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I huff out a breath. “Okay. Well… could you take me?”
“I have to get the kids to day camp. It’s an hour drive away, so we’re leaving in five minutes. Can you be ready in five?”
I don’t need to look down at my naked body or the puddle of water gathering under my feet to know I will most certainly not be ready in five minutes. “Definitely not. I’m going to need thirty minutes, at least.”
“Well, Mitchell has an old bike in the garage,” Lana offers. “But the tires are probably flat. And the road is going to be swamped from all that rain last night. It hasn’t rained like that in years.”
The positivity from my call with Harmony this morning is chipping away bit by bit. Today is supposed to be a fresh start. But it feels like more of the same old crap.
“Um. No thanks, but that’s okay. I guess I’ll just order a car or something.”
Lana snorts. “Good luck. This neighborhood is an Uber dead zone. Last time I tried to get one, no one would take the pick up because it was such a long drive.”
“I guess that’s what happens when everyone up here has a car to take to work, a car to drive the kids, and one that can sit in a specialty shop half the time.”
It all sounds more bitter than I meant it to. I’m about to apologize, but Lana starts talking before I can. “At least we have a car of our own,” she snaps. “I’ll make sure our lives don’t interfere in your schedule in the future.”
Before I can say anything, she hangs up.
“Damn it.” I slam the phone down on the hook.
I want to call her back to apologize, but there isn’t time. I pad back to the bathroom and grab my towel and my phone. Lana wasn’t wrong—we’re in a rideshare dead zone. The closest car can’t be here for forty-five minutes. Which would only give me fifteen minutes to make the twenty minute drive to work.
“How can I wake up before the sun and still be late?” I whimper.
There’s nothing I can do about it now. I don’t have a phone number for anyone at the house where I’ll be working, so I can’t let them know I’ll be late. And unfortunately, five-star driver Leighton R. and her white Nissan crossover are my last resort.
I blow dry my hair, put on some simple and understated makeup, and then pull on jeans and a button-down. The woman who called to offer me the job said uniforms would be provided, but I still want to make a good impression.
I’m standing outside with a travel coffee mug in my hand when Leighton pulls up to the curb five minutes behind schedule.
“Sorry I’m late,” she says through her rolled-down window. The girl can’t be much older than the minimum requirement. I’d say twenty, if I’m being generous. Her hair is twisted into twin braids and she has fake diamonds glued to the corners of her eyes. “I was running on a caffeine deficit. An iced coffee was critical.”
I grind my teeth and climb in the backseat. “That’s fine. But I’m running late, too. If you could hurry.”
“Yeah, of course.” She taps the gas, but then hits the brakes quickly. “I forgot music. Do you like Bedroom Pop? Or Indie?”
The sudden start and stop sends coffee splashing out of my cup and down the front of my pale pink shirt.
Calming breaths, Ray. Take several deep, calming breaths. Do not strangle your Uber driver. Do not commit any felonies.
“I don’t care. Either is fine with me. Or nothing. I just need to get to—”
“Right. Sorry,” she says.
She starts some music and hits the gas just as abruptly. Another slosh of coffee burns down my hand and stains my sleeve.
So much for a fresh start.
* * *
I’m so late that I barely even glance up at the mansion in front of me.
Leighton is going on and on about it as we wind up the long driveway. “… I drive by places like this, but I’ve never seen past the gates. It’s huge. There could be an entire football field in this front lawn. And look at all those windows. How many bedrooms are there?”
I did my best to dab at the worst of the coffee stain on the drive with a few napkins I found wedged under Leighton’s driver seat, but it’s no good. Thank goodness I’ll be given a uniform inside. But still, my first impression is shot to hell.
“I don’t know. Today is my first day.”
