“And I’ll have another.”
She nods. “Appetizers? Food?”
“Just drinks. Thanks.” I feel guilty, taking up space when I know she’s busting her ass for tips like I do, day after day.
$42.47 flashes like neon in my mind. Gas, rent, a barely running car. Blackheart. And here I am, pretending I’m not drowning.
Without writing anything down, the server moves off, and Lila taps her fingers impatiently against the side of her glass. “I’m waiting.”
I exhale, not knowing where to jump in. Even I’m not sure I believe what happened. “I fell asleep on the job.”
“You…? Fell asleep? Like on a chair or something?”
“I told you, it’s worse than you can imagine. I was making a bed, and… It just looked so tempting.” And it was. The Sterling hotels are known for their luxurious mattresses and bedding. I mean, they’re so exclusive that they even sell them in an online shop.
“And you’re exhausted.”
“Yeah.” When I’m not working, I’m applying for jobs or driving around town picking up food and coffee orders and delivering them to people who are crappy tippers. As long as they get their mocha frappes with extra whipped cream in the morning and loaded burritos at night, they don’t think about the person who waited in the restaurant lobby for twenty minutes so they don’t have to. Which is why I’m going to give our server more than I can really afford.
“I’m guessing you got caught?” She shrugs. “Otherwise it would be no big deal, right?”
“Exactly. But you’ll never believe whose bed it was.”
I’m saved from telling the whole sordid story by the arrival of the server with our drinks.
When we’re alone again, Lila picks up the wine she still needs to finish. “Don’t do this to me. Whose bed was it? It was the rockstar, right?”
I take a long drink before confessing. “Xavier.”
“Blackheart?” Lila’s glass hits the table with a thud, her eyes wide. “Get the fuck out of here. The Xavier Blackheart?”
That was the nickname we’d given him when he’d ruined my career and made sure I’d never work in corporate America ever again.
Three years ago slams back: the glass conference room at Blackwell Enterprises. He and his team were pitching a massive urban revitalization plan—a flashy expansion meant to be Xavier’s legacy move. He wanted to transform underdeveloped city blocks into sleek, luxury commercial zones. But the numbers didn’t add up. The timelines were unrealistic. The cost projections? Delusional.
I raised the red flags. First quietly. Then in front of the entire board.
I told the emperor he had no clothes.
He didn’t deny I was right.
He fired me anyway—for daring to humiliate him. For making the men his father had appointed question whether the golden boy could actually lead.
I was twenty-two, fearless, thinking he’d thank me for saving the company. His eyes locked on mine, sharp and unyielding, like he saw right through me. “You’re mistaken, Ms. Hollis.” His tone was ice, but his gaze seared, and my skin hummed beneath his attention—a stupid crush I buried fast.
Then the leak hit, my name in headlines: AMBITIOUS INTERN BETRAYS BLACKWELL ENTERPRISES.
He let me take the fall. For pointing out someone else’s mistakes.
I’d been alone in my small apartment when I saw the news. People I thought were friends abandoned me. Job offers were rescinded. My parents cut me off, embarrassed by the scandal, afraid for their own reputations.
I lost everything—my career, my future, my pride.
“Earth to, Sera.” Lila snaps her fingers in front of my face, making me realize I’d been lost in the past. “Of all the people on the planet, you had to fall asleep in his bed? And he found you there, just like Goldilocks. What are the chances?” For a second, she sits back, looking as shellshocked as I still feel.
We both take another drink.
“So then what happened?”
