent his head and traced the tattoo on my biceps with his tongue, sending gooseflesh rippling across my neck.

“I don’t mean to sound like a recruitment poster, but why not do your job better than you thought you could? Where’s the satisfaction in being average? No matter where I worked, I took the job seriously. If I saw someone doing something wrong, I called them out on it. And if not them, at least the supervisor, and that puts me back to exactly why I didn’t try for a managerial position. I’d have to deal with someone like me.”

Brady chuckled against the curve of my breast.

“That tickles.”

“Mmm. Not sorry.” Then he looked at me. “So I shouldn’t be worried that you’re gunning for my job at LI?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. The best I can hope for is an office manager position. Doing what Lola does.”

“Or what Jenna does?”

“God no. Because then I’d have to deal with you or someone like you.”

His eyes glittered when he lightly bit down on my nipple.

“Hey!”

“Sorry. I’ll kiss it and make it better, baby.”

And he had.

I shook myself out of the memory because I could sit here all damn day and moon over how thoroughly my man had seen to my needs all weekend.

I pulled out my phone and texted him: I miss you. Can we talk?

Less than thirty seconds later he replied: Sorry. Swamped. I’ll text you later.

At least I’d gotten a response.

*

I made it through another day of answering phones. Just two days left this week. It made me wonder what crappy jobs I’d get my last week in the floating pool.

I returned to the sixth floor and the place was like a graveyard. Spooky. After I finished the report, I remembered I didn’t have to do that anymore since the audit was done.

On impulse I took the elevator to the forty-fourth floor.

Jenna wasn’t at her post, so I wandered down the hall. The door to Brady’s office was propped open, which was also spooky.

Brady’s angry voice drifted out. “What else did she screw up?”

“I’m trying to find it.”

“Christ, how did this happen? It’s not like filing office documents is rocket science.”

A sick feeling took root in the pit of my stomach.

“Why wasn’t she supervised?” he demanded.

“They have some autonomy, sir.”

It’d taken me a moment, but then I recognized the voice as Lola’s.

What was Lola doing in Brady’s office?

“I don’t care who signed off on her. She doesn’t get to move to a different department without answering to me.”

Holy crap. Had Lola approached Brady because I’d given my two weeks’ notice?

I saw Brady throw a folder on the desk. “I should’ve seen this coming.”

“Sir, with all due respect, you couldn’t have known.”

“Everyone has talked about how ambitious she is. She was even invited to Lund family functions.”

My heart stopped.

“She’s thinks just because we—” He made a snarling sound. “I’ll fire her ass myself. And I’ll make sure she’s unhireable everywhere else in the Cities.”

Oh. God. I clapped my hand over my mouth.

“Lennox.”

I faced the sharp-toned whisperer.

Jenna said, “You can’t be here.”

I wanted to demand an explanation for why I didn’t have a say in this—I’d done nothing wrong except take what was offered to me.

“Go.”

I left.

Afterward I didn’t remember much of the drive home except for sitting in the driveway and watching the snow fall in big puffy flakes until I couldn’t see out the windows and I began to get cold.

Kiley had company—a man, by the sounds of it. So I quietly crept up the stairs and into my room. I lay on the bed fully clothed in my outerwear and stared at the ceiling, absolutely numb.