ONE
Cadence
“Don’t forget your bag.I took the time to fill it to the brim with goodies that I think you’ll need for your first night on the job,” Rachel, my now new boss, tells me. This is not what I planned to do after graduating from college. I had high hopes of becoming a veterinarian all through school. From the age of six until I started college, that’s what I was hellbent on doing. It turned out that I couldn’t stomach seeing an animal in pain. I veered paths, and while doing so racked up so much debt that I’m now working two jobs, this one and a daytime job as a receptionist at a doctor’s office. Which, by the way, pays a penny on the dollars after you deduct health, dental, and vision insurance. It does help keep a roof over my head even if that means scrimping and scouring, trying to build a nest egg while climbing my way out of debt created by student loans.
I was complaining to one of the ladies at the office while our doctor was behind. A patient must have overheard because when I was checking her out, she quietly told me about a job that would make me bank with minimal effort. The patient, Katy, slid me a card with the phone number, and here I am.
“That’s really thoughtful.” I open the bag and notice a few things that have me perplexed, yet not enough to ask a hundred more questions. You see, I’ve been sitting here for the better part of an hour. I was assured this was only a dating service for the wealthy of the wealthiest. These men are looking for a woman on their arm for an event, date, or meeting. Whichever they prefer, you get a text on a work phone with the time and place, as well as dress code, a driver picks you up at your doorstep, and then you spend the evening with a man you’ll never have to see again if you so choose. A driver from the company, not the man, brings you home to keep your address hidden from everyone else. It seemed like a win-win to me; plus, when you need the money, money like what I’ll be making, it’s way better than sending feet pictures, or so I’d like to think.
“Trust me on the cough drops; you’ll thank me later.” Rachel winks. I wrack my brain on why they’d be significant. I nod in agreement even though my mind is lost in a land that’s trying to decipher what all of these paraphernalia would be used for. Katy, the patient at my office, swore up and down this was only a dating service, nothing more and nothing less. The lead sitting heavy in my stomach is attempting to tell me something else. I push those thoughts down. There’s no time like the present, and the faster I’m on the call list, the faster I’m making money. And when you have a pile of debt up to your ears, barely making the minimum payment on your one and only credit card, it scares you. Yes, I know the correct thing to do would be to use my savings and pay it off. That being said, if the other shoe fell flat on my face, I’d be really screwed. Chalk it up to another mistake in my life. My family is in Vegas, and I thought I could make it in Los Angeles.
“Thanks, Rachel.” She stands up first, giving me the universal sign that it’s time to wrap it up. I follow her lead, holding my hand out to shake hers, and while I’m nervous, I also feel really good about it.
“You’re welcome. Keep your phone on you. I’m sure a pretty girl like yourself, you’ll be busy in no time.” Where Rachel is tall, lean, with blonde hair, blue eyes, model status, I’m short, curvy, have jet-black hair, and green eyes. I’m a dime a dozen in Los Angeles.
“I hope so.” I tuck a loose tendril that’s escaped from the chignon behind my ear. The twisted metal gold hair pin isn’t keeping its hold like I hoped it would when I got ready for this interview.
“Beauty, brains, and she’s shy. A trifecta of sorts.” Rachel mutters that more to herself than to me. Even if I do happen to catch what she says, there’s no reason for me to comment on it. It’s sweet that she sees me that way even if I don’t see it in myself. “See you soon, Cadence.” This time, Rachel talks loud enough that I know it’s for my ears.
“Have a great day,” I reply, disengaging from our handshake. To reach this portion of the interview process and being hired on has taken weeks. So many forms had to be filled out, I swear my eyes were burning, and I was ready for it to be done. There’s a pep in my step that I didn’t have before coming in today. In fact, I was sure I’d get here, and Rachel would say thanks, but no thanks. I guess this is cause for a celebration in the form of something else than a cup of noodles. Maybe I’ll even stop at the grocery store to buy some premade sushi and a bottle of cheap wine, then call Hendrix. After all she’s not only my cousin but also told me that sometimes, taking chances isn’t always as scary as it seems to be.
TWO
Santiago
“What do you mean,no fucking deal?” I scream through the phone. I’ve been Los Angeles’ leading and record holding real estate investment company for ten years. It didn’t matter what the economy was like. When a property was hot and for the wealthy, you made money. Not to mention the celebrities are looking for rentals. That’s where the fast and easy money rules—a few months for a season or two. The sky is the limit when it comes to money.
“She doesn’t want to pay the asking price, hence no deal.” Why I’m even dealing with this pesky shit, I have no idea other than it’s because the client is a friend of my brother’s, and I’m always helping him with some kind of fucking favor.
“Tell her to sleep on it. I’m going to call Alejandro. This is one of his people.” I run my fingers through my hair, annoyed that you go around and around to help someone, then they pull this shit.
“Will do. I’m heading to the bar. If you get off at a reasonable time, feel free to join me,” Jayden offers.
“Yeah, we’ll see. I’ve got a bottle of tequila with my name on it sitting in my office if I don’t make it.”
“The offer is there. Later, man.” We say our goodbyes, getting it over and done with because I’m going to wring my little brother’s neck. A problem client when the fucker should be dealing with her himself if he’s so damn worried.
I hang up the phone, barely slamming it down in its cradle. Last time I did that, I broke it, and seeing as how it was the fourth one in less than a month, it took a week to get a new one. My HR director was and still is adamant that I have one in my office even though I told her I’d be better off if people would just quit screwing up. A hope, a wish, and a prayer that’s what it’ll amount to, seeing as how I’m still cleaning up after others’ messes. I pull my phone out of my desk drawer, knowing if it were sitting on my desk, all it would do is piss me off further with the constant chiming or vibrating. Why I bother even keeping on the ringer, I have no idea.
“Alejandro, I’m going to wring your damn neck,” I breathe out as I pull my phone out, bringing up my baby brother’s number and smashing his name until the ringing starts.
“I was about to call you, mi hermano.” He’s ten years behind me in age. Our parents thought they were done having kids after me, never expecting that all those years later, our mother would fall pregnant.
“Cut the shit, self-proclaimed Romeo. We all know you use our language for the ladies and the ladies only. You want to tell me why you didn’t clue me in on the girl, a damn diva, before I gave her to one of my top-selling agents only for her not to be prepared to offer full price on a home that’s fresh on the market, a house she asked for?”
“Hmmm, she didn’t seem like a diva in bed,” Alejandro says on the other end of the line. Figures that he’d pull this stunt. Not that he has before, but that still shouldn’t shock any of us since he’s always been the class clown, and even now that he’s thirty damn years old, he’s always doing the unexpected.
“Jesucristo, do you have no fucking shame?” I would have never handed the client off had I known she was one of Alejandro’s conquests.
“None at all. Are we going to talk about the giant elephant in the room that you keep bobbing and weaving anytime the family gets together? I mean, it’s not every day you turn forty years old, old man.”
“I don’t have time for this conversation. Rein the chick in, or I’m cutting her loose and she’ll be crying over paying the fee without a home to put it towards.” Most of the people we deal with don’t want to lose the fifty-thousand-dollar deposit we require. It’s incentive so we know we’re not playing around and wasting our time.
“Fine, I’ll deal with Skye. That doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten your present. A few more days, brother, a few more days.” I should hang up on him, and in the past, I probably would have, but there’s something gnawing at me, worried that he’s up to no good.
“Alejandro,” I grumble, trying to get my point across, “if we’re done with this shit, I’d like to finish with my work tonight, not at three o’clock in the damn morning.”
“Fine, fine, I’ll call you tomorrow to talk about a time and place I should have your present delivered.” Alejandro is not stopping.