He relaxes his hold on my cheeks and nods. “Okay. You want to start talking?”
I shrug. “I think I got fired today. But I’m not sure because I kind of told Michelle off and left.”
Vito’s eyes widen, and he’s silent for a second. “Okay,” he finally says. “You want to back up? What the hell happened?” I can see the wheels beginning to move behind his eyes, and he’s starting to look pissed.
I shake my head. “I don’t like the job. I thought I would. I thought I’d like finance, but running a small office is the worst. I made a mistake, and Michelle got a little shitty with me—”
He clenches his hands into fists, and I stop him with a hand on his shoulder.
“She threw some weird shit about you at me, and I just lost it. It was polite enough, but I think it’s clear that job wasn’t going to work out.”
“What do you need me to do?” he asks, shoving his hands into his pockets. “I don’t know what to feel here, Eden.”
“Babe.” I touch the scruff on his chin, the beautiful, prickly stubble that sends little ripples of excitement through my body just touching him like this, out on the sidewalk in front of the world. “Can we please go home? I want to think through what to do, and I just…” I check the time on my phone. “Your mom has got Juniper at Ryder’s gym thing with Ethan and Sassy.”
His expression is grim, and I honestly don’t know whether he’s mad at me or with me. But it’s better I find out now while there may still be time to fix it.
19
VITO
I’mglad I have the drive home to myself to sort out my feelings. The first thing I feel is rage.
If Michelle made Eden feel any kind of way—bad about herself, bad about me—I’m going to march my ass into that office and tear her a new one. Ex-wife or not, she has no right to talk shit to Eden.
I trusted that Michelle was more mature than that. I trusted that her intentions toward Eden were honest. Maybe I should be a lot less trusting and a lot more protective.
I won’t make that mistake again.
“Tell me everything,” I demand, pointing to the couch for Eden to sit. “Because if I need to go over there, I won’t even take off my shoes.”
“Vito,” she says. She slips out of her high heels, and together, we walk to sit side by side on the couch. “Are you mad at her or me?”
I can’t help the look on my face. I’m sure I’m looking at her like she grew horns, but I can’t imagine on what planet she’d think I’m mad at her. “I don’t care if you took a shit on her office floor,” I tell her. “I’d never be mad at you.” I curl the side of my mouth in a grin. “I might offer to rent a carpet cleaner to help with the damage, but be mad at you? Babe, I trust you. I love you. Whatever happened, I’m on your side.”
She shakes her head. “I fucked up. I missed a step putting in some data and might have cost Michelle a big client.”
I frown. “That sucks, but so what? That’s a pretty fragile business if some data-entry error can cost Michelle a client.”
She nods, the long layers of her hair falling around her shoulders. “Michelle is pretty intense,” she says. “She’s great at what she does, but I didn’t like it. It was passwords and lame shit that, honestly, I just didn’t care about.”
I nod. “Do you think it’s just the newness of everything, or do you think you really don’t like the field?”
She shrugs. “Both. I don’t know. It wasn’t the right job for me. I’m sure about that. I just have no idea what else I’d want to do.”
I blow air through my lips. “Put a pin in that. What the hell did Michelle say about me, and do I need to beat anyone’s ass today? I wouldn’t hit Michelle, but if I need to blast some eardrums, I’m ready to start yelling.”
Eden shakes her head and looks down at her lap. “No, it was fine. It was. She said something about trying to make amends to you by helping me, but I told her I didn’t want her bringing you into my job performance.”
“Good on you,” I tell her. “Anything else?”
“No. It wasn’t that big of a deal, it just felt huge. I’ve never walked out on a job before.”
I pull Eden close to me and smooth the hair back from her face. “That takes balls, baby. Not a lot of people would do that, no matter the circumstances.” I take in the tightness around her lips and the sad way she’s furrowing her brows. “So, you’re unemployed? Are you worried?”
She sighs. “Yes, I’m unemployed again, I guess. And no, I’m not worried. I’m just bummed. What the hell do I do with my life now?”
“You try something new, babe. It’s that simple. And if you hate it, you move on to the next. Rinse and repeat.”
