She totally heard me. Bitch.
“Hey, Andi.” She turns and smiles like she ate a lemon. “Have a nice weekend away?”
My petty side purses my lips and mocks her in my mind.Have a nice weekend away?But my professional side saysgotta pay the rent, dumbass. Reign it in before you have to eat ramen again.“Uh-huh.” I paste on a fake smile and pretend I don’t want to smack her stupid face. “The wedding was absolutely beautiful, and so much fun. Thanks for asking.”
“I’m glad it’s over.” She turns on her heels and whips me in the face with her long hair. “Being a bridesmaid comes with a lot of obligations, and your sister lives so far away.”
“My cousin.” I smack my lips to make sure I got the peroxide blonde out of my mouth. “So, listen, I needed to talk to you about something. I know it’s a little delicate.”I know you’re a dick-starved ice-queen that wishes you could find a man that won’t run from your crazy.“Ah, my cousin, the one that just married, she has a couple kids that need a sitter while she goes on honeymoon. So I’m going to need to take some vacation time.”
Her icy eyes narrow. “You just had vacation time.”
Ah, no.“I’ve takenonelong weekend in the last six months. I left here on Friday night and came home Sunday night forboth, the bachelorette partyandthe wedding. I haven’t been taking time out of work for this.”
“Aww really?” She arches a perfectly styled brow. “You’ve mentioned it so much, I swear this event has been dragging out for years.”
Wretched bitch.“No.”
“I can’t afford your leave, Andi. You’re needed here, and I don’t have more AT’s to take your clients.”
“Right, but my niece and nephew can’t be tied to a tree out back and left alone for two weeks either. Damn do-gooders changed the law a few years ago and ruined everything.”
Mia rolls her eyes and steps into her office. “I said no, Andi. I empathize with your situation, but your cousin having kids a decade and a half ago isn’t my responsibility.” She slams the door in my face and barely misses crushing my nose by half an inch.
She almost crushed my fucking nose!
Instead of slamming my fist against her door like I truly want to, I throw my shoulders back and draw in a long breath.Ten, nine, slut, bitch, six, five, I’m gonna slash her tires, three-two-one.I turn away and head toward my own office at the very opposite side of this building – thankfully, or I might throw a friggin kettlebell at her head. Pushing through my door, I slam my files onto my messy desk and sit down with a huff.
I can’t not go, I can’t let Lindsi down, but I’m so fond of food and shelter, and sometimes when the stars align and the universe is smiling down on me, I also get ice-cream and episodes of The Bachelor. Mia Martyn is a bitch that’s trying to make me choose between my family and The Bachelor, so I hope her heels get a gnarly case of fungal disease that just won’t go away.
“Andi?” Carla – our Irish receptionist’s sweet voice tinkles through my desk phone. “Mr. Philips is here to see you.”
Smiling, I snatch up my phone and whisper, “Carla?”
The line clicks where she picks hers up. “Yeah?”
“How does he look? Does he look good today?”
“Mmhm. He’s standing tall and feeling a little frisky.”
“Perfect! You have no clue how that makes my Monday all better. Send him down, and pat his ass as he passes. He likes that.”
I jump up with renewed energy and a bum wiggle, race to my office door, and swing it wide. Not many women can make yoga pants and sneakers sexy, but I lean against the frame and cock my hip. I turn on my sex kitten eyes and lick my lips to make them sparkle, and when my seventy-three year old client walks the hall with barely more assistance than a cane, I have to keep my hands planted behind my back so I don’t clap.
“Yes!” Fuck it. I clap anyway. “Look at you! George Clooney’s walking my hall, y’all! Did everybody catch a load of this sexy beast?”
Timothy Philips and all seventeen of his adorable jowls blush as he walks forward and casts a glance up and down the hall. “You stop that, Miss Conner. I’m a married man, and Sheila’s starting to wonder.”
“I’m not a married woman, Tim, and I always had a thing for war heroes. Come on in, sit down. I spent the weekend at a wedding, and I need some intelligent conversation to outweigh the booze and shenanigans.” As soon as he sits on my treatment bed, I grab his file and slide across the concrete floor on my wheelie chair. “I’ve missed the crap outta you, so tell me everything.”
“I went to the pictures this weekend, Miss Andi. I bought my sweetheart a bouquet of posies and took her out like we were seventeen again.”
“Did you get lucky?” When his jowls color, I gently slap his leg. “You did, you old dog. You partied like it was September, nineteen-forty-five, didn’t you?”
“You stop that,” he chuckles. “Stop it now before you get us both in trouble.”
“Fine.” Sitting back with a genuine grin, I flip his file open and study the notes I left from last time he was in my office. “Talk to me about your leg.”
“I went in for a follow up, and they’re saying everything’s going just fine. We’re going to the big specialist place next month to be fitted for a hydraulic knee.”
The size of my grin hurts my face. “Then you can be my big, strong, bionic man. You’ll be able to carry Sheilaandme, and nothing will stop you.”