“Based on the way she treated you today, it looks like she already is!”
“The evil you know is better than the unfamiliar evil.”
She cocked her head to the side. “Who said that?”
“Me. Right now. While shivering at the thought of pissing off the most powerful woman in Fort Perth.”
“Speaking of Sandra Trout, I heard a rumor about you two. Long before I knew you were the personal assistant everyone was talking about. A rumor that you were her boy toy. That you two arefucking.”
A mischievous look gleamed in her eyes, challenging me to deny it. It felt like a dagger being jabbed into my ribs.
“You really believe that?” I asked.
Ginny shrugged. “Just repeating what others have said.”
I pounded the rest of my wine and put the glass down so hard I was shocked the stem didn’t break. “This town loves to talk. There’s zero evidence of that—zero!—and yet everyone repeats that rumor like it’s gospel. Just because I’m attractive, I must be fucking her, right? I’m just some good-looking boy toy for her to bang instead of her eighty-nine year old husband.” I took a step toward Ginny, enraged and betrayed that she would even ask me this. “I’ve spent the last three years trying to prove to people that I’m capable on my own. That I’m actually good at my job, which is why I got it. And I am, by the way. Good at my job. The entire Trout Estate would crumble if I quit tomorrow. Sandra wouldn’t know her ass from a savings account without me there to type in the web address. Yet you assume we’resleeping together?Jesus Christ, Ginny.”
She deflated like a balloon. “I’m sorry. I didn’t really doubt you.”
“It’s okay.”
Ginny threw herself into my arms and clung to me in a fierce hug. I felt my sense of betrayal draining out of me.She didn’t mean anything by it. If roles were reversed, I would have asked, too.
“I’m sensitive about it,” I said. “Do you know how much it sucks when everywhere you go, people think you only have a job because you’re sleeping with your boss?”
“Yeah, that must suck,” she admitted. “I don’t think it’s a big deal if someone does that, though.”
“Of course it’s a big deal!” I sputtered a laugh. “People that sleep with their boss undermine everything about themselves. I’m a real person, with skill and passion and aspiration. If I fucked my boss, none of that would matter. I would just be a hot piece of ass who would never know if Ireallydeserved my job.”
“That’s a little strong,” she said, crossing her arms under her breasts.
“Why are you acting hurt for me?” I demanded. “I’m only explaining how the whole thing makes me feel.”
“I don’t know,” she said.
“And along those lines,” I added, “you were totally out of line today.”
“What? How?”
“When you asked about my family. And brought up cancer. I know it came from a good place, but I do not appreciate you doing that.”
“I didn’t like what she said about you!” she insisted fiercely. “She was being a bitch. Calling you out in front of everyone like that. I wanted to make sure she knewwhyyou were taking sick time lately.”
“But that’s not your decision to make!” I shot back. “That’smylife.”
“I had to defend you.”
“Why? You’re not my girlfriend!”
The word hung in the air like an odor.Girlfriend. I didn’t know I was going to say that, but now that I had, I wished I could take it back. Ginny’s eyes were round and innocent. I felt like I had kicked a puppy.
I don’t have a lot of people in my life who defend me, I realized.It’s kind of nice to have someone who wants to.
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly.
Now it was my turn to hug her. “Don’t be.”
“I don’t know why I had to defend you,” she explained against my chest. “I just… I couldn’t let her treat you that way.”