Page 22 of Don't Bet On It
Well, that answeredthatquestion. I’d always wondered. “I see.” I swallowed hard. “Do you want me to leave?”
“No,” Zach replied hurriedly, shaking his head. “I looked up your employee record after our talk upstairs. You’re a good worker.”
“And Tallulah told you who I was?”
“Yeah.” Zach laughed. “We got to talking about the thing in the storage room. I didn’t realize you were here. You don’t have to leave, though.”
I was still angry with Tallulah but relieved that they seemed to be okay with me staying. “I’m not here to do any damage to your casino. I can promise you that. I just want to keep my head down and do my job.”
“It’s okay,” Zach assured me. “We were just curious.” He paused a beat. “I’m sorry for any confusion. Rex was convinced you were a mathlete with my wife, and that’s where the confusion came from. Tallulah had to set us straight.”
Tallulah. Why did it have to come down to her? I should’ve known that she wouldn’t keep her mouth shut. It wasn’t her nature. She talked to hear herself talk sometimes. “Well, I’m glad everything is okay.”
“It’s fine,” Zach promised. “I hope you have all the success you could possibly ever want with your studio. Let me know if there’s something we can do to help you with that.” It was a lame offer—what could he possibly do?—but seemed like a sincere one.
“It’s a bit down the line, but thanks.” I smiled even though it was wan. “What about your dad? Should we keep our eyes open for him to return?”
“He’d better not.” Zach turned grim. “Now that he’s escaped prison essentially, he’s going to be even more unpredictable. I wish he’d just go away.”
“Do you think he will?”
“Not for a single second.”
7
SEVEN
According to Olivia, everything had gone fine with Ronan. Zach and Rex had talked to him, sorted out the hows and whys of his employment at Stone Casino, and were seemingly happy with his answers.
That was good—very good, actually—because the idea of Ronan losing his job because of me filled me with anxiety. Sure, inherently I knew he would be fine because of who his parents were. Still, I hated—absolutely loathed—the idea of being the reason he was out of a job he was seemingly good at.
I hadn’t seen him in days. Not that I was hiding from him or anything. Okay, I was hiding from him. I was careful to avoid his section of the casino even if it meant adding to my walk and going through the roulette area instead. It wasn’t that I was afraid of him—mostly—but the mere idea of seeing him made me itchy.
He was never far from my thoughts, however. I found myself thinking back to my teen years more than I was comfortable with. We hadn’t been close—not by any stretch of the imagination—but he’d often been on my mind back then too.
Had I had a crush on him? No, of course not. Teenagers found each other hot all the time. One day, someone was hot, and the next, they looked like shriveled prunes. I’d cycled through everybody back then with a one-day crush. A crushlet, if you will.
Except your crush on him lasted for years.
Who said that? I wanted to hunt down my inner Tallulah and choke her into silence. There had been no years-long crush. That was ridiculous.
“What are you doing?” I almost came out of my skin when Olivia appeared next to me. I was in the corner of the high rollers section, looking over my table assignment for the evening and reading over the notes Kyla had provided. Apparently, we were expecting a few professional athletes this evening. I hated it when I had to wait on famous people. It wasn’t that I was nervous—I didn’t care about that either way—but more often than not, I found them entitled and obnoxious.
“What are you doing?” I demanded of my best friend in a voice that was too loud. I adjusted quickly and lowered my tone. “Don’t surprise me like that. You know how my boss feels about me.”
She cocked her head. Olivia had never met a thought she didn’t immediately express. “This is about more than Kyla disliking you. Tell me what’s wrong,” she ordered.
I balked. “How do you know something is wrong?”
“Because I’ve known you since kindergarten. You remember kindergarten, right? You broke the yellow crayon and cried. You’ve always been sensitive.”
I gave her an “are you kidding me” look. “That never happened.”
“I remember it distinctly.”
“That happened inBuffy the Vampire Slayer.”
Olivia opened her mouth to argue then snapped it shut. “Huh,” she said after a beat. “Now that you mention it, I think you’re right. That was in an episode ofBuffy the Vampire Slayer.”
