“Did you call her?” I quickly ask.
“Yeah, sure, she sent it about four minutes ago and I already called her.”
“You need to call her.”
“I am going to call her; it’s just I don’t know what to say,” she backpedals, and I hear how nervous she is. “I’ve never had to hire someone.”
“Okay, how about you call her and set up a meeting, and I’ll go?”
“I don’t need you scaring her off,” she counters and now I’m the one rolling my eyes.
“I’m not going to scare her off,” I assure her and I’m not even sure of myself. “We have a connection.”
“You have a connection,” she repeats the words like she didn’t just hear them. “Can you not fuck this up by doing something stupid?” she hisses out. “Lexi single-handedly raised over ten million dollars for the hospital with two fundraisers. Can you imagine what we could do with that type of money?”
“I would never fuck this up,” I say softly. “This foundation means as much to me as it does to you.”
She waits a couple of minutes before she answers, “Fine. What do you want me to ask her?” She doesn’t even wait for me to answer. “Forget it, I’ll just wing it. I’ll call you back.”
“No,” I about scream out. “Don’t wing it!” But she’s already hung up on me, but I still talk to the screen. “Don’t wing it.” I grab the phone in my hand and shake it. “You better not fuck this up, Kylie.” I toss my phone on the table and get up, going over to the fridge. I pull it open and then close it before walking over to the pantry. I step in and take a look around, and my stomach churns, feeling like I’m going to throw up. I never in a million years thought she would reach out. I had a plan to get her to work for the foundation. The plan would be to bring it up to her in a couple of months. That is after I finally convinced her to date me. But this works out way better, but now I have less time to convince her to take the job.
The phone rings and I run back out, seeing it’s Kylie again. “Did you fuck it up?” I put the phone to my ear as I run my hand through my hair.
“If fuck it up means she’s going to meet you tomorrow at one to discuss what the job entails, then yes, I fucked it up.”
“Okay,” I reply, fisting my hand in the air and shooting it up to the ceiling. “Send me the details. Did you call and make a reservation?”
“Yeah, in three seconds since I hung up with her and called you back, I also called and made a reservation,” she retorts. “Also, I’m not your secretary. My job was to get her to come to the restaurant. Your job is to seal the deal.” She groans. “And I don’t mean seal the deal by taking her back to your place and doing naked Twister.”
I laugh at her. “I’m not going to do naked Twister with her,” I assure her, leaving out the yet or that I wish I could actually play naked Twister with her.
“Seriously,” she says softly, “I don’t know what happened between the two of you. But the rumors around the hospital about her were not good when I left.”
“Rumors around the hospital?” I sit down, my legs not sure they can actually continue to stand. “What rumors?”
“That she went crazy.”
“She didn’t go fucking crazy!” I practically shout into the phone. “That’s a bunch of bullshit.”
“I know,” she agrees. “There were so many different ones.” I fist my hands, ready to punch a hole in the wall. “One of them was that she was traveling through Asia on sort of an Eat, Pray, Love trip. Another couple were that she found him cheating.” She laughs. “That we all thought was for real since someone heard they caught him and some girl in the stairwell making out.” I close my eyes. “Anyway, she’s obviously here now.” I don’t say anything else, my stomach tightening when I think of the lies that he no doubt started to save face. “Don’t fuck it up.”
“I won’t fuck it up,” I confirm. “Okay, I’ll call you tomorrow after I meet with her and give you the details.”
“Great. Also, I’m going with an ecru for the walls.”
“Great.” I smile. “That was the color I wanted you to go for, but was testing you.” She laughs. “You passed.”
“Good day, sir.” She hangs up the phone and I pull back up the text thread. I delete the text and start again.
Me:
It was great seeing you again. Thanks for the cinnamon roll.
I press send before I overthink it and make it more complicated than it has to be. I don’t think she’s going to answer me at all, and I’m definitely not ready for her to answer me right away.
Lexi:
It was great seeing you again also. Hope you warmed up the cinnamon roll, it’s better that way.
