People who stand outside the subway and try to get you to donate money for some charity that they won’t even tell you the name of.
The way Beck acts like a single typo deserves a reaction like the world is being invaded by aliens.
Children and their sticky little fingers and faces.
Cakes that are pretty, but you take a bite, and they’re dry and gross.
People who have weddings but only invite you to the reception, and you can’t even watch the ceremony.
Getting Beck’s dumb tea.
Did I mention my stupid boss!!!!
“Honestly, that’s at least better than the other way around,” Maeve said, reading over my shoulder. “It would be worse to have to sit through the ceremony then not get to go to the reception.”
She looked up. “Speaking of other things you hate.”
“Your stupid father screwed me over!” Cressida was charging toward us through the lobby.
“He’s not my father,” I shot at her. “He’s my stepfather.”
“He dumped me!” she shrieked. “And completely blew up our plan. He threw me under the bus on his social media post backtracking the gossip yesterday about Beck. He said it was my fault, and that I was manipulating him. I had to turn off my phone. I’m getting so much hate mail. Now I’m going to get fired, and it’s all your fault.”
“Join the fucking club!” I jumped up, banging the fork and sending cake spattering all over the table and Cressida.
“You did that on purpose!” she shrieked. “Just like you set me up.”
“You made your own terrible choices,” I said as Cressida grabbed napkins to wipe up the frosting that was smeared all over her shirt.
“You seduced him and made him fall in love with you. You were sleeping with your boss. Then when I did my job and told him it was a bad idea, he refused to see reason. He was going to fire me. I had to protect my job,” she said, grabbing more napkins. I was satisfied to see that the chocolate frosting had smeared all over her cream-colored designer jacket.
“Feel free to rewrite reality.” I scoffed. “You know, I’m actually glad I got fired because not only do I not have to deal with Beck, but I also don’t have to deal with you.”
Cressida’s nostrils flared, her fists clenched on the napkins. “You’re a horrible person. You ruined my life, and I’m going to make sure you pay for it.”
“I have nothing left!” I yelled at her as she flounced off. “So go ahead and try and squeeze blood from a stone! You can line up behind all the debt collectors.”
61
Beck
Fuck. I felt terrible.
I sat down hard in my chair, staring blankly at the opposite wall.
“That went way worse than expected,” Walker remarked as he and Owen came into my office.
“I thought you were going to break it to her gently.”
“I thought I had,” I said in disbelief.
Tess hated me. She had screamed it at me and then stormed out.
Fuck, I really screwed up. But I couldn’t accept that Tess was out of my life.
“Maybe I didn’t communicate everything clearly,” I said, standing up. “I just need to tell her that I love her, and when I give Tess her painting back, she’ll see.”
“Is that what Archer was texting about?” Walker asked. “He was trying to convince Crawford to help him do some breaking and entering.”
