I open my mouth and quickly shut it. “I must have—”
Connor holds out his hand, stopping me from digging my own grave. “I don’t know what you’re up to, but it was clear the gentleman in question didn’t have a room reservation and isn’t anywhere within our system. You’re fired.”
“What?” I gasp. My stomach drops, and my hands tremble at my side. “Sir, I can explain.”
“Giving out free rooms to your friends isn’t permissible. You ought to know that, Sadie. We don’t run a brothel around here.”
“Excuse me?” I choke out. He can’t be serious. “I can assure you, that isn’t what is going on.”
“I don’t care what reasoning you have for what you did, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s theft. You’re lucky we’re not charging you and just dismissing you from the property. Gather your belongings and get out.”
“It was just a mistake,” I say, trying to justify the guest in the room marked as unavailable and needing repair.
“Get out,” his voice bellows, and a shiver pierces me. I stalk toward the door, my hand on the metal handle. “Unless you want to offer me the same services you offered the gentleman caller last night.”
“Excuse me?” Suddenly, getting fired doesn’t seem that bad.
“We have cameras, Sadie. You went into his hotel room twice yesterday. You can’t tell me it wasn’t a bootie call.”
“Fuck you.” I yank open his office door and stomp out. There’s no point in explaining myself to Connor. He’s a pig.
I clench my purse in my hand and storm out of the hotel through the front entrance, stalking toward the parking garage.
How dare he insinuate that I’m bringing in clientele for sex and suggest I do the same for him? The nerve of him!
* * *
“Thanks for meeting me.” The barstool swivels beneath my weight as I order another round.
“Sorry I couldn’t get here any sooner.” She gestures toward the ring, indicating that her husband is to blame. They’ve had a rocky start, the first two years married, and I don’t see it getting any better for her. Her husband is a narcissistic asshole. I keep telling her to leave his ass. She can stay with Allie and me, but it’s not like we have much room. She’d be crashing on the couch.
“I’ll have what she’s having,” Clare says, and grabs the seat beside me, propping herself on it. “What’s up?”
“I got fired.” I grab the shot and down it in an instant. I’ve had three drinks already. Or was it four? “Connor is such a bosshole.”
Clare already knows I lost my job. I texted her and told her I needed her at the bar with me ASAP.
Allie is spending the night with the neighbor girl, so at least I don’t have to worry about her seeing me drunk when I come home.
The bartender pours us each a shot. “To the men who are dicks in our lives,” Clare says.
Clare and I clink glasses before throwing them back in unison.
I laugh under my breath. She isn’t wrong. “That asshat Connor, I swear if he walks in here, I’d knee him in the groin and then dump a bottle of tequila on him.” He disgusts me. I’m not entirely innocent because I hid a stranger in one of the hotel rooms, but it’s not like he’s a wanted felon. And we weren’t having sex. The nerve of him to suggest it!
“That’d be a waste of perfectly good tequila,” Clare says. “But I get your point. He doesn’t deserve to work at the hotel. Didn’t you say he only has the job because his family owns the hotel chain?”
“His brother Levi inherited the Luxenberg. Rumor has it that he felt bad for Connor, so he gave him a management role for one of the New York hotels.”
“Well, he should have fired his ass.” My blood boils, and I gesture to the bartender again that we want another round.
“Maybe you should slow down,” Bearded Bad Boy says as he approaches.
He’s in a dark t-shirt and blue jeans that hug him just the right way. My eyes linger longer than they should. Does he notice? “What are you doing here? Are you stalking me?”
He huffs under his breath and leans back against the bar. “No. I was just finishing some business, seeing how I need a new place to crash.”
“I’m Clare,” my friend says, putting out her hand and introducing herself. She’s wearing a huge grin and glances between him and me. “And you are?”