Cinderella Screwed Me Over (22 page)

…

Nothing seemed right when I woke up. My neck and back ached, and after a confusing moment wondering where I was and what was going on, I realized that instead of being in my bed, I was sleeping against Jake. He groaned as I untangled myself from him.

I searched the room for a clock but couldn’t find one.
Note to self: get Jake a clock.

My phone wasn’t in my pocket. I tried to remember when I’d had it last.
I think I left it in my bedroom.

Stifling a yawn, I stood and stretched. The sunlight coming through the windows seemed brighter than normal, but I figured it was because the windows in his place were so big. I stepped toward the kitchen and looked at the oven clock.

“Is this right?” I asked, panic filling me. “Tell me that isn’t set to the right time.”

Jake sat up and squinted against the light. He pulled his phone out of his pocket. “It’s eight thirty.”

“No, no, no. This can’t be happening. Not today. Any day but today. I’ve got to meet my boss at nine. If I didn’t live two minutes away, I’d be screwed.” I stepped into my shoes, not bothering to tie them. “Even then, I don’t know if I’ll make it. She’s huge on punctuality, and I really, really hate being late. Today, it’s just not an option.”

Jake stood and ran his hand down my arm. “You’ve got some time.”

“I’m not a guy. It takes me a while to put myself together.”

“You look fine the way you are right now.”

I waved him off. “Don’t start with the sweet talk. I’ve got to go.” I grabbed my keys off the coffee table and rushed out the door.

The elevator chose this morning to run slow, and I couldn’t cross the short distance to my place fast enough. I hurried inside, took the quickest shower of my life, and threw my hair in a wet bun. I ran a coat of mascara over my eyelashes and rushed out the door, praying I’d make it in time.

Of course traffic was thick and the stoplights all red. I was muttering swear words under my breath as I half ran, half speed-walked to my office. I scooped up my trusty binder and slid into the conference room at 9:01.

My boss shot me a look that meant she noticed, and the meeting went downhill from there. Twenty minutes in I was scrambling through the contents of my binder, looking completely unprepared for the day, much less the meeting.

Patricia frowned at me. “Do you have it or not?”

“I know it’s in here somewhere.” Not only could I not find what I needed, I was blanking on everything. The one day I really needed to be on top of my game, and I was totally off.

Nadine handed a sheet of paper to Patricia. “Here it is. I know they’ll work with us if we do a large order like we did on the condos. Darby’s the one who got them to agree to it last time.”

Patricia arched an overly filled-in eyebrow at me. “Do you think you can manage to do that again?”

“Tell me what you need and I’ll get on it.” Normally, I got to pick and choose my clients. Occasionally, though, we got a company-wide account—like we did with the building I lived in. Patricia was working on a presentation for a new hotel renovation, which meant she’d tell everyone else what to do for it.

“I hope you haven’t been getting lazy. This deal with The Lion Inn is big for us. You’ve got to be a team player sometimes.” Patricia clicked a button on her laptop, changing the slide being projected onto the front of the room.

After going over the rest of the layout of the Red Lion Inn, Patricia dismissed us.

I hurried out of the conference room, toward my office. A person could work her butt off impressing Patricia and never get more than the tiniest acknowledgment. Screw up once, and she remembered it forever.

“Everything okay with you?” Nadine asked, stepping next to me.

“I didn’t get up early enough to organize all my notes, and my mind just wasn’t working as fast as normal,” I said. “Thanks for stepping in back there.”

“Of course. The only reason I had the information was because you’d given it to me.” Nadine stopped in front of her office door. “Barbara wants to know if she should put you down for one or two tomorrow night.”

One or two?
It took me a moment to figure out what Nadine was talking about. “Right. Barbara’s party. In all the excitement last night, I forgot to ask Jake.” I wasn’t sure if I even should ask him to go with me. “Fridays are usually busy nights for him.”

“You know that she’s going to be setting you up all night if you don’t have a date.” Nadine shrugged. “Maybe there will be some interesting guys there.”

“Yeah, interesting like they have money and one to three ex-wives.” I sighed. “Let me call him and I’ll get back to you.”

I walked the rest of the way to my office and tossed my binder on the desk. It slid off the edge and fell to the floor. When I bent down to retrieve it, I noticed it had opened to the page I couldn’t find earlier. “Figures.”

After how bitchy I’d been this morning, I wouldn’t be surprised if Jake avoided me for a few days. I definitely I owed him an apology. And I’d much rather have him at the party with me than deal with the men Barbara would try to set me up with. I grabbed my phone and called him.

“Hey, how was your meeting?” he asked.

“Awful. I was disorganized and my boss called me out on it. Basically, it was my worst meeting ever.” I sat in my chair and scooted it closer to my desk. I’d never been great at apologies and my nerves were twisting around in my gut. “Look, I’m sorry about this morning. I was stressed and late. I really hate being late. But I shouldn’t have talked to you like that.”

“Meet me at Blue and we’ll have lunch. End on a better note.”

“I’d love to, but I can’t. I’ve got to fast track my current jobs and draw up a proposal so my boss doesn’t think I’m incompetent. I do have a question for you, though…” I picked up my pen and started doodling on my notepad. “There’s this party tomorrow night. The client with all the ex-husbands is throwing it, and I’ve got to go. I know it’s last minute, and that Fridays are really busy for you. I’m also sure it’s going to be boring. Anyway, if you can’t go, I completely understand. But if you don’t come with me, I’ll be forced to meet rich, eligible bachelors who may or may not have all their original teeth and hair.”

I bit my nail as I waited for his answer, trying to prepare myself for the possibility he couldn’t go.

“You’re not really giving me much of a choice,” Jake said. “Not when I know you’ve got a weakness for bald men with dentures.”

I grinned, getting that tingling-tummy sensation that flirting with Jake always brought. “The money eases those minor flaws. I’m really shallow like that.”

Patricia walked past my office window, slowing in the way that meant she was coming in. She always saved the meanest comments for when she sat down for a one-on-one meeting.

Apprehension replaced my momentary happiness. I had a feeling my day was about to go down in flames.

…

Only a few people remained in Blue, finishing up their meals. In five minutes, the place was closing for the night. After working late, going for a run, and pacing my apartment, I couldn’t get over my horrible day at work. I wanted to talk to someone about it but kept getting halfway through a number and hanging up. Steph was stressed enough with all her wedding stuff, and Mom would just tell me to do whatever I felt was right. So I decided to go for a walk around downtown.

After wandering in and out of a couple stores in the area, I’d ended up near Blue. I walked past once. Then doubled back. Then decided to go in.

Sitting across from Jake, picking at the chocolate-lava cake, I was getting more and more fired up. “Patricia’s made good money off jobs Nadine and I do all the work on. And I’m the one with the good rapport with all the vendors. Whenever they call, they request me. I’ll admit I wasn’t the most prepared for the meeting this morning, thanks to certain events…”

“That’s why I brought the chocolate.” Jake took a bite of the rich cake, then slid the plate back toward me.

I swirled the fork through the thick syrup. “I don’t even like doing the commercial jobs. They’re so plain and impersonal. Then to get yelled at about it, when I’m the one who has all the contacts in the first place, was really infuriating.”

“Have you ever looked at going into business on your own? Or with Nadine?”

“I considered it about a year ago,” I said. “But that was more of a relocation thing.”

“Where were you going to move?”

“I toyed around with New York for a while before coming to my senses.” I didn’t want to get into that, so I kept talking before he could ask why. “The thing is, I got my start at Metamorphosis. I’ve worked there for eight years. All my clients signed contracts with me through the company, so they’d be considered Metamorphosis’s clients, not mine. I only keep them if I stay with the company.”

“But how many of them are going to need their places redone again? If they refer someone else, I’m guessing they refer them to you, not the company.” Jake set down his fork. “I could crunch some numbers and set up a business plan if you want me to. It’s kind of my specialty, you know.”

I took another bite of the cake and pushed the plate back to Jake. “The only time I really have to deal with Patricia is when I do the commercial jobs. I can power through it, like I did last time. I just wish they didn’t take so long.”

“Lots of people get comfortable with where they’re at and are too afraid to change, so they settle with what they’ve got.”

“Sounds like my stance on relationships.”

“Well, in any relationship,” Jake said, meeting my gaze, “including your business ones, you have to decide if you’re going to put in the effort to make it work.”

I slumped back in my chair. “Great. Not even a job I love has a happy ending.”

“You decide the ending. If you don’t like something, all you have to do is find a way to change it.”

“It sounds like a good idea and all, but I know better.” That awful sense that my life was about to get more complicated burned away at my gut. “Things never end the way you want them to.”

I knew that better than anyone.

Chapter Twenty-two

Barbara’s party had a good chance of being boring, but at least it gave me an excuse to wear my new silver-and-black print dress. I twisted my hair into a loose bun at the base of my neck, then pulled out a few face-framing strands. After looking over my collection of shoes, I decided to add some color with my plum heels. Dangly purple earrings completed the look.

There was a knock on my door, and I went to answer it. Jake stood in the hall wearing a black suit and looking like a million bucks. He leaned in and gave me a kiss. “Hey, gorgeous.”

Just like that, the stress filling me melted away. I put my arms around him, soaking in the way he looked, smelled, and felt. Then I tipped onto my toes and kissed his freshly shaven cheek. “You look nice.”

My cell phone rang and I groaned. Since Patricia had been calling nonstop, I’d programmed a special ring for her. “I’ve got to get that.”

“Where’s my report?” Patricia asked the second I answered.

“In your inbox. I stuck it there before I left.”

“I’m not going to the office tonight. E-mail it to me.”

Working to control my voice, I took a deep breath. I’d wanted to e-mail it in the first place; she was the one who’d insisted she wanted the large printout. “I can’t. I’m on my way to Barbara’s party and the files are on my work computer.”

“I thought you were going to be a team player. Now you can’t do it because of a party?”

“A party for one of our high-paying clients. It’s a great chance for me to network. I’ll e-mail you the information first thing tomorrow morning.”

Silence hung in the air for a few seconds before she snapped, “Fine. You know this is a big account. We can’t afford to screw it up.”

“I’ve got all the groundwork laid already. You just need to make the final decisions, then we’ll present it.”

“I expect it to be in my e-mail first thing tomorrow morning.”

“It’ll be there.” I let out a breath, frustration burning through me. Getting to choose my clients over the past year had spoiled me. Already this hotel thing was becoming a big headache.

When I ended the call, Jake was standing at my window, pouring a glass of water into my mostly dead plant. “I thought you said watering it was a waste of time,” I said.

“At first I thought you should put it out of its misery, but it won’t give up and I admire that.” Jake glanced around. “Where’s the other one?”

“It gave up.” His I-knew-it expression caused me to add, “I swear it wasn’t my fault. It was already on its way out when I got it here.” I tossed my keys and cell into my beaded clutch and hooked my hand in his elbow. “Now let’s go party.”

…

Waiters circled the large room, handing out champagne and appetizers. Nadine walked through the crowd, up to Jake and me. “I’m glad you guys are finally here.”

“That bad, huh?” I asked.

“I’ve been introduced to two different men who are about the same age as my grandfather.”

“And how’s Barbara tonight?”

“In top form. I think she’s got her eye on a new man. She’ll probably have husband number five before I’ve even had one.”

“That’s because you and Barbara have different criteria when it comes to husbands.” I glanced up. “Here she comes.”

Barbara greeted me with a couple of air kisses. “Good evening, darling.” She raised her eyebrows as her appraising gaze ran over my date. “And who’s this handsome gentleman?”

“This is Jake Knight,” I said. “Jake, Barbara Covington.”

Jake extended his hand. “Nice to meet you, Ms. Covington.”

“Call me Barbara.” She placed a hand on his forearm. “Darby, I’m going to steal your man and introduce him around the room.” She indicated a table in the corner. “My friends over there want to meet my fabulous decorators. After I showed them what you ladies are planning to do for me, several of them are thinking of remodeling, too. You should go introduce yourselves.”

Jake released my hand and followed Barbara, leaving Nadine and me standing alone.

“What now?” I asked.