Chapter 11
In honor of girls’ night, Lina had been cooking up a storm. She had thousand-calorie spinach dip with pita chips, fruit dip on a platter surrounded by strawberries, kiwi, and pineapple slices, and homemade salsa with tortilla chips. A party in honor of Ashley’s messed-up life. She felt both loved and depressed by it.
Paige came straight over from work and collapsed in a kitchen chair, helping herself to a little of everything. “I’m sorry about losing your job, Ash. That stinks. You’re one of the hardest working people I know.”
Lina put down a veggie tray in the remaining spot on the table and sat down. “I was just telling Ashley she should come work at my dentist office. We need another front office person.”
“I can’t come work with you.” Ashley had been dreading the job search, but she didn’t want Lina trying to personally take care of it.
“Why? Because it would be awesome?”
“I’m not experienced enough. What if it didn’t work out?” She had never expected the roommate thing to work out, and adding co-worker to their relationship might throw everything out of balance. Ashley didn’t need another part of her life falling apart right now.
Lina grinned. “You’d be ten times better than the girl you’d be replacing. She repeatedly messed up the schedule and then went in and messed up the other scheduler’s appointments to try to make it look like a computer glitch.”
“Is this supposed to make me want to take the job?”
“Yes. Because I trust you, and if I trust you, my boss will too. And I know if you make a mistake you’d tell her about it, not panic and sabotage.”
Paige reached for another strawberry. “I’m with Lina on this one. Ashley, you’d be great as front office staff. Plus, free teeth cleanings, right?”
Lina scrunched her nose. “Well, at a reduced rate anyway. But enough about the job search. I’ll secretly print out your resume and submit it later.”
“Lina!”
“Kidding. We can talk about job stuff tomorrow. I want to know about your work friend, who kind of has kids and lied about his girlfriend.”
Lina and her crazy memory skills. Ashley couldn’t remember exactly what she had or hadn’t told her, so she started by clearing up the ‘kind of’ comment. “His parents died when he was nineteen. He’s the guardian for his three younger siblings.”
“How young?” Paige asked.
“A little boy, about eight or nine, a girl about ten, and a teen.”
“Wow, that’s incredible.” Lina stood up to pull the cupcakes out of the oven. Yes, she’d made cupcakes for the pity party. “So, let me guess. He’s super tight-lipped about them. Like he has his work and his home life and they don’t cross.”
“How does she do that?” Ashley asked.
Paige just shrugged. “I’ve stopped questioning it. Why she ended up being a dental hygienist rather than a psychologist is beyond me.”
“Because I hate school. And I love teeth.” Lina flashed her own pearly whites and turned off the oven. “So, what’s the deal with his girlfriend? Oh, and what’s this guy’s name? I’m going to start calling him Buzz if you don’t give me something else.”
“Wait, this guy—I guess we’re calling him Buzz now—lied about having a girlfriend?” Paige looked back and forth between the two of them. “Why are we even talking about him then?”
“No, he told me he had a girlfriend when he really didn’t.”
“Oh, that’s kind of worse.” Paige made a face.
“No, it’s not.” Lina frowned at Paige. “Let’s hear her out. Buzz could have a good reason for it.”
Ashley put a hand to her forehead. “Can you please stop calling him Buzz? His name is Chase.”
Lina laughed. “Poor Chase. Maligned and misnamed. So how do you know his girlfriend isn’t real?”
“He mentioned her one night while he was walking me out to my car. Chase is the guy at work who watched out for me … after Reid. So, last week, it got around the office that he’d broken up with her, and I asked him about it. He admitted he’d invented a girlfriend because he wanted to come off as non-threatening to me. Like, so I wouldn’t worry he would someday misunderstand our friendship or want more from it.”
Their twin reactions were exactly what she expected. Awe mixed with pity.
“I know, I’m a pathetic mess, and it must have been all he could do to put up that girlfriend wall between us.”
