“Girl, I bet you don’t even have to ask him. I bet he’d do it as a six-month anniversary gift or something.”
“Well … maybe,” she admitted.
“Oh my gosh, he hasn’t done it already has he?”
“We haven’t even been together for six months yet.” She laughed. “So no, I won’t let him pay it off.”
“But he’s already brought it up?”
“Yeah, he’s generous, but you know I’m not going to just have him paying off my stuff. I’m not in the relationship because he’s rich.”
“I know,” I sighed, “and that’s why he loves you. Because you truly aren’t with him because of what he can do for you.”
“I’m truly not. I love him for who he is, and he just so happens to be rich as well.”
“Nice work if you can get it,” I laughed. “So I have a couple of different outfits that I’m thinking about wearing tomorrow. You guys will have to tell me which one you think looks the best.”
“Ooh, I can’t wait. And where’s the pizza, Isabella? I’m hungry.”
“I ordered it. It should be here any minute now.”
“What did you get?” I said, excitedly.
“I got anchovies and pineapple.”
“Anchovies and pineapple?” Emma made a face. “That sounds absolutely disgusting.”
“Well, I heard it’s really good. And you know how much Abby loves trying new pizzas.”
“That we do,” Emma agreed.
It was well known among my friends that I was an adventurous eater. I always liked to try new things, especially on pizza. I love to try different topping combinations, even if they sounded gross.
“I think it sounds delicious,” I said. “I’m going to try on the first outfit and you guys can tell me what you think, okay?”
“Sounds good,” Isabella said. “And I have a bottle of wine. Actually, Jack sent it over. He sends his regards.”
“He is too sweet.” I sighed. “Ugh, maybe I should have set him up with myself.”
“Maybe you should have.” She lifted an eyebrow. “Do you regret it?”
“No way.” I shook my head. “He was made for you. We all can see that.”
“Yeah. You guys are perfect together,” Emma said. “Chloe and I were talking about it, and you’ve actually made us believe in love again.”
“No way.” Isabella blushed, but I could tell she was happy.
None of us had ever expected to really and truly meet the loves of our lives. Yeah, we always talked about it, but I think that secretly we’d always figured we’d just date around and continue living with each other and complaining about men. But when Isabella had met Jack and it worked out, it had given all of us hope. Even I was secretly hoping that I’d meet someone. The one good thing about Isabella moving out was that we all had our own bedrooms now. We’d been four girls in a three-bedroom apartment, but now we each had a bedroom. So now we could invite people over to hang out without it being awkward.
I jumped up. “Hold on, guys. Let me go and try on my first outfit.” I ran to my bedroom excitedly. I liked to look good. I liked to wear clothes that flattered me. At five foot five, I wasn’t very tall, and at 160 pounds, I was a little bit, shall we say, curvy. I loved my body, but I couldn’t get away with the sort of outfits that really skinny girls could get away with. I had boobs and a waist and I had hips for days, and I had long legs but thicker thighs. So I wasn’t comfortable wearing really tight clothes because they emphasized my large butt too much, and I wasn’t really comfortable wearing short skirts because, well, I didn’t want to show too much leg. Anyway, I was going to be working at a Fortune 500 corporation, and I was pretty sure that HR would frown upon me dressing too skimpily.
I put on the first suit that I’d gotten at Nordstrom’s and smiled at myself in the mirror. It was a tailored power suit that showed off my curves without showing too much skin. I looked professional but still sexy.
My phone beeped as I put on the outfit and I grabbed it as I walked back into the living room. “So what do you guys think of this one?”
Isabella whistled as I walked into the living room. “Girl, are you going to the catwalk or what?”
“Just wait till Chloe sees you,” Emma added. “You look amazing.”
“You don’t think I look professional?”
“I mean, it’s sexy, but it’s not too sexy,” Isabella said quickly. “I think it’s perfect for the office.”
“Me too, girl,” Emma agreed. “You look like a hot young executive.”
“Hold on.” I glanced at my phone. “I’ve got a text message from the HR department. They said to check my email.”
“Uh oh.” Isabella frowned. “I hope that’s not something bad.”
“Me too. I hope they haven’t delayed my start date again. It’s so annoying.”
“Why did they delay it the first time again?” Emma said.
“I don’t know, something about him being on a business trip, and he didn’t want his new secretary to start while he wasn’t in the office. I’m not really sure. It didn’t make sense to me, but I’m gathering by the way everything is run that he’s super OCD and type A.”
“Oh, I can’t stand type-A bosses,” Emma said.
“Me neither, but for this amount of money, I guess I can put up with it.”
“True that,” Isabella laughed.
I opened the email and read it quickly. “Okay, so they sent me an attachment of files. There’s some tips and pointers from the previous secretaries that worked for him, I guess to help me.”
“Oh, that’s weird,” Emma said. “I’ve never heard of that.”
“I think it’s pretty standard,” Isabella said. “So that she knows what projects they were working on and that sort of thing.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Emma said. “So what do they have to say?”
I opened it and frowned. “Okay, guys, this is a little bit weird.”
“Why?” Isabella said, and they all came and huddled around me.
“So the first attachment is things to be wary of when working for Dylan McAllister.”
Isabella’s eyebrows rose. “Okay, so maybe that doesn’t sound so good. What does it say?”
“First thing first it says, Dress like a mousy librarian. Trust me, you do not want him to be on you about your attire. What the hell does that mean?”
“I think it means you’re not going to be able to wear that outfit,” Emma said, shaking her head. “Because you don’t look anything like a mousy librarian in that get-up.”
“What else does it say?” Isabella said.
“Okay.” I read quickly. “It says, ‘Never be late. Make sure to do everything that he asks of you the first time. Always take his calls, even if it’s the middle of the night.’ Why would he be calling me in the middle of the night? I thought this was a nine to five.”
“Uh oh,” Emma said.
“What?”