He slept soundly, though his bed felt empty without Justine next to him.
CHAPTER 19
Justine expected her day to go terribly.
It didn’t disappoint.
She spent the morning doing her best to catch up on all her work so she could take the time to look over hernewjob. All the while, she tried to figure out how to explain this to Katie without Katie having a meltdown.
She grinned, remembering her time with Xavier the previous night, where people had literally melted down and spazzed in gory ways on TV.
What an amazing guy. A true friend. He’d listened, not making any moves at all while accepting her need to cuddle. She wondered why just being with him, minus all the hot sex, felt as intimate as time with Xavier without her clothing. So odd, yet exhilarating. Xavier remained a bright spot while in her dungeon of an office she shared with other prisoners. Heck, no one looked all that happy today, all of them hunkered behind cubicle walls.
At least the day passed swiftly, probably because she did her best to avoid facing Frank. The two times she’d spotted him she’d deliberately walked the other way. She didn’t care if he knew she was upset; she just couldn’t face him yet.
Couldn’t face her own disappointing behavior at letting him step all over her.
By the time the day ended, she’d promised to join Katie for a quick drink at a nearby coffee shop.
She met Katie there. To her surprise, an old friend from design school sat with her.
“Oh my gosh. Kenzie?”
Kenzie stood and smiled. “Justine Ferrera, still hanging out with this one?” She nodded at Katie. “You poor thing.”
Justine laughed and gave her old friend a hug. “How the heck are you?”
As Kenzie filled them in on her life, now married and eight-weeks pregnant, she admitted to still working with her best friends, who, in Justine’s opinion, were even wackier than Katie.
“I know. It’s incredible that I’m still with those same idiots.” Kenzie snorted. “And ‘idiot’ is a compliment. You should hear what they call me.”
“So a husband, a kid, your brother who still lives with you, and your business, which just got a huge mention?” Katie pulled out a copy of a popular trade magazine and showed it to Justine.
“Oh yeah. I read that. I can’t believe how great you’re doing! I mean, I can. You’re super talented. But you have just taken off.”
Kenzie nodded. “We got an account with a new vegan place that has gone viral. My peeps are hot on several social media platforms, and it shows. We’re busier now than we’ve ever been.”
Katie looked from Kenzie to Justine. “You looking for any employees?”
Justine wanted to throttle her friend. “Katie.”
Kenzie laughed. “Not quite yet, but we’re getting there. I still don’t know why you never went private, Justine. You know how to engage clients and their customers. Katie and I were talking about the company. We did some freelance work for Mayze. It was, well, it was interesting.”
Katie snorted. “That’s business-speak for sucky.”
“You said it. Not me.”
Justine shrugged. “What can I say? I’m stuck in a job I hate but not sure where to go if I leave. And no, that’s not a poke to see if you’re hiring, Kenzie.” She shot Katie a look.
Her friend cringed. “Sorry. I’m just putting a line out there for you.”
“Never a bad thing to do.” Kenzie agreed. “Look, if I hadn’t needed a flexible schedule due to raising my troublesome teenage brother, I would probably have taken the offer a prominent PR firm gave me way back then. But I had to do things my own way. I’m not saying that’s better than working for a company.”
“You mean working for ‘The Man,’” Katie said.
“‘The Man,’ right.” Kenzie chuckled. “I’m just saying working independently fits me and my friends. But it’s not without its own problems. Finding and keeping clients, having your own insurance, no paid sick or vacation days.”
“But you’re happy,” Katie said.
