She skips to the pages at the back and frowns. “You’re only on fifteen an hour?”
“I didn’t have the relevant experience, so they started me at the lower rate.” At least it wasn’t eleven an hour like I was making at the call center.
The pages fall back into place and she steeples her fingers in front of her as she watches me through wide eyes. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to sound like a bitch. I’m just surprised. You had a job before this, right?”
The call center probably doesn’t count since it was for less than a week. “I waitressed in college and then worked for my family’s business.”
“That sounds like experience to me. I’d take a thousand waitresses over a bunch of pencil-pushers who haven’t had to deal with the public.” Her nail goes back to tap, tap, tapping on that keyboard, only this time, the noise doesn’t set me on edge. “I think we can make this work for you. Most managers start off significantly higher, but I have a feeling they’re going to balk if we shoot straight to that sort of rate. Would you be happy with forty-three?”
That seems a little low considering I’d be in charge of three other peopleandstill have to maintain my own duties. But beggars can’t be choosers. Either way, it’s a ten-thousand dollar raise and that’s nothing to sniff at. “That would be fine.”
She props her elbows on the table and shakes her head. “Are yousure?”
My head starts shaking as well. “No?”
Her face lights up with a smile. “I can go to fifty.”
Holy crap. Fifty-thousanddollars? That’s almost what my mom makes, and she’s been working for decades. “That sounds?—”
Rebecca shakes her head again.
My knees bump the desk when I scoot forward in my chair. “A little low, actually?”
Her smile widens. “Fifty-five. But that’s my final offer.”
Holy shit. “That…um…that should be sufficient.”
Rebecca holds a hand across the desk and gives mine a shake. “You drive a hard bargain, Loren Piper. It’ll take a few weeks to get the contract sorted and your pay adjusted to the new rate. In the meantime, head down to HR and they’ll go over the specifics of the job.”
How can Josh cheat on this amazing, beautiful woman? “Thank you so much, Rebecca.”
“It’s my pleasure.”
Her cellphone abandoned on the desk lets out a shrill ring. Josh’s face appears on the screen, and my stomach twists with guilt.
Rebecca’s expression darkens when she picks up the handset. “I need to take this call. Can you close the door on your way out?”
I lurch to my feet. “Yeah. Sure. Of course.”
Before the door closes, Rebecca answers in a clipped tone. “What the hell do you want?”
CHAPTER 22
LOREN
Meg
Still dead
Raincheck on bowling?
I bought myself a steak.
I shouldn’t have splurged on so much meat, but I did. The wine probably wasn’t the best idea either considering the Tuesday I put down, but today calls for a celebration and since Meg and I aren’t bowling, this was the next best thing.
The only problem is, I have no steak sauce. The steak gods are probably cringing over the fact that I use steak sauce, but they can enjoy their sauceless steaks in peace and leave me to mine.
The grocery store is ten minutes away, and by the time I go back there, buy steak sauce, and then get home, this glorious hunk of meat sizzling in the pan will no longer be at the perfect temperature, and I’m pretty sure microwaving a steak will anger the steak gods way more than a bit of sauce.
