“What’s your plan, Stan?” I asked her.
“I’m going to throw this over everything. Tie the hoodie closed. And bring a pair of jeans so that I can change into them.” She frowned. “I don’t have any boots, though. So it’ll be the heels that Searcy bought me.”
“I’ll take care of your feet while you’re at the interview. I’m going to run a few places so that we can go straight to eat.”
“You don’t even know where we’re going yet.” She pulled the hoodie into place. “What if it’s right next to the boot place?”
“Where are we going, Cal?” I asked.
She leaned forward, the hoodie pulled so tight over her head and tied so tightly that the only thing that showed on her face was her eyes, nose, and mouth. “It’s a surprise.”
“Then I’ll get you the boots while you’re interviewing,” I said. “I’ll just be right down the road and can get you anytime.”
Plus, I had one more present to get her, and I didn’t want her there with me until I had it in my hands. “Do you want to open your gift that Apollo brought over?”
“You had time to get me a gift today?” she asked.
“I had it delivered to the clubhouse because you’d started opening my mail.” I chuckled.
She threw herself into my arms, and I had no choice but to fall backward onto the bed, bringing her with me.
She circled her arms around my neck and brought her face closer to mine. “You know, I feel a lot of judgment coming off of you right now.”
“Me? Judgmental?” I joked. “Never.”
She ran her nose over my own before pulling back. “Of course I want to open my gift.”
I picked her up and carried her into the living room where I’d unboxed it and left it sitting on the counter.
I sat her directly next to it and said, “I used to watch you at the bathroom counter when you did your makeup for the day. Your bathroom was directly across from my laundry room. I could see your vanity area, and I used to watch you go back and forth between whatever video you were watching and the mirror. So I got this so you can watch both.”
She picked up the box and blinked. “I had no clue they even made mirrors that allowed you to Bluetooth and screen mirror!”
I shrugged. “I was actually looking for a little sticky case or something similar that you could stick to the mirror. But then this thing popped up and I thought maybe it would work out better for you.”
She set the box down on the counter and walked directly to me, wrapping her arms around my body. “That’s so thoughtful.”
“You’re not going to make note about the fact that I used to watch you in the bathroom?”
“Not if you don’t have a problem with me watching you strip naked in your laundry room from time to time.”
I snorted out a laugh. “Guess we’re both a little creepy.”
“You call it creepy. I call it entertainment.”
Three hours later, she walked out of her interview with a small smile on her face.
She saw me and her eyes lit up.
She hurried down the steps of the huge ass building in the middle of an industrial park and headed straight for me.
When she got close enough, I pulled her into my arms and said, “How’d it go?”
“I liked him a lot,” she admitted. “That was why they were my second choice. I think the CEO is a pretty nice guy. I met him at a job fair right before I graduated, and he invited me to interview when I got back in town. The only reason I might choose the other job over this one is due to the type of work that I’ll be doing. Here, I’ll be a little outside of my wheelhouse, and it’ll take me a bit to get up to speed. Hence the lower pay. But only until I’ve learned the ropes. There, I’ll be able to slip right into my role and get paid about four dollars more to do it. Plus, I won’t have to be learning anything for three months while getting paid less.”
“Do you like the other job’s location? The boss?” I wondered.
She shrugged. “I don’t really know.”
