“Liz mentioned a few days ago she’s got an opening for an assistant, if you’re interested,” Ian offered.
Getting a different job—the thing that cost her all of this. “I have interviews lined up from before. But if they don’t pan out…” Then again, teaching dance a couple nights a week wouldn’t pay the bills. It was winter break, so she had time to formulate a plan before she went back to school. Was she going back to school? Not if she couldn’t pay for it. Could she do anything for herself? She slouched back against the counter in frustration.
“How are you holding up?” Mercy asked again.
“I don’t know. How long did it take before you could shake it off?”
“You don’t want that answer.”
“I’ll ask Andrew.” Crap. She owed him an apology too. Mercy stood up for him; Susan whimpered while Dad tore everyone apart.
Ian arched a single brow. “Mercy, do you want me to tell KaleidoMation you’ll be late or that you can’t make it today?” He sounded concerned, not irritated.
Mercy looked at Susan.
“Go,” Susan said. “I’ll be fine.”
“It took a long time, but it helped that I didn’t have to do it alone. Neither do you.” Mercy gave her a quick hug. “See you tonight.”
Susan’s mind tripped over everything, replaying the fight with Dad until she might scream. She couldn’t make it stop, though. Not through the shower. Or getting dressed—she was fortunate she had some clothes here. Or eating something for breakfast that said it was oatmeal, but might as well have been sawdust for as much as she tasted it.
It took a couple of hours to find the motivation, but eventually she forced herself to sit down in front of a computer in the study and log into her accounts. The first few calls she made, she grinned through gritted teeth to sound pleasant, but the acting sank in, helping to mask some of the chaos raging inside.
*
Andrew was bothered by how hard it was to get Susan out of his head. But it was because he was worried. Now that some of the blood had flowed back to his brain and he was thinking more clearly, he saw she made a reasonable request last night. After he grabbed two minutes of Mercy’s time in the office, to get a brief what happened after he left, he wished he’d stuck around and decked Dean Rice.
What Mercy didn’t say, the unspoken details reflected in her eyes, worried him as much as the news Dean had made good on his threat to evict Susan. Thoughts of her distracted Andrew the rest of the morning—story of his life since he got here. It would be nice to get back home, where he actually got work done.
The thought pinged in his chest, and he shook it aside before knocking on Mercy’s front door.
The Susan who answered looked different from what he was used to. Her hair drooped, rather than the spikes she preferred, and her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “Hey.” She leaned against the door, rather than inviting him in. “What’s up?” Her voice was flat. That was worse than her asking him to leave.
“Mercy told me what happened. Sort of. I have a little more of a flexible schedule than most people, so I wanted to check on you.”
Her fake smile vanished. “So she asked you to drop by.”
“No. Mercy is a good excuse, but this has always been about you.” Until he said the words, he didn’t realize how true they were.
The corners of her eyes tugged up. “I figured, after everything, you’d hate me.”
“I was a little pissed off. Wounded. Really fucking horny. One makes the other two worse, but I’ve had time to cool down.”
“Then you’re here for sex stuff?”
Despite being broken hearted and bummed out, she was still her. Andrew liked that. “I’m not ruling it out, but I’m here for you. Besides, I stole your brother-in-law’s credit card. Figured we’d go shopping.”
“No, you didn’t.” This smile came with a tiny laugh, making the joke worth it.
“Well, no. But think of all the potential there. We could have an afternoon mall-montage, like in Clueless.”
Her smile grew. “You mean that old movie about the rich girl who realizes life is about more than money and popularity contests? The scene where she’s hitting on the sexy guy until she realizes he’s into guys more than her? Oh heck. My life is a stupid nineties teen movie.”
“Old. Pfft. Lunch?” He ignored the comment about the sexy guy on purpose. Correcting her—saying she was without a question the only person he’d fantasized about in over a week—would be a bad idea. Mercy had one thing right. He wasn’t relationship material.
She opened the door wider. “I have to make a couple more calls. I’m updating my contact information with dance studios. Do you have time to wait?”
“I’ve got the entire afternoon.” He joined her inside. It was good she hadn’t given up on her dancing. He followed her into the study.