“What do we do?”
“BURN!” More shrieking.
“Light it up!” And that was their cue to take the field, cheering.
“Don’t look at me like that, Kus.” Olivia glared at the feline staring down at her from the cat tree. Kusanagi had been giving her the cat equivalent of the cold shoulder. The fancy treats Jake had bought her were all gone, and now the damn cat was too good for the grocery store brand. And she made her displeasure known in several ways. Olivia had the claw marks to prove she’d tried to give her the inferior treats.
“You’re supposed to be onmyside here, cat. Don’t you realize how badly he hurt me? Or do you just not care?”
Kusanagi just stared.
“The latter, huh? Traitor.”
It probably hadn’t helped her case that she’d woken up late to feed the beast, again. After the conversation with Jake, he and Caleb had left the bar while the girls stuck around through a third pitcher. Olivia sipped at a glass of water and willed the aspirin to take effect.
Her phone alerted her to an incoming text message. A new one from Jake. But this one had a photo attached.That better not be a dick pic.
It wasn’t. She should have known him better than that. No, instead of a crass photo of his genitalia, Jake had gone straight for the jugular. A photo of the little Dragons shaking hands with their opponents and the scoreboard in the background popped up on her screen, followed by a message.
Jake: They asked where you were today. Don’t worry, I told them it was my fault. But they miss you.
Jake: I miss you, too.
The scoreboard showed the Dragons had been soundly beaten by whatever team they had played. The kids’ faces were somber, but no tears appeared. That was evidence of Jake’s good coaching. He was a good role model for them.
There she went thinking about Jake with kids again. Damn it.
Should she answer? Olivia wasn’t even sure what to say. She sighed and scrolled through Netflix, but nothing sparked her interest.
The kids missed her. Jake missed her. He’d made that clear last night. She still couldn’t believe she’d let the “L” word slip to him. She needed to get over her feelings for him so she could move on.
A knock came on her door. “Hey, you alive in there?”
She opened the door to find Nadia, Mia, and Jade. “Yeah, I’m alive. How was your date, Mia?”
“It went well. But we’re actually not here to talk about boys.” Olivia cocked her head at Mia. Too bad that’s all she could think about.
“I had an idea about what we discussed at Fabled last night,” Nadia said, leaning in. “Girl, you look like shit.”
“I don’t think tequila likes me.” Olivia opened the door wide and waved her friends inside. “What about last night? Besides you and Caleb going at it like an old married couple?”
“Ugh, thatjerk! He thinks he’s God’s gift to women and I was just taking him down a peg.”
“I didn’t realize you had that much time with him.” Olivia sat down on her couch, Jade on one side, Mia on the other while Nadia sat cross-legged on the carpet.
“You were talking to Jake a while,” Jade whispered.
“What’s the idea, Nad?”
Nadia took a deep breath. “You should quit your job.”
“Quit my job? Are youinsane?” Olivia nearly spat out her drink. “I have loans to pay.”
“Plenty of graphic designers make a living as freelancers. You could go into business for yourself and work from home.”
“What am I supposed to do about my bills, though? No, I can’t stand CBSN anymore. But I can’t just up andquit!” It had been a long time coming. Slowly the job at the station had eaten away at her happiness. This business with hiring her new manager from outside the organization was just the last straw.
“So do it gradually. Build your business on the side and then when you’re ready, quit. Pay off your debts while you have the CBSN job, then you won’t have as many worries,” Nadia said.
