“Go home, Brent,” she called out through the locked door.
“Eve, let me in.”
“It’s not happening.” She leaned her head against the door, feeling a little unstable on her feet from being tired. “I gave you my answer at the office.” She held in a yawn.
“This has nothing to do with my offer,” he said.
When he didn’t say anything further, she asked, “Then what?”
“Just let me in. I’d hate to wake your neighbors,” he said a little louder.
She thought of the older woman who lived next to her and the nice couple across the hallway and cringed.
Opening her door, she made a jerking motion for him to come in. “Five minutes,” she warned as he stepped inside.
“Jesus, is this were you live?” He stepped over a box of her things.
She had yet to unpack, since she was on a month-to-month lease and wasn’t sure she could afford the place for much longer. Besides, she’d been thinking that if Brent fired her, she would move to the country somewhere. Maybe Oregon? Maybe Canada? She didn’t know, but whatever happened, she wouldn’t be able to afford the high rents in Seattle for much longer.
“What do you want?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
The one thing she had going for her was that her fuzzy pajamas were the least sexy thing she owned. They were made for comfort and not sex. Thankfully.
“Okay, I lied,” he said, turning on her. “I was hoping that you had changed your mind.” He tilted his head at her. “Where did you get those hideous things?” he asked, motioning to her pajamas with a frown.
She smiled and glanced down at them. “Do you like them? They were a happy divorce day present to myself.” She did a little spin, showing him the full effect of the two large bright smiley faces that covered her ass.
He shook his head and moved closer. “I meant what I said. I can give you… things. All I ask in return is for things to go back to the way they were.”
“You mean, physically?” she asked, standing her ground.
“Yes.” His dark eyes ran over her, and she was surprised to see sexual interest behind them. Instead of making her feel desired, as it used to, she felt nothing at all. Whatever she’d once felt for him had died long ago.
“Brent, it’s just not going to work. I can’t pretend that we don’t have a past. That you aren’t… you.”
His eyes changed, and she braced herself for the fight she knew was coming. Since that night, a little over three months ago, she knew better than to push him too much farther.
“I told you, I was under a lot of stress that night. I needed to blow off some steam.” He ran his hands through his hair and started pacing in her small apartment. “This is just a tiff. You’ll see, I’ve got everything under control again. Dad has officially made me head of the department, finally, and now we don’t have to struggle with money the way we were at the beginning.”
Money had been his excuse for pushing her and going too far that night when they’d fought. She’d come home from a long drive that had cleared her head to him sitting on the sofa with two women pleasing him. One had her mouth wrapped around his dick and the other was riding his face. A stack of cash and drugs had been spread all over their coffee table.
Eve hadn’t needed or wanted the big house, the new cars, or the debt. It had all been Brent’s doing, and he’d done it all behind her back, surprising her with the massive debt that he’d accumulated and then blamed on her.
Still, her eyebrows shot up at his use of the word we.
“Brent, there is no ‘we,’ anymore.” She held her ground. No matter how hot his eyes got, she could never imagine herself with him again. She’d been fooled by him once and wasn’t going to fall for the same tricks again.
He surprised her by laughing and motioning around. “You want to live in this rat cage for the rest of your life? Working a meaningless job flipping burgers for minimum wage?” He leaned closer to her and suddenly she smelled bourbon on his breath. She knew he only drank the expensive stuff, since she’d had to keep it stocked in their house. “Because trust me, darling, with my family’s connections, I can make that happen.” His hands moved to her shoulders.
Then, just as quickly as he’d grabbed her, he moved away, causing her to sway slightly.
“I’ll give you until the morning to answer me.” His eyes ran up and down her in disgust at her attire. “If you want your job and all the stipulations, then be at the office on time. If not”—he chuckled— “good luck trying to get another job in Seattle.” He turned and jerked open her door and disappeared through it.
2
Shaken
Eve tried to settle down, but her entire body vibrated with anger after Brent left. After a quick cleaning spree to work off her anger, she sat back down and started working on her laptop once again. By the time the sun was streaking in her small window, she felt she had a halfway decent resume ready.
When her phone rang, she ignored it, thinking it was the office checking on why she was late. But when it rang a second time, she glanced down at the screen and groaned when she saw her mother’s number.
Was it possible that her mother had already heard the news that she was jobless? Her family never gave up a chance to rub her lack of success in her face, even though they themselves lived off the kindness of Eve’s grandfather, Reggie, who owned and ran the very successful upstate resort Candlewood Inn, which had been in the family for several generations now.
When her parents had married, her mother had insisted on keeping the Candlewood name. Her father hadn’t argued. The young couple had moved into the inn shortly before Eve had been born and had yet to leave.
Along with her parents, her aunts, uncles, and her cousins all lived on the grounds, mooching off the wealth and success of the inn, using it as their very own private club and income, even though she knew firsthand that none of them lifted a finger to ensure the success of the business.
If word had already reached them that Brent had fired her, she was doomed to suffer the nagging and the many ‘I told you so’s’ from each and every one of them.
Closing her eyes, she leaned back and answered the call.
“Hello, Mother,” she said, trying to hide the annoyance in her voice.
She knew instantly that something was off when her mother sniffled in reply.
“Evelyn, Grandpa’s dead,” her mother blurted out.
Eve jerked up, sitting ramrod straight as her eyes flew open, unseeing.
Grandpa Reggie. The only family member in her life who had believed in her. The only person who had encouraged her to go to school, to pursue her own dreams. One of the only ones who had loved her was dead.
“Reach for the moon my girl and if you miss, grab hold of a star instead.” He’d said those words to her more times then she could count.
“Wh… what?” She shook her head, unable to accept what her mother was saying.
“Your grandfather passed away last night in his sleep,” she reiterated.
Eve closed her eyes as they started to burn. “How?”
“We don’t know. It must have been his heart. He was just… gone,” her mother said with a soft cry. “I found him… he hadn’t come down for his morning coffee and I went to check on him and…” She could hear her mother shift the phone. “You have to come home.”