whispered back, setting my purse under my keyboard.
“Richie”—he was one of the personal trainers at the gym—“said that he overheard him on the phone. He thinks he was arguing with one of the other owners.”
“Over what?” I whispered, standing up.
I didn’t need to look directly at her face to guess she was looking around to make sure he hadn’t magically appeared out of nowhere. “Something about employee retention.”
I snickered and heard Deepa snicker back. “Big surprise.”
“Right?”
The side door opened, and we both started trying to look busy. But it wasn’t Gunner. It was one of the MMA guys coming in.
I just about sagged in relief and greeted the guy as he flashed his badge and went ahead with a “Hey.”
The second he walked off, we turned back toward each other discreetly, ready to move and change positions if we had to. “Did the nursing home call you back?”
“No, not yet. I was going to call tomorrow morning. They seemed really interested during my interview, but they still haven’t called.” She grabbed a bottle under the counter and sprayed the surface. “My mom called yesterday and said she isn’t feeling well. I’m worried about her. She’s going to the doctor tomorrow.”
“I’m sorry, Dee. Let me know what the doctor says,” I told her.
She nodded as she wiped the counter off. “Are we still on for Sunday?”
I glanced at her. She was talking about filming. “Yeah.”
“Are any of your friends coming?” she whispered.
“No, they’re busy.” They were.
“Why didn’t—” she started to ask, and it was some miracle that I happened to be facing forward again when the side door open and The Asshole strolled in.
I picked up the phone as fast as I could and pretended to be on a phone call. Right on time.
I could tell from the way he was walking that he was in a mood. I could read his signs, that’s how bad it was.
Unfortunately, he came straight for me. Fuck my life.
Holding the phone to my ear, I figured I might as well get this over with and said—to no one, literally no one because it was only the dial tone that could listen to me—“No problem at all. Have a nice day.”
Gunner had started watching me from the second he entered, and I was pretty sure he thought I was full of shit and faking being on the phone, but he could never know for sure. Sucker.
“Hi, Gunner.”
Yeah, he didn’t give a single shit. He just looked at me with his grumpy expression. “Got a sec?”
Nope. “Sure,” I said, like he didn’t know I had a second. Obviously, he could see there wasn’t a line of people trying to come in.
He did this weird mouth thing as he glared at me. I watched him take a breath through his nose before saying, “I heard a rumor.”
Shit.
“Is it true you’re friends with Zac Travis?”
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Deepa turning in the opposite direction. Not out of guilt, I knew, but more to get away so she wouldn’t get dragged into the conversation.
Now I could handle this a few different ways. Actually, there were only two ways. I could say yes, or I could say no.
Yes. We were friends.
No. We weren’t friends.
Mind your own business wasn’t exactly the angle I wanted to take. It was rude, and I wasn’t going to be outright rude. That didn’t change the fact it was none of his business.
I looked him right in those asshole eyes and said, “Yes.”
I wasn’t going to ask why. I wasn’t going to introduce or give a segue into making this conversation longer. If there was something he wanted to ask, he could do it.
He wasn’t surprised by my answer. “Good friends?” he had the nerve to ask.
All right, in this case, there were three different ways to handle this.
A smart person would say, “Yes, sir.” Then wonder how they could use it to their advantage.
A decent person would answer “Yes” and leave it at that.
A person who wanted to just give enough of an answer to not get in trouble would reply with “No.”
An idiot would say… well, they would answer the way I answered. “I’m not sure how my answer has anything to do with my job.”
Because it wasn’t any of his business. I knew that. He damn well knew that too.
I was pretty positive that legally he couldn’t ask me that. Just like he couldn’t question if I was pregnant or if I had children or was planning on