Page 29 of Over My Dead Boss
Olivia: Your dinner will be there shortly. They put it on your tab. I know the company is in a rough spot at the moment, but it will be fine, Isabella. I think I hunted down the lawyer who is in charge of Mr. Cyrus’s estate. They’re not very cooperative, but with a little more time, I am sure I can get hold of the manuscript. I’ll get it by any means necessary. Until then, please don’t fire Verna. I am almost certain hot pink is making a comeback this year and I’ll talk to her about the podcasts. If anyone deserves to be fired, it would be me for missing work the last couple of days.
Verna really shouldn’t be listening to true crime in the office or it will give Isabella ideas. I throw my phone onto the couch and can feel the vein on my neck grow and pulsate.
“Let me guess.” Phoenix taps a pencil against his book. “Isabella Yarbrough?”
“Nothing I can’t handle.” I breathe slow and steady, calming my nerves.
“Looks that way. You’re handling — whatever is happening — a lot calmer than I would. Than I have, I guess. Last time she tried to tell me, in her usual condescending tone, what to do with my book, I told her to go to hell and stormed out.”
A tired laugh escapes my throat. “Yeah, I heard about that. But here’s the thing: everyone’s got a reason why they’re the way they are. I doubt Isabella was born a bully. In fact, I even suspect that you might not have been born with a frown upon your face either, but we all have our cross to bear and some of us are better at it than others. It won’t do any good to get angry at her. That wouldn’t change anything. For me, or for her. I’d rather try to show some kindness because I choose to believe that she didn’t get a lot of that in her life so far. Some days I succeed at it, some not so much, but I try. Oh, and also, I live under the constant threat of being fired, jobless, homeless, potentially starving and ultimately dead. So even if I wanted to, there’s not much I could actually do, you know.”
Phoenix nods. “I know in theory. I got very lucky, so that’s not something I ever had to go through.” He motions around his lavish house and pulls his lips into a thin line. “I do wonder though: why do you care so much aboutthis?” he asks, inspecting me closely.
“It’s my job…”
“Yeah, no, I get that. But it’s just a job. Not the best paying one, and under Isabella, too. Someone as smart and cunning — well, mostly cunning — could always get another one. A better one, most likely.”
I wonder if I should count this as his one nice thing that he’s scheduled to tell me tomorrow before I answer.“It’s complicated.” And not necessarily something I like to talk about. I haven’t discussed this with anyone other than Sienna, so I hesitate for a moment.
Phoenix notices and pats my mermaid tail. “It’s alright. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
“No, it’s ok,” I huff and surprise myself. “It’s just… this is the one thing I am allowing myself to have. I always had to make sure I had a job so that I could help my family out and now that I am finally done working two jobs while getting my degree,Iget to decide what I do. I mean, I still have to do something that’ll allow me to provide for the people I love, and myself, but at least now I get to do it while working with the thing I always cherished the most. Books. Not just books, but I get to work for the authors I admired most when growing up. Ever since I picked my first romance novel in the small corner bookstore down on Beverly Road. I loved reading York, Douglas and Bashir.”And most of all, I loved Phoenix Cyrus’s books, but you don’t need to know that.“I turned to them whenever I felt like I couldn’t go on anymore. Whenever I was exhausted, I would remember how Mia in Women Of Wonders would summon more energy by doing her silly dance and it would give me strength. I would remember that just like Nova in The Dream, sometimes you have to go through rough patches, but it eventually gets better and you can overcome whatever life throws your way. Whenever I didn’t have time to go on a date, because I had to take the night shift at the gas station, because it paid better and they allowed me to do my schoolwork, I would read Leon McPherson and remember that one day I, too, could have inappropriate relations with my stepfather’s best friend’s hunky alien.”
Phoenix laughs out loud. “That was a low-blow. Don’t mis-characterize my alter ego’s work like that.” But a moment later, the seriousness swiftly returns to his face. “All that because of your dad’s illness, huh?”
The topic, even though it’s always in the back of my mind, hits me hard. “You know about that?”
“Yeah, sorry, I had someone look into you, remember?”
“Oh, right.”
“How much?”
“What?”
“How much do your parents owe for the treatment?”
“An unreasonable amount, of course. Staying alive ain’t cheap around here.”
“How much, Olivia?”
17
Isee where this is going and shut it down immediately. “Stop it, Phoenix.”
His somber voice feels warm and comforting and at the same time, I know it’s not the permanent kind of comfort. “Olivia…”
I quickly rub my eyes in an attempt to keep them from tearing up. “No,” I say decidedly.
“Olivia… I can pay it off and I probably wouldn’t even notice the money missing. No one should have to go through something like this. Not even people as irritating as you.” His smile is ever so annoyingly handsome and I can’t stand looking at it.
Despite my best efforts, tears roll down my cheek. “Thank you, Mr. Cyrus. That’s very kind of you to offer, but no. I couldn’t accept that. I wouldn’t… it wouldn’t feel right.”
“Why not?”
“Why do you only have two friends?”
“Because I’m a miserable grump who pushes everyone away?”
