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I threw my purse on the floor and kicked the door shut. The past week had been full of rejection. I hadn’t even gotten a real interview. I’d hit every political job opening from assistant campaign manager to coffee runner and no one wanted anything to do with me.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as I hit the door, then turned around and slid down to sit. My phone rang for the fourth time today with an anonymous number. After making the mistake of answering the first anonymous call last week, I’d learned my lesson and hadn’t answered since.
Glancing around the four walls that Hazel, Amy, and I had shared, a chill pricked my skin. This was once my home and now it no longer felt like a warm sanctuary. My entire apartment was packed up in boxes. Hazel was leaving. Hell, I was leaving, I just didn’t have a destination yet. The few studio apartments I could afford required pay stubs.
I leaned my head back on the door and laughed at the ceiling. “I have no job and no place to live.” It wasn’t until I said it out loud that I realized how scary a notion that was.
The door nudged and bumped me. I stood up and Hazel walked in with Amy behind her.
“Hey! How did the job hunt go?” Amy asked, and hugged me quickly.
I looked at my feet and shook my head. The truth of my situation was wearing me down and while I was an honest person, I typically kept the unflattering details to myself. Hazel and Amy knew about the scandal involving Bill, but unless Roman told Amy everything, which I doubted, they didn’t know about the money or the fact there were questionable pictures of me with Bill. Yes, there was a legal aspect to this situation, but I truly believed Roman wouldn’t tell Amy about my struggles. Partly because he respected my privacy and partly because he’d made a point from the beginning to stay out of my and Amy’s friendship. Something I appreciated.
“I’m unhirable. No one will touch me. As soon as they learn about my connection with Bill Vorse, all the red flags go up.”
“They can’t discriminate against you,” Amy said. “I’ve watched the news, Paige. You’re not one of those girls. This is just unfortunate but it will clear up, and when it does, you’ll be fine.”
Yeah, Amy didn’t know. Didn’t realize the press was already digging for more. Going through Bill’s entire office, staff, people directly and indirectly linked to him. My phone chirped again as if mocking me. Likely another journalist. On the grand scale of things, I wasn’t that exciting, not when there were interns with juicy stories to dish. They were still the focus, at least for now.
I wanted to believe Amy though. That this would blow over and I’d be fine. But the truth was, I might be done in politics for good. Everything I’d built and worked for was slipping further away.
“In the meantime, no one will hire me because of how it looks. And I can’t blame them.” Once upon a time, I was the one telling Amy that perception tended to matter more than the truth. And the past week was another demonstration of that fact.
Hazel patted my shoulder. “You can come stay with me.”
“I thought you were moving to a dorm on campus. Are the rules strict on that?”
“We’ll just have to be careful.”
“You mean sneaking me in and out?”
“We’ll make it work, Paige.” Hazel’s smile was sunshine, rainbows, and everything happy in life. She was trying to help. I knew that. Loved her for it. But there was no way I’d put e
verything Hazel had worked for on the line. If she got caught “harboring” someone in her dorm, providing room and board on the university’s dime, she could get kicked out. Nope. We wouldn’t even risk it. I’d been in this kind of mess before and managed to start over just fine.
“I really appreciate it, Haz, but I’ll be fine,” I said, straightening my shoulders and giving my best smile.
“Why don’t you come stay with me then?” Amy said. “We have so much room.”
I shook my head. “That’s not a good idea, Amy.”
“Why?” She frowned.
Even if I’d wanted to, technically Amy lived at the governor’s mansion. If I moved in, it would be really bad for the governor, especially when dealing with missing campaign funds and a sex scandal in his office.
“Moving me in will look bad.”
“You’re not named and you didn’t sleep with Bill,” Amy defended. She always had hope. Always believed the best even when reality was harsh. “There’s no way I’m letting my best friend go homeless.”
“No one will go homeless,” Roman said, walking through the front door. My heart lurched because it was the first time I’d seen my former boss since the scandal broke. “Sweetheart, can you take that small box right there to the moving truck?” he asked Amy.
Amy eyed Roman then me and smiled. She obviously was thinking there would be a happy exchange between Roman and me. I, however, knew better. Not because Roman was a bad guy—on the contrary. He was wonderful. But he had a cabinet to run and a state to think about.
“I’ll grab this one too,” Hazel said and both she and Amy went outside.
Roman stepped toward me. “You can’t stay with us,” he said softly.
“I know, Governor. I was trying to tell Amy that.”
