I grinned at her and pointed toward Mason. “If you can convince him to keep quiet you might have a shot.”
“What are you doing in the office? Don’t you have your mechanic thing to do?”
Mason raised an eyebrow at her. “It’s my garage and I can be wherever I want to be. And right now I want to be in the office because seems to me like Stella forgot she works here. Not sure why you are here though.”
Maisie wasn’t easily intimidated and pulled herself up to her full height. She still had to look up to talk to Mason, but there was no more hesitation. “I’m visiting Stella to make sure you haven’t made her quit yet.”
“Still working on it.”
“Lucky I need the money,” I grumbled, getting up as well.
“Has Mommy finally cut you off?” Mason asked.
I clenched my teeth and balled my fists, my nails cutting into my palms. “Why don’t you get back to whatever it was you were doing before you came in here?”
“Gladly,” he drawled and left. As soon as the door closed behind him with a loud bang, my shoulders slumped forward and I exhaled loudly.
“Seems like I’m not the only one keeping secrets,” Maisie said.
“Ha, so you admit to keeping Mr. GQ a secret. I knew it.”
Maisie grinned at me and took my hand. “Come on, seems like we have a lot of catching up to do.”
Crying to her about the butt-wipe that was Mason Drake was just what I needed.
“Should we head to The Grill?” I asked.
“What kind of question is that?” she answered and grinned.
I laughed and squeezed her hand. “I missed you these last few weeks. No more overseas internships.”
“I missed you too, Estrella, and there are no more trips in my future. Europe is overrated anyway. Now I hope you have your car here because Lincoln dropped me off.”
Lincoln was one of her four roommates and a computer nerd who worshipped Maisie.
“Lincoln, huh?” I teased her on our way out.
She groaned. “Don’t start.”
We got in my car and I sank into the leather seat, the familiar scent and feel calming my frayed nerves. Whenever Mason was close, my body decided to start going from cold to hot, tense to boneless. It was infuriating.
“How did you manage to keep your car?” Maisie asked and sat in the passenger seat.
“It was in my name, so my mother couldn’t really take it from me. She tried, of course she would, but there was nothing she could do. I’ll have to sell it, though, if I don’t get a job soon.”
“Honey, you’ve got a job.”
I waved her off and started the car. “You know what I mean. A job that won’t end in a few weeks.”
“Are you still staying at Willa’s?”
I nodded and pulled out of the garage parking lot. “She’s at Jameson’s most of the time, so she’s happy she doesn’t have to pay full rent. But I have to find something soon. She lives in a one-bedroom apartment—and the couch is getting old.” The arrangement worked because Willa was on holidays for a few weeks with Jameson, finally travelling like she had always dreamed of.
We pulled up to The Grill and made our way inside. We used to go to the Donut Hole, but since Willa no longer worked there the place wasn’t what it used to be. Mainly we didn’t get a 20 percent discount anymore.
Today definitely called for something like a burger and chips. Or pizza. But then again, every day should be a pizza day.
We chose a booth at the back, hoping to go unnoticed. Humptulips was a small town, and most people knew us, especially since my mother decided to run for mayor this year. I really hoped she wouldn’t win, but money made the world go round, and she had enough of it to never need to get off the carousel.
