Page 94 of Forget Me

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MATEO

I’d plannedto wake her up before I left for my seven o’clock shift at tía’s, but when my alarm went off, Mimi froze, Scooby Doo–style, in mid-tiptoe toward her jeans on the floor.

“Morning,” I mumbled, rolling over to turn on the lamp. We both blinked in the sudden light. “Do you have an early meeting today?”

“No, we’re meeting tonight.” She tugged on her jeans. “Now that the gala is two weeks away, we’re meeting every day. I need to finish up the foundation statements I was working on last night before I go to work.”

“And you do all this for free.” I’d meant it to come out light and joking, but my words were flat. Mimi deserved so much more than to run from her full-time job to a second part-time job. She deserved more than Larissa’s mean-girl veneer of sweetness that hid the foul scorn beneath. She deserved to be loved and appreciated. And paid for her work.

“I do it for the kids. And for the assistant director position.”

I couldn’t help it. The words exploded out of me. “Why would you want to be Larissa’s assistant?”

She didn’t say anything for a minute, reaching for her turtleneck and tugging it over her head. “I want to be paid for what I love to do.”

“Do you love to work for Larissa? Honestly?”

Her lower lip poked out, sexy and stubborn. “Larissa is driven, like me. I wish I had a career like hers. But what’s more important, I love to help kids, especially those with Tourette’s and other neurological differences. I support the foundation’s mission.”

“There are tons of foundations that help kids. Cooper contributes to several. He could get you a job, a paid one, at any of them.”

“You mean you could.” She put her hands on her hips.

I wished I wasn’t naked so I could— Fuck it. I leaped out of bed and marched around it until I faced her. I didn’t go toe-to-toe with her—I didn’t want to intimidate her—but I propped my hands on my hips to show her I was serious. “I could.”

Her gaze dropped from my face to my groin. Quickly, she ripped her eyes away and stormed out of the bedroom, a Valkyrie no less fearsome for her small size.

I followed. “Mimi, wait.”

She snatched her purse off the couch. “Mateo, I want to do this myself. I got this volunteer position, and I want to earn the assistant director role. I don’t want anything handed to me.”

“Ah.” Pride warmed my chest. My Mimi could do anything she set her mind to, and she wanted to prove that to the world. Who wouldn’t admire this amazing woman?

Larissa. That’s who.

“Mimi, you are a treasure. Everyone sees that. But Larissa wants to take your golden shine and tarnish it. She’ll never give you that job. Don’t you see that?”

She paused, her purse slung over her shoulder. “Larissa’s achieved what I could only wish to do. She might be cold, but she’s fair. She’s difficult to please, but she’ll consider me along with the other candidates, and if I’m the strongest, she’ll hire me.”

“Even if she does, she’ll keep you down. Take credit for your work. You can’t want that, can you?”

“Oh, that’s funny.” Her bark of a laugh had no humor in it. “Coming from you, always in your cousin’s shadow. Living in his guesthouse. Working security.” Her lips twisted like she wanted to take it back.

It was too late. She’d spoken her truth. Run me through with it, like my father’s razor-sharp plug cutter.

She didn’t respect me. She was no different from the people back on the island who liked me for my pretty face and the way I gave head. And I was no different from the randos she kept that bowlful of condoms for.

My words came out quiet through the needle-sized opening in my throat. “That’s what you think of me.”

She winced. “Not—Mateo, I…”

“So going to the gala with me, all this”—I gestured at my naked body—“was for show. To get you the assistant director job. What was going to happen after the gala?”

Her lips tightened, and I knew.

“You were going to dump me. After you pranced me out like a pony in a tux for Larissa, you were going to ghost me.”

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