“Are you forgetting my landlord is also a travel agent, boo?” She grabs her phone off her nightstand. “I pulled some strings andvoilà!” With a toothy grin, she unlocks the device and all but shoves it in my face.
“Please don’t tell me ‘pulled some strings’ is a euphemism for ‘sucked his cock.’”
She roars with laughter, and the phone slips from her hand and bounces on the black-and-white checkered rug.
“Bitch, why do you always think I’m slipping sexual favors to Gideon?”
“Because he’s letting me live here without a sublease.” I pick up her phone, then pass it to her. “If you’re not sleeping with him, he’s definitely trying to win his way into your pants.”
“I can’t help it if everyone wants a piece of this,” she says, flinging her strawberry-blond hair back dramatically like she’s Cindy Crawford in a Pepsi commercial. With a step closer, shebrings the phone up so I’m forced to look at the screen. There, in bold colors, is an Instagram grid dedicated solely to an all-inclusive resort on the island of Crete.
“Even if I wanted to go back,” I say, my attention caught on the pictures in paradise, “I can’t afford it. I only took that trip because my dad left money specifically for it.” Plus, moving across the country was pricey.
“Funny you should say that.” Millie’s eyes sparkle. “My mom mentioned recently that your dad left backup money with her.”
“Backup money? What does that mean?”
“Apparently he left a chunk of money with my mom, along with a note that saidFor a rainy day: In case my baby girl needs it. Keep it safe for her until she does. Or something like that.”
Tears flood my eyes, fogging my vision. My dad has been gone for thirteen years, yet he’s still taking care of me, his baby girl, even from the afterlife.
“I’d say this qualifies as a rainy day, boo.” She wraps an arm around my shoulder. “My mom agrees. She’s going to wire the money into your account first thing in the morning. So pack your condoms and sluttiest clothes, bitch, ’cause we’re about to fuck some Greek gods.”
13
Cameron
“Dude, where’ve you been?”I ask my roommate. It’s been weeks since we’ve hung out.
“I’m sorry, man. Work’s been so busy lately.” Ezra shoots our server a flirty smile when she sets two glasses of whiskey in front of us.
She lingers a bit, batting her lashes the way women do when he’s around. I call it the Bearded Effect. He’s got that “I woke up like this” look. You know the one—tousled dark brown hair that hints at a late-night romp, paired with a beard trimmed to perfection like he has a live-in barber. Women crawl to him like they’re cats in heat everywhere we go. Not that I can complain about my share of attention most days.
But lately I haven’t bothered with the New York City dating scene. And by lately, I mean for the last two years.
I wish I could say the end of my year-long relationship with Hayden was the cause, but in reality, a single night with Joey is what broke me. I’ve gone on dates since the cruise from hell, but anytime I attempt to take things to the bedroom, all I see—andhear and feel—is Joey, and I back away before the belts even come loose. Ezra jokes that the women of New York are going to call me Chastity Cam if I don’t get over my dry spell soon.
I raise my whiskey between us.
“Here’s to new beginnings.” My buddy clinks his glass against mine. “I’m proud of you.”
“Thanks, man,” I grin. “This last year has been wild. I couldn’t have done it without you.”
Rather than crawling home to dear ole Mom and Dad after my breakup, I channeled the peace and optimism that had hit me that day on Crete and quit my job. I hadn’t even been back on American soil for three hours before I marched into my father’s office and resigned. If I didn’t do it right away, I might not have done it at all.
Naturally, my father canceled his meetings for the rest of the day, called my mother into the office, and tried to stage an intervention. It was shattering, watching my mom’s dreams crumble, but I stood my ground. They chose this life; I didn’t. And it wasn’t fair for them to decide my future for me. I am my own person and I get to decide my career and path in life.
I choose photography.
Graciously, my mom talked my dad into letting me live in the penthouse until the end of the month. If it were up to my dad, he would have given me the boot that day. Ezra had been begging me to move into the city with him for years, so that’s exactly what I did.
We’ve been best friends for more than half my life. For a year, we attended the same boarding school about an hour outside Manhattan and were thrown together as part of the school’s senior-freshman mentoring program. Though he mentored me more on women than academics.
Ezra is my platonic soulmate and the one person I can alwayscount on to have my back. After I quit my job, he was the first person I called.
When he shouted “It’s about damn time, man!” into the phone, I could practically see his fist pump.
I stuck around and trained my replacement at Hotel Connelly for a couple of weeks, then hit the ground running. I busted my ass, sending my portfolio to every photography company I could find on the internet and scheduled meeting after meeting.
