Love, Chloe - Alessandra Torre Page 0,25
up at me as if wondering who I was and what I was doing there. I looked at her warily and wondered how much of the bottle between her legs she’d had.
“You’re late,” accused Benta, pushing off the wall and dragging herself to her feet. “And this asshole is trying to kick us out.” She glared at him. “You know my dad could buy this whole building.”
“I’m impressed,” he scoffed, and I wanted to smack her myself.
“I’m sorry, the restaurant was backed up.” I dug in my pocket and pulled out my keys.
“I don’t need drunk girls waking everyone up. I thought this was explained to you during the interview process.”
“Waking everyone up?” Cammie yelled and I winced, her voice five decibels higher than necessary. “It’s ten o’clock.”
“Shut up, Cammie,” I chided. “Please, both of you, go inside.” I held out my keys and Benta snatched them. I listened to her struggle with the door and stepped around her, approaching the guy, who glared in my direction.
And just let me say again, this guy needed to walk around pissed 24/7. I could scoop sex appeal off his cheekbones and bottle it in lube and be happy for the rest of my life. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I thought I’d be back before they got here.” Behind me, I heard them get the door open, their move inside, and the angry slam of it shut.
His jaw clenched. “Are you guys going out or…” His eyes dropped to the bag of food.
“Staying in,” I said regretfully. “But we’ll be quiet, I promise. Seriously.”
“I don’t think the brunette has it in her to be quiet.”
He was absolutely correct; Benta would probably scream lullabies to her future babies, but I wasn’t about to admit that. I tried a smile. Some inspirational poster somewhere once said that a smile could cross all barriers.
The poster was wrong. He didn’t smile back. He scowled. I almost dropped my panties in response.
“You are the only one-bedroom on this floor. Everyone here pays a lot of money for this space and expects a certain level of peace. Please don’t make me evict you.”
At the word evict, any hope I had for an impromptu hallway sex session dried up. I couldn’t get evicted, couldn’t land back on Cammie’s couch, couldn’t pack up all of my things and send them back to storage. I wouldn’t.
I swallowed. “You’re not going to have to.” I stepped closer, clasping my hands together. “I swear.” From inside the apartment, Benta yelled my name, stretching the short word into about five syllables. I winced and tilted my head toward the closed door.
“Yeah,” he interrupted. “You should get to that.” He stepped back, and I missed the minty smell of his soap. Then he turned and walked away. And I swear I only stared at his ass for the first five steps.
I squared my shoulders, grabbed the bag of food, and turned the handle, prepared to give Benta and Cammie the reprimand of their lives.
24. Mo Money, Mo Problems
Day ten of being a sellout. Being the girl who took a pay raise instead of the high road. The girl who felt guilty when she wasn’t throwing dollar bills in the air, making it rain.
Three hundred extra dollars a week. I felt rich. Rich … and completely sleazy. It didn’t help that the man Nicole was cheating on, the one I was keeping in the dark by taking her bribe, had covered my ass on the broken crystal.
I almost wished he hadn’t done it, his kind act making it even harder for me to swallow Nicole’s affair. Did knowing about it and not saying anything to him make me as guilty as her? I groaned, plopping my head on the desk, and winced when the tip of the holepuncher caught me in the temple.
Next to me, upright against the desk were three Vuitton trunks. I’d spent the morning packing them with every possible thing that Nicole would need to outfit her trailer. Nicole had left the packing list, written in metallic pink ink, taped to my office door, a smiley face in its upper right hand corner like we were best bitches now. It was ninety-seven items long. Ninety-seven. I actually counted them, losing a personal bet with myself that it was over a hundred. The list included things like Q-Tips and Spanx, but also Valium and condoms. Three weeks ago, I would have admired her ability to bring her condom promotion to the movie, but ever