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I cleared my throat. “Why are you telling me this?” I asked. “You’re not planning on doing something stupid, are you? You work for a huge firm, Tobias. You know we can’t afford to have you going on a killing spree in your little sister’s honor. She’s a big girl now. Let her handle herself. She’ll get over it. Everyone does. You can’t be her own personal superhero forever.”
“Oh, shut up,” Tobias said.
I laughed.
“Anyway,” he continued, “I’m telling you because she’s coming here.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Here? To my office?”
“Here to work for us.”
I tilted my head to the side. “What’s she got a background in again?”
“She’s a financial planner. You know how smart she is. She’ll make a great asset. We need someone to help us keep track of these numbers. I get a headache just thinking about it.”
Numbers gave me a headache too, but I wasn’t sure I was willing to put up with Joanna and her Miss-Know-It-All attitude; that was likely to give me even more of a headache. I fought hard to keep the sneer off my face at the thought of her being in our workplace, breathing down our backs and trying to tell us how to do our job. “I’m not sure I’m following. What does breaking up with her boyfriend have to do with her needing to work here?”
“She was living with Zander and now that she’s leaving him, she needs to relocate and find work elsewhere. They were in Miami and she doesn’t want to stay out there by herself. She needs to get away from him. So I told her to come stay with me and to work for us until she gets herself back on her feet. I offered to just give her whatever she needed, but she wouldn’t go for that. You know how she can be.”
“Oh yeah, I definitely know how she can be,” I muttered.
“Well, I just wanted to give you a heads up since she’ll be around soon. You’re okay with this, right?”
I gave a tight-lipped grin while images of the snotty little girl I knew drifted through my mind. The girl that used to turn her nose up at me and complain about me being too loud while she was studying. The girl who used to turn every differing opinion into a debate of some sort. If I was not mistaken, she had once called me a chauvinist pig. Yet she insisted on staying around me, likely just to spite me.
“Yeah, I’m cool with it,” I lied, because I knew there was nothing else I could say. After all, Tobias was like my brother, which made Joanna my sister by default even if I didn’t like it. “Gotta look out for family, right?”
Tobias smiled. “Thanks, man. I knew you would understand.”
“Of course,” I said, although my throat felt a little tight. I reached for the bottle of water at the corner of my desk and took a long sip. “Just out of curiosity, how long do you anticipate her working with us?”
Tobias stood and shrugged his shoulders. “Who knows? Probably not long though. Joanna has always been independent, so I’m sure she’ll be moving along as soon as she can. This is just a temporary fix. Anyway, I’ll talk to you later.”
“All right,” I said as Tobias left my office.
I knew he had a point though. Joanna wouldn’t be around long. The more I thought about it, the more insignificant the situation felt. Not before long, I got back to work, no longer caring about what was going on with Joanna one way or another.
CHAPTER 3
Joanna
It was funny how a week could feel so slow and long at the same time, but that was precisely how I felt after staying with my brother. Tobias was accommodating as usual, but there was still a lot of adjustment. First, the simple transition of moving back to Chicago after living in Miami was a lot to adapt to on its own. When I added in the fact that I’d left a good job and a beautiful apartment—sometimes it felt too much to bear. Yet I kept reminding myself that it was for the best; no job, apartment, or beautiful climate was worth me being unhappy, terrorized, and battered.
I hadn’t seen my brother in a while, but I should have known his taste was as extravagant as always, especially now that he had such abundant funds to back it up. After leaving the airport, I took an Uber to his place even though he had offered to have someone get me.
“Tobias, I’m grown. I don’t need you sending me chaperones,” I had told him.
“Your age has nothing to do with it. You’re just stubborn. Fine, suit yourself.”
“Is this where you’re going, miss?” the Uber driver asked as he pulled up in front of my brother’s mansion with its perfect lawn.
I looked down at the address Tobias had texted to my phone. “Yep.”
The driver let out a low and impressed whistle. “Wow. Must be nice being you,” he said.
I huffed. “Looks aren’t always what they seem,” I muttered, readjusting the sunglasses on my face and then letting myself out of the car. “Thanks for the ride.”
“No problem. Need any help with your luggage?”
