A big hand landed in front of me, palm up, and I glanced over to see that obviously it was Rip’s.
He opened and closed those long, forever-stained fingers despite the bulk-sized Orange hand cleaner in every bathroom.
Did he…?
Screw it. Fine. I had already come in between these two, I wasn’t about to volunteer to do it again.
I dropped the phone into his hand, and he didn’t waste a second bringing it up to his ear and grumbling, “What did you do?”
I wasn’t sure if I’d answer that question if I were Jason. Honestly, I’d probably hang up.
“You’re calling Luna when you know she’s busy, with me, so I wanna know what you did that’s making you call…. You didn’t do anything? Then why are you calling?.... So you did fuck up?.... That’s what I thought…. Again? What did I tell you yesterday?.... Go upstairs, tell Cooper what you did…. Yes, Mr. Cooper. Yup, the one who hired you. That one. Go tell him right now. Don’t wait until she gets there. She’s not doing shit.” There was a pause and then, “The fuck did you just say?” Rip snapped, and I had to press my lips together, if only to keep my mouth from opening... in almost glee.
He blinked.
I blinked.
Then he pulled the phone away from his face and stared down at the screen.
“Did he hang up on you?”
He was still staring down at the phone when he muttered, soundingpissed, “This motherfucker….”
He’d hung up on him.
And… it made me laugh.
Maybe it was Rip’s facial expression, maybe it was the idea that he was genuinely outraged, but I laughed, and I didn’t stop laughing. The frustration I’d felt toward thatmotherfucker, in Rip’s words, instantly disappearing. Maybe because it was nice to see that I wasn’t the only one who got treated like crap. I seriously couldn’t believe he’d hung up on him. It made me cackle and forget I was supposed to be professional and stuff. “Watch, he’s going to pretend the phone dropped the call, but he’s on the landline,” I warned him.
Rip kept his gaze down on the black screen before thrusting the cell back in my direction. His tone was freaking grumpy as he asked, “He always this much of a piece of shit? He already knows he’s got one strike against him after yesterday. Now he’s gonna have two after this bullshit. He can’t play the dumb card too much longer.”
So he had gotten in trouble then. That made me feel just a little better about yesterday. But I would have liked it more if he’d gotten the ax. I mean, Rip had gotten rid of people for less, but that was none of my business.
Fortunately, he didn’t wait for my answer, probably knowing that was ayes.“He always act like that with you?”
I closed my eye, still looking forward. “What do you mean exactly?”
I was pretty sure Rip clucked his tongue. He rephrased it, bless his heart. “He always act like a prick like that?”
“Well…” I trailed off, but inside, I thoughtyep,which was why he had reamed me the day before—because Jason was a prick.
There was a rough, “Hmm.” Ripley’s cheek did that twitch thing, and I almost laughed again at the reminder of how mad he’d just been. “He gives you shit like that again, you tell me. Got it?”
I made a face to myself, telling myself to let the day before go—and only partially succeeding—but still managed to say, “Sure.” If it came out sarcastic, that hadn’t totally been my intention.
Those blue-green eyes swung to my direction, exposing something in them I couldn’t pinpoint. “Luna, just fucking tell me, all right?”
Like I wanted to deal with Jason’s attitude more than I already did. Rip could have him if he wanted him. I felt a little like I was cheating on Mr. Cooper by going through Rip to get rid of him, but I had told Mr. C about how he acted around me, and he’d still thrown him my way. “Sure,” I agreed again, knowing I didn’t sound convincing.
I was choosing happiness. I was going to move on and forgive Rip for the day before. He would have done it to anyone.
I shouldn’t take it personally.
I could see his hands flex on the steering wheel, but it took a minute for the next round of words to come out of his mouth. “Say, think of something else you want.”
My body froze, instantly choosing that to focus on instead of… before. Because, we were back to this?Again?“Rip,” I almost groaned. “No, we’re done. We’re even. We’re fine, whatever you want to call it.” I almost started to say we were good, but that felt like a little bit of an exaggeration. In a few days, we’d be good. Right now, we were just fine.
He didn’t look at me though. “We’re not.”
