“Fully remote,” Bird replied. “I’m not an idiot. I know you’re settled in down there—congratulations by the way.”
“Thanks,” Harper said, her eyes filling with excitement again.
“We’ll video chat for meetings a few times a week in the beginning and then probably less as we get into a rhythm.”
They continued on with the discussion, throwing different shit back and forth that I didn’t understand a bit—but I did understand the salary he offered, and I felt like my eyes were going to bug out of my head.
Harper grinned at me and did a little dance in her seat.
It was five times what I made, and the Aces paid us well.
“You still there, Bas?” Bird asked as the conversation wound down.
“Yep, just lettin’ Harp do her thing.”
“You guys should come up and visit soon,” he said. “I’ll take you to all the touristy shit.”
“Sounds good, man.”
“Harp, call me Monday, and we’ll start your intake.”
“Sounds good. Thanks for thinking of me!” Harper said happily.
“Shit,” Bird said, a smile in his voice. “Like I would’ve offered it to anyone else. I just got lucky I didn’t have to steal you from whatever company you were working at.”
They hung up, and Harper and I sat in silence for a few moments, staring at each other.
“It’s fucking perfect!” she screeched, diving across the couch. She peppered my face with kisses as she straddled me. “Remote! Fucking fantastic pay! And I’ll be working with BIRD!”
I laughed as she squealed. “Remember all those times I told you it would all work out?”
“No one likes a know-it-all, Sebastian,” she sang, wrinkling her nose. “This is literally the best-case scenario.”
“You think it’ll take off?” I asked.
“Oh, no doubt,” she replied, sitting back on my knees. “I’ll have to take a look at the numbers to know for positive, but from what he just told me, they’re in an excellent position. Bird’s going to be a millionaire.”
“No shit,” I breathed.
“I fucking knew he’d do something big,” she said, smiling huge as she shook her head from side to side. “Iknew.”
She climbed off my lap and picked up her phone. “I’m going to call my mom.” She pumped her arms in the air and grinned a huge cheesy grin. “And we need to start looking for a house. Big one. On property? Do you want property? It’s a lot of work, and I’mnotinterested in mowing, so that’s on you.”
“Property sounds good,” I called as she started up the stairs.
“Perfect! I’ll ask Uncle Tommy if he has anything, and if not, we can start looking online.” Her voice faded away as she disappeared at the top of the stairs.
Well, fuck me. In less than an hour, Harper had been offered her dream job and had decided we should buy a house. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Harper was full steam ahead—always. It was only in relationships that she struggled being assertive. More than once since we’d moved in together, she’d spent all night wondering if she should ask one of her cousins to hang out. Even after she’d been blatantly welcomed into the fold and convinced that she’d never been out of it in the first place, she was cautious.
I should probably take a little of that confidence and do some shit that I’d been putting off.
Glancing at the stairs, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and found Lou in my contacts. We still hadn’t seen or heard from her even though we’d hung out with Myla and Frankie a few times.
“Hello?” she answered cautiously.
“Hey, Lou,” I said, getting nervously to my feet. “Where the hell have you been?”
She laughed quietly. “Oh, I’m around.”
