“The Opal Room,” I tell her. Then I walk around her, open the door and walk out without closing the door behind me.
Chapter 17
Ellie
“Hey girl. Aren’t you at work? Is everything alright?” Rachel’s voice comes through the phone as I duck to snag my dress off the floor before scrambling to the door to close it before anyone in the hallway sees me like this.
Oh, you know, my boss just made me take off my clothes and then left me standing out in the open with hard nipples while I dripped down my leg. But you know how that goes.
“Yeah, everything is fine. Listen, my boss is in a mood, and he just sprung it on me that he needs me to work tonight. Is there any way you can watch Luca?” I ask.
“Of course,” she says, and there is hesitancy. I know better than to worry about it being because of Luca himself. Rachel never ducks out of spending time with him. So if I had to guess, she’s just worried about me.
“I’m worried about you,” she says a moment later.
“Don’t be worried about me,” I say with a forced smile, hoping she can hear it through the phone. At the same time, I’ve got her on speakerphone so I can set the phone on the desk while slipping back into my dress. “Work is going well. He just needs me to work overtime once in a while.”
“Hmm,” she says disapprovingly. “Well, I hope you’re being adequately compensated for it.”
If by compensated, she means he’s probably going to make me come more times in one hour than Dylan could do in the duration of our relationship, yes. I think it’s safe to say it’s adequate.
“I get bonuses,” I tell her. It’s a truth hidden in a lie.
“A little icing on the cake,” she says dryly. “That’s all fine and dandy except that he is still asking you to work these shifts without notice.”
“He’s a hotel tycoon,” I say as I struggle with the zipper on my dress. Getting it back up is a lot harder than tugging it down. I can’t believe I am defending him if I am being honest. Although I’m not really being honest right now. Sigh.
“Which is why he should be better at knowing his needs before he needs them. I get things come up, but I think the man can afford to give you some kind of headway. You have a kid, for Pete’s sake.”
Rachel isn’t wrong. Damien doesn’t seem to have any empathy for my single-mom life situation. But at the end of the day, my problems are not his. Unless you count my problem of needing to have an earth-shattering orgasm. In that case, I think it’s stated in our contract that my problem is very much his problem. A problem he has solutions for. Solutions I find myself in desperate need of right now.
“I just want to make sure you aren’t getting steamrolled, Ellie,” Rachel starts in, and I know where this is going. It’s the beginning of one of her big-sister lectures about–
“You need to make sure you are setting boundaries,” she says, and I literally mouth the words as she says them.
“I am…working on it,” I tell her with a grunt as I yank the zipper up my back to no avail. I don’t know how I got it on this morning, but right now, I am really struggling.
“What are you doing?” she asks.
“I’m organizing my desk,” I lie. “Moving things around the office. Which you need to see some time, by the way. It’s really gorgeous. Talk about compensation…”
“I mean, about boundaries. What are you doing to make sure your boss isn’t taking advantage of you?”
I’m wearing clothes that are impossible to get in and out of…
“Rache, it’s a new job. And it’s a demanding one. But it’s also in the field I have been aching to get back into ever since the whole Dylan fiasco. I’m sure the schedule will become more predictable over time. Right now we are still just trying to figure things out.”
I sit down in Damien’s desk chair and let out a defeated sigh. I’ve worked up a sweat trying to get this damn zipper back up, and I don’t think it’s going to budge, at least not without help, anyway.
“Alright, well I love you. And I will swing by and grab Luca later. Maybe we will take him to the Pizza Palace,” she says, and my heart sinks lower in my chest. Luca loves the Pizza Palace. It’s a pizza bar where you build your own personal pan pizza and watch them fire it in the oven right in front of you. There are also board games and yard games and fun drinks and music too. It’s a place he always asks to go and only gets to if someone else is paying.
“That sounds perfect,” I tell her.
I end the call and press the heels of my hands to my eyes for a moment, fully aware I am probably ruining my makeup. I understand where my sister is coming from. These spur-of-the-moment night shifts are nearly impossible as a single mom. It’s hard enough to find after-school care, and I don’t love having to ask my sister all the time, especially when she has enough problems of her own. But soon, I will have more money. I will have enough to keep Luca and me afloat. Enough that I can takehim to Pizza Palace without blinking an eye. Enough that I can offer to help Rachel and Chance with their parenthood journey.
“Trouble in paradise?” Jocelyn’s voice comes through the door that is apparently open again, and I startle.
“More like a wardrobe malfunction,” I mutter, suddenly feeling weird that I am just sitting in Damien’s office at his desk. I stand up and turn my back to her.
