Which should tell you everything about my current employment status.
My laptop is balanced on my stomach, spreadsheet open, and every cell is basically screamingyou’re screwedin Arial font.
Last month’s savings minus this month’s expenses equals... a number that makes my chest tighten.
When your bank account has less followers than your dead Instagram. Cut to me crying into ramen.
I refresh my email for the eighteenth time. Still nothing from the brand partnership I pitched last week. The luxury skincare company that wanted “authentic content” but apparently notmyauthentic content.
Cool cool cool.
My phone buzzes. Ethan’s name lights up the screen.
I consider letting it go to voicemail. But rent notices make you answer your phone, even when you’d rather hide under your duvet forever.
“Hey.”
“Did anything happen at the bar.” No hello. No preamble. Just straight to the Ethan Riley Interrogation Method.
My face goes crimson.
Thank god this isn’t FaceTime.
“What? No. Nothing happened. Why would anything happen? That’s ridiculous. We just talked. That’s it. Talked. About normal things. Very normal conversation between two adults who barely know each other.”
Oh my god. Shut up, Jess.
“Okay.” Another pause. Longer. “You’re doing the thing where you talk too fast when you’re lying.”
“I’m not lying.”
“Jess.”
“Ethan.” I match his tone exactly. “Nothing. Happened.”
Which is true if you don’t count the part where his best friend made me cum four times and then left.
That part definitely didn’t happen.
Nope.
Not even a little bit.
“Fine.” He sighs. “Then tell me something... why does Marco want you to be his nanny?”
I blink, confused. “He wants me to, what?”
“You heard me. Marco’s looking for a new nanny. His current one just quit. And he specificallymentioned your name.” Ethan pauses, then adds wryly: “Guess you made an impression.”
I feel myself grow redder by the moment.
Yeah.
A four-orgasm impression.
“Anyway,” Ethan continues. “Ben’s a bit of a handful. What you’d call... an anxious kid. But once she gets used to you, she’s the cutest. If you take it, the pay—”
“I won’t be taking it.” The words come out sharp. Too sharp.
