"But I have to work. And lord knows, Lily would never let me bring Belle with me. She can't be here alone," Shy insisted. "They can't get to her again."
"Don't get ahead of yourself," I demanded softly. "We aren't going to let that happen. It's just... do you need to get that?" I asked at the insistent, shrill sound of her cell phone.
"What? Oh," she said, shaking her head, then jumping off the couch to fish her phone out of her purse. "Work," she said, grimacing as she swiped to answer. "Hey, Lily, what—"
She didn't get anymore out than that.
I watched as her eyes went huge and her hand rose to cover her mouth.
Even from across the room, I could hear the woman's raised voice. She'd been right about her boss being part banshee. Shy's ears had to be ringing.
"I didn't... no, I know, I...okay. Alright. No, I..."
"What happened?" I asked when the call ended abruptly, leaving Shy standing there with huge eyes and rapid breathing.
"I was just fired."
"What? Why?"
"I was on my way out of work last night when the SUV pulled up. I guess I hadn't gotten to locking the door yet. And then there was Belle, y'know? As soon as I saw her, there was no thinking about anything else."
"Didn't she see the cameras?" I asked.
"My guess is she didn't bother to look," Shy said, dropping down onto the chair at one of the nail stations, her hand going to her heart. "She just came in, and the door was open. She knew I was the last one out. I usually am. Oh, God. What am I going to do?" she asked, sounding choked.
It hadn't been that long ago that I knew the panic of losing your only source of income, of coming to grips with the reality of an empty stomach and possible homelessness.
"Take a deep breath first," I demanded, getting off the couch, and making my way over toward her, dropping down into a squat, and catching her gaze. "There you go," I said when she finally sucked in some air. "You have a savings?" I asked.
"Yeah, but that was for—"
"I know. But that safety net is what matters, right?" I asked. "It means food on the table and the rent paid."
"Yeah," she agreed.
"That's better than some other people have it," I said.
"That's true. And I can just... we can both devote more time to freelance clients," she said. "Since I'm sure Belle lost her job too."
"Too?" Belle asked, making our attention snap to where she was walking out of the hall looking freshly showered. "You got fired?"
"It's okay," Shy said, her knee-jerk reaction to reassure her little sister. "We'll be alright."
Belle stood there for a long second, her mind racing, before she shrugged. "Lily never paid you enough for your skill level anyway," she declared. "Have you seen her nail art?" she added, looking at me.
"No, can't say I have," I said, shrugging.
"It's good. Like best in the whole state good. She could be making one-hundred per set for what she can do. Plus tip. She could be making something close to six figures a year. And Lily paid you, what, thirty-grand?" she asked, looking at her sister. "I mean, that is better than a lot of nail techs get, but you deserve more."
"I think she overestimates my skills," Shy said, shaking her head.
"Yeah?" Belle asked, stalking over toward us, grabbing a small binder out of the shelf below the desktop, and flipping it open. "This is what she does."
I mean, I was no expert at nails. But I knew a lot of women. And many, if not most, of them had fake nails. None of them had anything near the elaborate art on them that the hands in the pictures had.
"Think your sister might be right," I declared as Belle flipped through several more pages before closing the book, giving her sister a classic 'told you so' look.
"We are always saying if we only had a couple more hours a day to work on marketing, we could get the business going strong. Well, we have it now," Belle said, giving her sister another of those tight smiles, fake cheerful.
"True," Shy said, sighing out her breath. "Okay. Well, that will be the plan then. But we have to do it here, McCoy says."
"I'm not going back to my apartment," Belle blurted out immediately, making Shy tense.
"Okay," she agreed. "That's fine. I love having you here."
"I might suggest some shin guards if you're going to be sharing a bed, though," I said, getting a giggle out of Belle and small eyes from Shy.
"I was just telling your sister that, for the time being, having you guys here is best," I told Belle. "In fact, if you don't leave the apartment at all, I would prefer that."