Shit.
Shit! Shit! Shit!
“I did make myself clear on our policies, did I not?” Marlena asked in her typical condescending manner. “So, what I don’t understand is why I saw a photo of you touching the face ofa clientin some tacky diner when you were paid to go to a gala for Bramson Enterprises. Long after your shift had ended, no less. You wouldn’t be freelancing, would you Olivia?”
It never occurred to me that Dignitary might think I was doing a side hustle of decoy services. “Freelancing? No, of course not! I’m so sorry about this. If I could explain?” I went on before they could respond. “The newspaper made it look like something was going on when there wasn’t. Nothing romantic happened whatsoever.” Much to my disappointment. “A photographer was hiding outside and—”
“Oh, save it, Olivia!” Marlena snapped. “I have quite a few centuries on you. Don’t you think I know when a human is lying to me?”
“Come on, Marlena, go easy,” Michael said.
Marlena let out a long, irritated sigh. “Look, I’m tired. It’s late, the sun is up, and I want to go to bed. Since you’re new, Olivia, I am going to cut you slack. Only this one time.”
“Thank you, Marlena. I’m so sorry—”
“I’m not finished,” she barked. “I may be cutting you slack, but you need to realize that if I catch you eventhinkingabout batting your eyes at another client, I will fire you. Are you absorbing what I’m saying?”
“Yes. Completely.”
“And you betterbelieveyou aren’t going to see Robert again,” she snarled.
My heart plummeted to my stomach.
“Did you hear me?”
“Yes. Okay,” I choked out, tears burning my eyes. Not seeing Robert again was as bad as being fired. Maybe worse.
“You should be thanking me. I’m doing you a favor. Did you know Robert—”
“You’ve made your point, Marlena,” Michael snapped.
“I’m bored with this. We’ll talk later.”
Click.
I stared at the phone for a long time, holding it away from my body like it was a poisonous snake. I crawled back into bed, pulling the covers high over my face. It was the first time since Tilly’s funeral that I cried myself to sleep.
14
“Olivia!”
I jolted up in bed, confused. Liz seized me by the shoulders and shook me. “What’s going on?”
“Fantastic. You’re awake.” She released me and peered down at me curiously. “Have you been taking peyote or something?”
“What?” Grumpily, I added, “Why did you wake me up?”
“You were yelling all sorts of craziness about vampires. You weren’t making any sense, but you sounded freaked. I figured I’d do you a solid and wake you up before you clawed your face off.”
“I was?” I rubbed my eyes. “What time is it?”
“Almost five,” she said with a smirk I didn’t care for.
“In the evening?” I screeched.
“If anyone around here is a vampire, Olivia, it’s you.” Liz picked up my phone and handed it to me. “Here, it’s been ringing nonstop. I can’t believe it didn’t wake you up. I could hear it clear in the next room. It’s been driving me mental.”
“I guess I was tired,” I said, frowning at the phone. Eight missed calls from two different numbers I didn’t recognize, though they both had the 415 San Francisco area code. Ever the optimistic, I hoped one of the numbers belonged to Robert
