God, what a dumb name.
I pasted on a fake smile and edged into the room, perching on a small folding chair across from Abe’s desk. He glanced up at me, put down his stack of papers, and gave me a blank stare before pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
“Nice to meet you, Mia.” He nodded at Noah, who left us to it, closing the door behind him. “Noah tells me you’re interested in the barista opening.”
“That’s right. I’ve always wanted to work in a cafe.” Lies, lies, lies. I had nothing against coffee, but it wasn’t my top choice of beverage.
“I see.” He shuffled through the papers, pulled out a notepad, and clicked his pen. “Well, do you have any experience working in a cafe?”
I cleared my throat. “Not as such, but I’m a quick learner. And I was a server in a restaurant back home.”
“Back home.” He clicked his pen twice more. “How many years did you work in the restaurant?”
“Four years,” I said. “All throughout college.”
“I see. And what have you been doing the past two years? Have you had a job since graduation?”
My heart flipped in my chest. How did he know I’d graduated two years ago? I’d brought my resume with me, but he hadn’t asked for it yet. Had Noah told him? Serena and I had been in the same class until she’d graduated early to go to law school, and he knew we’d grown up together, so he must have put two and two together. Still, why would he have mentioned that to Abe?
Unease slithered down my spine like a snake ready to strike. That old familiar feeling squeezed my heart. The realization that the person who sat across from me knew exactly who I was. When I’d moved to New York City, I’d thought I’d left that world behind, but it had followed me here. It dogged my steps on the sidewalks. It lurked in the shadows behind the lampposts. And it sat before me now with a pair of wiry glasses and a gleaming bald head.
Serena had asked me why I wasn’t more freaked out by the serial killer roaming the nighttime streets, and this had a lot to do with it. I was far more scared of my past. It had a tendency of dragging me into the depths of hell.
“I took a little break after college,” I finally said. “People in the UK like to call it a gap year.”
“We’re not in the UK.” He tapped his pen against the notepad. “And you took two years instead of one.”
Dammit. Gritting my teeth, I leaned back in the chair and fought the urge to tell this guy to shove his preconceptions about me right up his ass. “My family experienced a few personal issues during that time.”
“Care to elaborate?”
“Not really.”
“I see.” He sighed and dropped the notepad onto his cluttered desk. “Mia, I agreed to this interview because Noah is one of our best baristas, and I understand you’re old friends with his girlfriend. But I would be lying if I said I didn’t have concerns about these personal issues of yours. With everything going on in the city right now, particularly in Hell’s Kitchen, I’d be remiss to take you on. Noah mentioned you were there last night.”
I bristled, hastily pushing up from the chair. “Wait. You mean the Hell’s Kitchen murders, don’t you? Are you suggesting I have something to do with those deaths? You think I’mkillingthose girls?”
He folded his arms. “I’ve read the articles. I know you only escaped a prison sentence because of a technicality.”
I fisted my hands on his desk and leaned toward him. “The reason I didn’t get convicted is because there was zero evidence against me.”
“Then, why did you refuse to testify?”
I flushed and pushed away from the desk, my heart hammering my ribs. “I’m not going to stand here and get berated by you about something you know nothing about. I’ll assume I didn’t get the job. Fine with me. I wouldn’t. want to work in this shit-hole anyway. I hate coffee.”
With that, I whirled on my feet and threw open the door. I stomped down the hallway past Noah and his shocked Pikachu face. I tried to rustle up a measure of guilt. He’d done me a favor, and things would no doubt be awkward next time he visited Serena.
“What the hell did you just do?” he asked, anger turning the edges of his words to steel. “You know I had to pull some strings to get you this damn interview.”
“Well, you shouldn’t have bothered if you were going to tell your boss about my past.” I narrowed my eyes, and the guilt raced away as fast as Usain Bolt. He’d completely sabotaged any chance I had.
Noah folded his arms. “I didn’t tell him. He looked you up, and then asked me about it. All I did was tell him the truth.”
All the blood rushed from my face to pool around my feet. “The truth? So, you think I did it.”
“I think Serena loves you, and it’s blinded her.” He regarded me carefully. “Did you know she’s put her life on hold because of you? She refuses to move in with me until you get your shit together, and she’s taking a lot of flack from her bosses, too. They haven’t put her on a few high-profile cases because they don’t want some clever reporter to find the link between their firm and you. As long as you’re living with her, you’re holding her back.”
“What?” I took a step back as the world tilted beneath my feet. “That can’t be right. Serena would have told me.”
