Stay For Me - Megan Smith Page 0,33
little girl was Sophia, my niece.”
Her eyebrows bunch together in confusion. “Your niece?”
I nod.
“So, not your daughter?”
“No.”
She bobs her head up and down slowly. “Then the girl was you’re sister or sister-in-law?”
I pick the menu back up. “Sister.”
“Hmm.” Is all she says as she picks up her menu and I swear I see a hint of a smile as she scans the dinner choices.
After we got that out of the way, the rest of dinner was more relaxed. I explained that we were at the mall because I promised Sophia I would take her. Then Layla explained that she was there shopping for earrings.
We talk about the new position she is taking at the club. I tell her the things I need help with; cashing the drawers out at the end of the night, counting inventory, placing orders with vendors, and helping with the staff scheduling.
“For the time being I’m going to have you set up in Cooper’s office. It’s just until we can get my office rearranged, get a desk and chairs ordered too.”
“Your office?” Layla squeaks.
“Yeah, is that going to be a problem?”
She stares down at the table, obviously this is a problem. “Would you rather share an office with Cooper?” I offer. “You really won’t be spending that much time in it anyway.”
“No, no, your office is just fine.”
“What’s wrong then?”
“Nothing.”
“Layla, I can’t fix a problem if I don’t know what it is.”
She sighs loudly. “This isn’t going to go over well with Brian.”
Ah, and there it is, the source of all our problems. “Can I ask you something without offending you?”
“Sure.”
“Why are you with him?”
She doesn’t answer right away and that’s worrisome. If she truly loves him she wouldn’t even have to think about it, at least I don’t think. I mean, yeah, maybe it does take time to figure it out exactly why you are with him; maybe she needs to find the words to make me understand. I don’t know because until her I never wanted any part of a relationship. I was too goal driven to care what girls really wanted from me, I didn’t have the time.
“It’s complicated.”
“Life’s complicated, Layla.”
She looks over to the table across from us and watches as a wife and husband exchange long loving glances at each other before turning her eyes back to me. “There is stuff that Brian helps me with. Stuff only he knows about. He’s always been there for me when I needed him the most.”
“Then why isn’t this going to go over well with him? I mean, if you’re in a relationship with him then there has to be trust, right?” In any relationship trust is paramount or it’s not going to work, even I know this.
“Brian is a jealous person.”
“He is.” I agree especially after our very brief conversation. “But there is no reason to be jealous of you working at Fierce. If anything, he should be happy for you, we’ve just opened not that long ago and you’ve already been promoted.”
Layla sits back and crosses her arms over her chest, she’s frustrated. “He’s jealous of you, Eli. You’ve showed me attention, he’s seen it, he hates it.” She clenches her jaw. “He’s even told me to quit.”
I nod. I’m not surprised by that at all. “But you’re not quitting?”
“No, I’m not. I need this job more than I need Brian.”
This shit is hurting my fucking head. So she doesn’t love Brian or need him but she’s still with him. It makes no damn sense.
“Look, I know this doesn’t make sense to you but just trust me. Things will change but they need to happen my way.”
“Okay.” I drop the subject because whatever it is that is tying her to him needs to be handled by her when the timing is right. I can’t argue with her anymore about it. “So why don’t we see about maybe having an office upstairs built for you.” I sit back in my chair trying to forget about her and Brian and concentrate on work. It’s what I’m good at, at least.
“No really, your office is just fine. Plus, like you said, I’ll hardly be in it anyway.”
So we go into more detail about her role while we finish our dinner. When we’re finished I ask if she’d like to go and hang out at Fierce for a while. It’ll be nice since we aren’t there to actually work and we can enjoy it.
When we pull up to Fierce I park in my assigned space and