Page 16 of Billionaire’s Game

She looked apologetic as she gingerly lowered herself into the seat I’d offered her seconds ago.

“I’m sorry I barked at you,” she said with a sigh as she placed her crutches on the side of her chair and took a deep breath. It was then that I noticed she had a cast on her right foot.

“What happened?” asked Lacey.

Maya sighed again and her shoulders slumped forward. Her eyes showed her annoyance as she started to recount the story.

“My stupid cat happened. Goldilocks, my cat, is easily startled. I mean, more than most cats. I dropped some change from my purse. The change hit the tile and I guess the sound freaked her out and she went sprinting across my apartment just as I was turning around. I tripped over her and my foot got caught on the leg of my sofa. And now I have broken bones. This sucks, sucks, sucks!”

“Ouch.”

“Never get a cat, Lesli.” Maya’s tone was mournful.

“I won’t.”

“Promise me,” Maya said dramatically.

“I promise.”

“Good. Now I can rest assured that no one else will suffer the same fate.” She tossed a hand across her forehead in a perfect woe-is-me kind of way. I made myself not smile. Yeah, she had a broken foot and some broken toes, but she was being pretty dramatic.

“You know what this means, don’t you, Lacey?” again Maya’s tone was sorrowful.

Lacey nodded. “You’re out of the competition.”

“Yes...” Maya moaned as if she was in pain. “My chance to be with Magnus is gone. Gone! Gone!”

She was practically howling now. She started to whimper when Jude appeared.

“What’s with all the howling? Did someone run over a cat?”

“More like a cat ran someone over,” Lacey said.

Jude noticed Maya’s foot. “What the heck happened to your foot? You can’t be on Brain Pain with a messed up foot. You can’t race on that.”

“No kidding, boss. Very astute observation.”

“I see you’re Miss Chipper this morning.”

“I have a broken foot, Jude, excuse me if I’m not a walking ball of sunshine. I. Can’t. Even. Walk.” She spoke each word with increasing anger, then folded her arms and glared at nothing in particular.

“Well, this is awkward,” Jude said nonchalantly. He turned to me. “Lesli, you’re up.”

“What?”

“You’re taking Maya’s place.”

“What? No... I can’t—”

“Why not?”

“Umm... Maya will be fine, right Maya?” She glared ahead and ignored me. Obviously, she wasn’t going to be much help. “I’m sure her foot will be fine. We just need to give her some time.”

“Oh my God, Lesli. Just take my place. This stupid cast isn’t coming off anytime soon. Apparently, my great love affair with Magnus just wasn’t meant to be,” she said, looking forlorn.

I didn’t know what to say, but apparently, Lacey did. “Give it a break, Maya. You met the guy for all of two seconds, that barely counts as a great love affair. That’s not even a mediocre love affair.”

“Ouch, Lacey. You just don’t understand what Magnus and I shared.”