Page 28 of The Billionaire's Masquerade Ball

It felt strange not to say anything to Xander, but she couldn’t look at him again. She needed to focus on her job and was thankful for the escape it provided.

She pointed to the three servers who came in with Matt. “Go home. You’re done for the night,” Cynder said sharply.

“But—”

“If you want to keep your jobs, you’ll leave now. That’s no guarantee you will keep them, but if you don’t go now, you definitely won’t.”

One of the women looked sorry, but the other two looked mad, dropping their trays on the counter and storming out. Cynder grabbed Matt’s arm. “Let’s go. You and I should be able to do some damage control, right?”

“We can try,” he said.

Cynder fought the urge to look back as Xander called out, “Thanks for fixing up my arm! It was good to meet you, Cynder.”

Instead of turning, she lifted a hand in a quick goodbye and bolted from the kitchen. As they left the kitchen and entered the service hallway, Matt turned his head back toward the kitchen. “Was that…?”

“Our client,” Cynder said with clenched teeth. “So, we’ll see if any of us still have jobs next week.”

But Cynder was not concerned about her job for the first time. She was worried about her heart.

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