“Oh my god!” Maeve exclaimed as I ate the last of my french fries.
She showed me a page of the gossip site on her phone. I quickly scanned it.
“Shannyn and my stepfather are backtracking? Did I have too much to drink?” I forced myself to focus, not believing what I was reading.
“Ugh,” I seethed. “She’s acting like she’s the victim here and her accounts were hacked and caused her to have some sort of mental breakdown. And she said she misses her mother. What the hell? Shannyn hated my mother! She was awful to her, and my mother just kept taking it! This is such bullcrap.”
“At least it’s over now,” Maeve said. “We should have one more celebratory drink!”
“I think I should probably go home and see what’s going on,” I said and slid my credit card across the bar.
“They have a really good coconut pie here,” Holly prompted, sliding my card back toward me.
“I do like pie.”
We poured over Shannyn’s social media posts while we had our dessert and drinks.
“Shannyn goes on and on about how her stepsister—” Maeve used air quotes—“used to bully her.”
“At least a bunch of people are commenting and calling out her making up lies against Beck,” Holly said, sipping her drink. “Aaand now she’s fighting with them in the comments. Jeez, this is a dumpster fire.”
“As long as she’s not tagging me in it,” I said. “Now that I don’t have to pay for food, transportation, and incidentals, I have finally been able to save enough money to start paying down some of my debt. I don’t need Beck to have a reason to fire me.”
“I have a bunch of job openings bookmarked,” Maeve said. “Maybe we could go work for a different firm together.”
I grimaced. “Is it weird that I think I would miss Beck?”
In fact,I knew I would miss him. I was already looking forward to seeing him when I got back to his condo.
His sisters were ecstatic that the mean stories about their brother had been removed. This whole thing would blow over in a few days when the tabloids moved on to the next big gossip story.
Even though I had just eaten my weight in pie, I was going to suggest that we all go out for a celebratory dinner. I would just order an appetizer and maybe french fries because I love parmesan truffle fries with garlic aioli. It seemed like every restaurant in the city served them, but that was okay by me because I was here for all of it.
Belle was in the lobby talking to Vera when I arrived.
“Don’t forget HOA elections are coming up,” Vera reminded me. “Vote for Greg and our community will have hot, shirtless guys at the pool and adult beverages for free in the lobby all day every day. Unfortunately, the current HOA administration doesn’t believe it’s a good idea.” Vera gave Belle an angry look.
Belle was shaking her head. “We can’t have people wasted in the lobby at ten thirty in the morning. There’s already free alcohol at the amenity level.”
“Yeah, but me and the girls all like to people watch,” Vera told her. “And Svensson watch. We’re not as lucky as this one, who has her very own Adonis in her bed at night!”
“Actually, we’re in his,” I quipped.
I smiled to myself in the elevator up. Maybe Beck and I would do a little pre-celebration.
“I’m back!” I called when I unlocked the front door. “Who wants to go out for celebratory french fries?”
Beck met me in the foyer, and I wrapped my arms around him, kissing him drunkenly.
“Looks like you already started celebrating,” he purred.
“And I have another extra special celebration planned for you,” I said. “I’m sure you must have put the fear of god into Shannyn and Alistair!”
I giggled as he picked me up, kissing me and heading through the living area to the bedroom. As I kissed his jaw, I noticed something odd over his shoulder. It felt like something was different in the living room.
“Did you rearrange the furniture?” I slurred, pressing kisses to his neck.
He stiffened then said, “No, nothing’s different.”
