“I have a feeling he’s still too much work, even if it’s a different kind of work. I’m exhausted.”
“You’re telling me.”
Lily-Grace held back the thought bubbling to the surface. Jenny had been in a decades-long entanglement with one of the maintenance supervisors who worked over at the ranch—Vinny Avila. Currently they were in an off period that they both knew would only last so long. She wanted to tell Jenny to throw down the gauntlet and make things official with the man once and for all, but she knew how Jenny’s mind worked. She’d make the move when she was good and ready, and apparently she wasn’t ready.
“You talk to Vinny today?” she asked, though, just to test the water, just to be sure.
“I sent him a picture of my tits and then told him to leave me alone.”
“Very mature. I like it.”
“Whatever, he can bite me.” Jenny closed her menu then rested her chin on her hands. “So tell me what happened with McHottie.”
“Ugh.” The pain flashed in the middle of her chest. “You know I hate being wrong.”
“I do.”
“I was really wrong about him and now I’m just trying to figure out if I saw the red flags and just ignored them or if I finally found the secret to his shittiness. I don’t know. I told him, ya know. I said this bad thing happened to me. It hurt. It made me feel unsure and that was on top of other not great stuff going on at Ulway. And he just—he dismissed it.”
“Can we go like, key his private jet or something?”
“His boat. He’s a boat guy.”
“I’m sorry, babe. I’m sorry all that shit happened and I’m sorry he didn’t show up to support you. Let’s go key his boat.”
Lily-Grace couldn’t help but smile, because she knew Jenny was serious. She’d take that road trip in a heartbeat. “Not worth it. He’ll just have to suffer without me in his life.”
“Well, good. You deserve so much better. You deserve the best.”
“Thank you, love.”
“So are you going back?”
“Honestly, I don’t know.” She didn’t know how to say out loud that she didn’t want to go back. Since she’d been home, it had become more and more clear just how much she’d missed her father. When she was thirteen, she wanted to go away to school. Charming Middle had been an absolute nightmare. There was no way in hell she was going to take her chances at Charming High, especially when her father told her he had more than enough money to cover her tuition at Phillips Exeter.
She remembered how light she’d felt after she’d walked out of her final interview, knowing she’d nailed it, knowing she was finally getting the hell away from Charming. But boarding school hadn’t been everything she thought it would be. She missed her dad like crazy, and if she thought the kids in Charming were cruel, there was nothing like being asked about your vitiligo by rich white kids.
It took some time, but she finally found her place, made some friends, connected with teachers who wanted her to do well. She made it through, but the experience changed her. She shut parts of herself away, and in some ways that prepared her for the future. There was no way to be an open, vulnerable Black woman in tech. No way. But here she was, years later, proud of what she’d done for herself, and no clue of what she should do next. God willing, she had more than half of her life ahead of her. Maybe the next round, she wouldn’t spend her time or her brain cells making rich white guys even richer.
“Too bad there aren’t any booming tech companies here in Charming,” Jenny said.
“Yeah, I might be done with that.”
“Well, if anyone can career hop, it’s you. What are you thinking?”
“I might ... I might retire.”
“Bitch, what?” Jenny hissed, leaning across the table.
Lily-Grace winced as she offered up the truth. “I can retire. Like right now.”
“Jesus. Why didn’t I help start an app worth a gazillion dollars? Stupid family business.”
“Awesome family business is more like it.”
Right then a server made his way over and presented Lily-Grace with a bottle of pinot. “Excuse me, Ms. LeRoux. The gentleman, Mr. Pleasant, sent this over with a message.”
“Oh God,” Lily-Grace groaned as Jenny covered her mouth to laugh. “What did he say?”
