No, it wouldn’t be that bad. We weren’t moving in together. It wasn’t going to be that dire. Just a few hours a few times a week, that was all, maybe even less. I could take him for that long. And if he ever pushed me too far, I knew where the door was and had no compunctions of walking out of it.
“Are you talking shit about me in here?” I heard behind me. I didn’t even have to look. How the hell had they gotten so far in their career? What if it wasn’t me Toby was talking to and a prospective client when he barged in using that kind of language? What if they had heard him talking like that?
I peered over my shoulder. Easton was walking towards us in his worst get-up yet. The trousers he had on looked like pajama bottoms and a t-shirt with a loose, stretched out neck and a rip in the seam at the collar. How had he even left the house like that, let alone come to work looking that way. I knew younger tech entrepreneurs weren’t really ‘corporate’ but this was just shameful. To make it worse, he had the beard of a jungle dweller and his hair hadn’t seen a brush in at least the past week.
“I sure was. I’ve managed to convince Missy to take you on after all.”
“Oh, joy,” he said, standing between us. He gave me a look that felt like it held a bit of a challenge, then turned to Toby. “Did you look at the designs I sent you already?”
Toby looked at me apologetically. It was like Easton was his very badly-behaved dog that he loved and had to make continuous apologies for. God, they were really like night and day. Scientists needed to get on this immediately; there was no bigger mystery in the universe. One of them seemed to be an upstanding, professional businessman and the other one seemed like the specimens you found living in their mother’s basements long after graduation from university because they lacked the will to make something of themselves. I felt like there was probably an interesting story there. Why hadn’t they gone their separate ways after being discharged? If they had, they wouldn’t have needed me here.
“When are you available to start, Missy?”
“The sooner the better.” Easy, as Toby called him was in an absolute state. The two times I had seen him, he had literally gone from bad to worse. What kind of horrors would I be subjected to the third time that I saw him? He finally looked over at me.
“Is that right? Is that what the two of you have been plotting in here without me?”
“I have my work cut out for me,” I said.
He scoffed. “What the hell do you know about work?”
There was a lot of truth in what he said but I was not going to give him the satisfaction of knowing that. Regardless of my past and of his opinion, what I did now was work. It wasn’t back-breaking work, and it wasn’t particularly essential or lifesaving work, but it was still work. And I was damn good at it, might I add. “Well, I’m about to find out, it seems like.”
“It’s settled then. You start today.”
“T-today?” Easy stammered.
“The first thing I need is a walk-through of his wardrobe. His current clothes have no place at all at the charity gala.”
“Easy, cancel your plans for tonight. You’re getting your wardrobe assessed.” I smiled at how little Easton seemed to be looking forward to the assessment. Made me look forward to it a little bit more. The guy's fashion was the least of his problems. He was bad-tempered and didn’t know how to behave nicely around others, even though that wasn’t necessarily what he felt. I practically had a degree in small talk and faking congeniality. He needed that too.
“So, it’s all settled then?”
“My assistant will be in contact with the details.” I cast one final look at Easton. You know what? This was going to be fun.
7
Easton
I glanced at the corner of my phone to check the time. It was almost seven, Missy was coming at seven. I sighed and shoveled another mouthful of cold low mein into my mouth. The TV was on, but I wasn’t watching it. I surveyed the living room. There was a tower of old pizza boxes that had been getting higher by the week. What could I say? Pizza was easy. I could cook if I wanted to, I just didn’t want to. It was messy. Kind of dirty but I hadn’t gotten roaches or bugs yet so it could be worse. My dirty laundry had started to make its way out of my bedroom and there were a couple of dirty towels thrown over the back of the couch I was sitting on.
I had gotten my loft by pure luck. Looking for a place in New York, all I wanted was no roommates. I knew the way rents were set up and that it wasn’t uncommon for four or five people to be living in a place together. I had not lived in army barracks for my entire adult life just to keep having a bunch of roommates when I finally became a civilian. I started looking for a place and came across this one. The previous owner needed someone urgently to take over their lease and it happened to be in my budget.
I was uptown, literally less than ten blocks from work. I could afford something even closer, but I was happy here. I didn’t need that much in terms of space or luxuries. I didn’t care about what my money could possibly buy me when it was all stuff I didn’t need and would never use.
Cleaning up probably wouldn’t hurt though, seeing as Missy was coming over.
Or I could just not.
Who the hell was she anyway? The fucking queen of England? I wouldn’t clean-up for her either. She knew what she was getting into. She had met me twice. Wasn’t she supposed to fix this shit for me?
Right on cue, the intercom buzzed.
Oh no, I was totally gonna do a little cleanup before she came, what was I going to do?
I got up, leaving the box on the table, and opened the door downstairs. The elevator opened into the foyer area so I didn’t have to let her in. The elevator dinged and I heard her heels click-clack on the floor. Then she gasped. I turned and looked at her.