“Dude couldn’t stop laughing. Like he thought I was joking. He livestreamed the whole thing.”
Wow, that is way more publicity than I paid for. He was only required to do two Insta posts. A hundred grand is starting to seem like a deal.
“While you’re explaining my life to me, do you know where I live?”
She stops putting on her lipstick and looks at me with a shocked expression and only half her mouth painted. “OMG girl. You really don’t know shit, do you?”
“Do you?” I ask.
“I don’t know where you’re crashing now, but you have some stuff at the office.”
My jaw drops. I have an office! My own space. “Will you help me find it before I drop you off?”
“When I say ‘office,’ I don’t mean ‘office,’ if you catch my drift.”
“Sure, whatever. Take me there.”
I turn up the music and start belting out some tunes. I’m going to my office, baby! This is the best news I’ve had since finding out I’m a mogul.
“Don’t get too excited, girl. It’s not that great. And I need to pick up Kai from my mom so we need to hurry.” Maybe that’s why she’s doing her makeup and hair in the car.
“Do you want to get him on the way?”
She gives me a weird look. “I’m not bringing my baby there!”
An office not fit for children—that’s interesting. “Just tell me how to get there.”
She shakes her head. “Take a left at the next light.”
“It’s one way. Do you mean the next one?” Between going through her purse to look for something, texting Jules (at least I think that’s what she’s doing), and giving me directions, she spills her coffee all over the place.
“OMG. This isn’t my car!”
“I thought you were locking this mofo down.”
“Really?”
She shrugs. “You mentioned something about getting engaged.”
“We’ll see. I’m not who I was last week.” Right now, I want to return the Ferrari to JP and move in with Crystal, wherever she lives. I feel such a kinship with her. Not to mention Kai seems sort of like he might know me. Like he knows I suck at giving him bottles and stuff, but he’s used to seeing me. “You were just teasing me before. We’re besties, right?”
“Bitch puhlease,” she says.
The way she says it, I know we’re besties. “Do we talk a lot?”
“Ugh, just drive.”
When we pull up to my office, I gasp in excitement. “Is that it?” We’re in front of a low-lying building. It’s not fancy, but it’s big. If I own all that space, I’m not going to complain. It looks like a relic from the ’70s with a flashy marquee that spells outGOLDRUSHin yellow lightbulbs. I own an entire building. I thought it was going to be a classy little office next to a nail salon, not a full-on club with its own parking lot.
Sophisticated and elite dancers! Studied dance at the Royal Ballet! Former beauty queens! Best of California!And then…All nude!
Everything on the marquee is pretty much what I have on my matchmaking app, except…the all-nude part. “Um, what’s with the all-nude thing. Is this my building?”
Crystal laughs. “Oh my God. You knownothing,girl.”
“I’ve been telling you that.” I notice that the building has no windows. “I don’t get it. This looks like a strip club.”
“That’s because itisa strip club.”
