“Make her stop being rude to me, Lenny,” Lori whined.
“You need to watch your tone, Cecelia,” Leonard warned.
“Or what? You’ll fire me?” Cece asked.
“Don’t think I won’t,” Leonard said. “Don’t destroy our working relationship just because you’re jealous that Lori has my… affection.”
Cece barked harsh laughter. “Jealous? You think I’m jealous of you and Lori? You’re fifty-fucking-three years old, Leonard, with a business you can barely keep in the black, and three ex-wives.”
Leonard’s lips thinned out as Lori made a soft squeak of surprise. “Lenny, honey, your plants are being weird.”
Cece glanced at the bookshelf where his plants were, in fact, being weird. They were wiggling and rocking back and forth on the bookshelf, their pots getting closer and closer to the edge.
“Why are they doing that, Lenny?” Lori asked.
He ignored her, glaring at Cece with hot contempt. “Say one more disparaging word about Lori or me, and I’ll fire you, Cecelia.”
“Fuck you, I quit.” Cece untied her apron and dropped it on the floor. She yanked open the door and stalked past Briggs, waiting in the hallway.
He followed her into the staff room, staring at her as she angrily punched in her locker code. “Little witch, what’s wrong?”
“I just quit my fucking job.” She grabbed her purse and her jacket from her locker.
“What?” Briggs stared at her in surprise. “What happened in there?”
The tears started, and she hitched in a breath as they dripped down her cheeks. “Please, just take me home, Briggs. Please?”
“Okay, baby,” he said softly. “Let’s go home.”
CHAPTER 22
“I’m really sorry, Cece,” Briggs said.
She nodded, staring into her mug of tea. She’d given Briggs a quick explanation of what happened on the drive home, but had gone to her bedroom as soon as they got home. She’d had a long, hot bath while she cried and cried and then cried some more. She had an emergency text session with Kinsley and Maisie, and then spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening wrapped in blankets in her bedroom, scrolling aimlessly through social media, missing both her aunt and Elora with a fierce ache that made her chest hurt, while she tried to pretend she hadn’t just blown up her entire life.
She hadn’t emerged from her bedroom until Briggs knocked on her door and told her dinner was ready. She came downstairs to discover Briggs had made a giant stir-fry. It was good, and she told him so, but her queasy stomach hadn’t allowed her to eat very much.
Briggs hadn’t been upset by her lack of eating. He’d simply put the leftovers in the fridge and then made her a cup of tea.
Now, sipping hot tea in her cold kitchen, her head aching and her nose all stuffed up, Cece didn’t know whether to laugh or start crying again when all the lights went out in the kitchen, and the hum of the refrigerator died.
“Shit,” she said.
Briggs was already on high alert as he stood and moved to the window. He stared out into the darkness as Cece turned on her phone’s flashlight. “The breaker blew. It happens all the time because my house is a complete disaster.”
“Where’s the breaker box?”
“Basement,” she said. “I’ll be right back.”
“I’m going with you,” he said.
She didn’t argue. She wanted Briggs with her, wanted the comfort she got just from being around him.
Five minutes later, the lights were back on, she was sitting on the sectional in front of a roaring fire, and Briggs was making her a fresh cup of tea. He brought the tea to her, and she took it with a smile of thanks.
He sat on the other end of the sectional, keeping a healthy distance between them. “You know your boss is an asshole, right?”
“Yeah,” she said. “The worst part is, Leonard wasn’t always an asshole. He just… changed, and I didn’t want to see it because I loved my job, you know?”
