Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 66323 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66323 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
“What? Why in the hell would she think that?”
“She said it smelled like sex. Her words.” She sips again. “So then my boss called and demanded that I come to her office. As soon as I got there, she fired me.”
“Why?”
“Because I fucked up a billionaire client’s project.”
“That was a gorgeous design, Stella.”
“Yeah, well, as Camille put it, it doesn’t matter. The customer matters. And Florence is influential enough to get me fired—after she verbally abused me for the whole world to see. Wanna hear the part that pisses me off the most?”
“What’s that?”
“I drained my personal savings for this project.” Her eyes fill with tears, and I feel my blood boil but stay quiet and let her continue. “For the redesign. I did it all on my own fucking dime. More than a hundred thousand dollars. Gone.”
“For fuck’s sake, Stella.”
“So, there go any plans to buy a house or travel the world or have a nest egg anytime soon. I don’t live off my family, Gray. I mean, sure, I live in a house with very few expenses because my family is generous, but I earned everything I have.”
“I believe that,” I assure her and reach for her hand. “Stella, I think you need to sue all of them.”
She frowns. “No.”
“Hear me out. You need to sue Florence for the money you invested in her house and for defamation of character, given that it was all caught on film. And you need to sue Camille for wrongful termination.”
She shakes her head stubbornly. “I don’t want to think about any of that, Gray. I just want to sleep. I haven’t slept in two days, and my body is just done. I need to shut it down.”
“Okay, you’re right. There’s no need to go through this now. Finish your tea.”
“It’s actually really good,” she says and swallows the last of it. “What’s in it?”
“Magic.” I grin as she lies back and narrows her eyes at me. “It has lavender and ginger and lemon, and I added honey. My mom taught me. It always helps me when life seems to go sideways.”
“That’s a good way to put it,” she says with a sigh. “Sideways. Everything about this is sideways.”
Her eyes drift closed, and her lips part in sleep.
I lean over and kiss her forehead. “Just sleep, babe.”
“We’re starting our own firm,” Danny says with a decisive nod. “Immediately.”
“Right,” Stella says and picks at the lasagna on her plate. “Because we have the money for that.”
“We do,” Danny insists. “Or we can come up with it. We both have a plethora of clients who will follow us, and we’re fabulous. It can’t fail.”
Brandon and I share an amused look. I invited the couple over to have dinner with us to talk about the upcoming wedding and cheer Stella up.
After the ordeal, she slept for about twenty-four hours straight. I started to get worried, but then she woke up, got dressed, and started cleaning my condo from top to bottom.
“I already gave notice,” Danny says. “And I only did that much to be professional because trust me when I say that when I got back to the office and heard what went down, I had to hold myself back from walking into Camille’s office and telling her to go fuck herself.”
“Yeah, that probably would have been a bad idea,” Stella agrees.
“They fired Liz before the end of the day,” Danny adds.
“I know.” Stella frowns, clearly feeling guilty. “She called me.”
“We’ll hire her back on at our firm,” Danny says with confidence. “Honey, we can be up and running in just a couple of weeks.”
“I love your enthusiasm,” Brandon says, cutting in. “But we’re a little busy right now. We’re getting married in ten days.”
“All of the details for the wedding are handled,” Danny says. “And, I admit, we might have to postpone the honeymoon for a month or so while we get our feet under us, but that’s a small sacrifice for the bigger good. Right, B?”
Brandon shifts in his seat, and I can tell that it’s really not perfectly okay with him, but he simply shrugs.
“Sure. I guess.”
“See? It’s decided,” Danny says. “We’ll get a fabulous little office in Bellevue.”
“Bellevue,” Stella says, her voice rising with surprise. “That’s damn expensive, Danny.”
“But we want the best clients, and Bellevue is where it’s at. Trust me.”
“I guess we can shop around,” Stella says, not completely agreeing with him. “And you’re right. We can do this.”
“Duh.” Danny grins. “We’ve totally got this, babe. Okay, now let’s talk about our fabulous wedding. Stella, you’d better eat everything on that plate. You’ve lost weight in two days, and if you lose any more, you won’t fit into the fabulous dress that I picked out for you.”
“It’ll fit,” she promises. “Don’t worry about that. Has everyone RSVP’d by now?”
“Of course, not,” Brandon replies. “But they’ll show up anyway.”