Page 39 of Forbidden Heart

By the time I manage to get an interview somewhere, and a job, and my first paycheck, it could be weeks. And I can’t bear not to have the cold pieces of my onyx heart grazing my collarbone, not when they’re such a huge part of who I am.

I can’t start my new life without my necklace. These onyx fragments are literally all I have to my name, and I have to be the one who fixes them. If I ask the guys to pay for it, it wouldn’t be a new beginning. If I can make this happen myself, it will be.

I let myself slip into a trance, humming comforting songs and clinging to hope in any way I can. Eyeing the clock, I feel like Cinderella, watching the seconds tick to midnight.

At long last, the jeweler emerges from the back room with a piece of paper.

“We’ve never had anybody ask to pay for their order like this before,” he says, which does not surprise me in the slightest. “However, I can get you on payroll as a trainee.”

“You can?” The smile I shoot him is so bright, I can practically feel myself glowing. Like a princess hit with a magic spell that’s about to make her dreams come true.

“Fill this out, bring it back, and you’re hired. Temporarily, of course.” He nudges a piece of paper across the counter toward me. It’s an application form.

I gasp. Forgetting myself, I jump into the air. I want to hug him, but I stop myself just in time.

“Oh, thank you,” I breathe. I wonder if he realizes he’s just made all my dreams come true. My fairy godmother is an old jeweler in a black blazer. Who knew?

Floating on air, I thank my fairy godblazer once again and dance out the door.

Chapter 16

I head back to the apartment for lunch, unwilling to spend a single penny on food when I need it to fix my fractured heart. I take my time filling out the application, put on some more of my lucky lip-gloss, and make my way to the jewelry store.

The bell jingles happily above my head, and I feel like I’m entering an enchanted kingdom. The gold and diamonds sparkling around me lend generously to that notion.

“Hello?” I call out, since, once again, there’s no sign of my fairy godblazer.

Seconds pass in silence, and then he ducks out from the back room and greets me with an ivory smile.

“There you are,” he says cheerfully, as if greeting an old friend. I return the smile and hand him my application.

“Hello,” I say softly. I don’t remember his name, though. Did he even tell me his name? I can’t very well call him fairy godblazer for the next three hours.

“Roonie...” he nods, reading my name off the application, and then extends his hand. “I’m Anderson.”

“Like Hans Christian Andersen?” Creator of fairy tales? My eyes widen as I grip his hand and try to follow the rhythm of his bouncy handshake.

“With an ‘o’, but yes.” He shoots me another ivory smile and gestures for me to follow him around the back counter. I do so.

I’ve never been in an employees-only area before. It feels one-part Cinderella at the ball, and one-part dream come true.

We head into the back room, passing shelf after shelf of neatly packed boxes, and head toward a door at the back. He holds the door open for me, and I enter an office area with papers posted all over the cork board and a surprisingly old computer sitting on a cluttered desk.

Anderson files my application in a wall-mounted folder and turns to me.

“And that concludes our tour,” he says, gesturing for me to follow him back out into the store.

Hurriedly, I follow.

“All you have to do is clean. If any customers come in, just holler.” He stops at a supply closet. Inside are the familiar tools of my old trade: a vacuum cleaner, paper towel, cleaning spray, things like that. Definitely Cinderella. “Start at this shelf over here and work your way around. I’ll be in the back. I have a backlog of orders, and I want to have them and your necklace done before closing.”

I dutifully nod.

“You’ve got everything you need then?” Anderson asks.

I nod again.

“Good stuff.” He claps his hands and disappears into the back room. Guess that’s that.