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My expenses weren’t high, but my savings were meager, and if I was unemployed, they wouldn’t last long. I wouldn’t even be able to afford my shared apartment after a few months. Maybe I could clean up my act, go back to the bank, beg them for forgiveness. But then I’d be back to working with Josh every day.
Maybe I could swallow my pride, my self-worth, and do it. Maybe I should, even though I’d have to see Josh all the time. Maybe even with Gina. Would I see him with Gina?
They weren’t very discreet,Dar had said.
I frowned at the ceiling. That still didn’t sit quite right. I’d worked at the bank for months, and I’d never seen Gina there. How were Josh and Gina not very discreet?
Then, Josh.Don’t say anything at work.And his little freak out.Who told? What did they say?
I’d thought it strange that he was worried about our coworkers knowing about Gina, especially if he wasn’t discreet in the first place.
Unless… it wasn’t Gina he was worried about.
A dark, creeping suspicion made its way up my spine.
Still lying on my back, I picked up my phone and called Dar’s cell phone.
“Hey,” she said, her voice hushed. “Hold on.” I heard shuffling, then the familiar squeak of the women’s room door at the bank. Every woman who needed a private conversation, away from management, used that women’s room. “Okay,” Dar said, her tone more normal now. “Jeez, Evie, I heard what happened. I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”
“I’m all right,” I said, though I didn’t really think I was. “I just lost my temper, you know? It’s for the best that they sent me home for a few days. I don’t think I can work with Josh right now.”
“I totally don’t blame you,” Dar said. “This fucking sucks. If it’s any consolation, I think he’s an idiot to lose you over her.”
“Thanks,” I said. It wasn’t much of a compliment, considering Dar had known Josh was cheating on me for God knew how long, but hadn’t seen fit to tell me. Still, I’d called her for a reason. “Can you just tell me one thing? Then I won’t suck you into my drama anymore.”
“Sure,” she said, though she didn’t sound sure at all.
“Just tell me how they met.”
She sighed. “I think it was around Valentine’s Day. You remember when we had those paper hearts up everywhere, and a cake for all the customers?”
“Yeah,” I said as the air slowly closed off in my throat. “I remember.”
“Well, all I know is that Gail sent Alison to pick up the cake, and Josh went with her. And they were gone fortwo hours.It was so strange, everyone had started talking about it, but when they came back they acted all casual, even though everyone knew. And after that, it got out through the grapevine that they were seeing each other, so I knew I guessed right.”
Alison. She was talking about Alison Shepard, another teller. She thought Josh was cheating with Alison, not Gina.
Or he was cheating with AlisonandGina.
There were two of them.
Where the hell had I been on Valentine’s Day? I remembered. Sitting in my cubicle, doing my job as always. Oblivious to what was going on around me because I thought it completely innocent that my boyfriend had gone to pick up the cake.
“Okay,” I said. I had that crazy, curiously numb feeling I’d had when I’d walked into Josh’s apartment and seen him with Gina. Like this was happening to someone else. “I guess I just wanted to know how it happened. Thanks for letting me know.”
“If there’s anything I can do—”
I hung up. I wasn’t crying. I wasn’t even hyperventilating. I felt like someone had shot me in the arm with Novocaine. Through the blankness, a thought bubbled up. Something I realized I wanted.
I called Nick Mason.
“Yeah?” he said. He sounded like maybe he’d been sleeping. It was two o’clock in the afternoon. Then again, he usually sounded like that. And I was in bed in my underwear, so I couldn’t throw stones.
“It’s me,” I said.
“I know, redhead. You at work?”
Why did I like it when he called me that? When he didn’t use my name? He knew my name—he’d said it plenty of times. But when he called meredhead, I got chills up my spine. “I’m not at work,” I told him. “They sent me home.”
