I sit up. “Simone could have. She would have known You Oughta Know would be there and would have had her removed before she even made it to the microphone.”
Sam scrunches her face. “How could Simone have known that?”
“She has eyes in the back of her head. Or superpowers. The only supernatural thing I’ve got is a stupid dating curse.”
Sam shakes her head in response.
I know I’m being ridiculous. I doubt Simone would have predicted that the obnoxious influencer would have been there. But in my heart of hearts, I just know that things would have gone differently if she were in charge.
Sam reaches over and pats me on the head. Like a dog. “So, what are you going to do? What’s your next plan of attack?”
“Quit and become a mattress tester,” I say.
“Is that a real job?”
“Yes. I looked it up—sleep product tester or mattress evaluator. Why didn’t I think to get into that industry instead of this one?”
“Because you would have been bored in any other job.”
“You don’t know that. I might have been very happy lying on mattresses all day.”
I stand up now because the counter is actually very uncomfortable.
“So what’s the plan?” she asks, mistaking my standing up for motivation when really I was considering getting back in my bed. Might as well start the mattress testing with the one I already own.
“I don’t have one,” I say. “If we make a statement, the fans will just point to the stranger danger hug to discount whatever we say.”
Sam makes a snort laugh at the name of the hug. “Why is that so perfect? Sometimes the internet makes me proud to be human.”
I scowl at her, even though I agree. I, too, laughed when I first saw the nickname.
“Okay, so then do something out of the box,” she says. “Give them the old Claire special.”
I squint. “Claire special?”
“Yeah,” she says, with a nod. “Do that thing where you come up with something amazing that saves the day at the last minute.”
“That’s never been me. That’s all been luck,” I say.
“That wasn’t luck,” she says. “That was all you.”
I give her my very best side-eye.
“You know,” she says. “Sometimes the hardest part of the problem is accepting that you’re the one who has to solve it.”
“Let me guess? Therapy?”
She gives me a shrug. “That one was from my mom, actually.”
I smile, despite how I’m feeling. “She’s a smart woman.”
“She is. But please never tell her that. It’ll go to her head.”
I get ready and head into the office because Sam is right. I need to do something.
But “something” didn't take me to work. It took me down the 170 to the 101, off at Highland, south into Hancock Park. To a craftsman bungalow with a wide front porch and mature trees blocking most of the street view.
Where Simone lives.
