Page 8 of The Fantasy League
I didn’t mind the routine that we had going on lately anyway. You know, the one where we didn’t say a damn word to each other or acknowledge each other’s existence.
On rare occasions, he’d throw out an impassive “Thanks,” but those were few and far between. These days they’d become so nonexistent that I was starting to think I’d made them up in the first place.
As far as work environments went, it was an introvert’s wet dream. I didn’t mind spending my mornings in silence or throwing on my headphones and listening to an audiobook while I prepped his meals.
But after I watched himbang his headagainst the steering wheel all because he saw me in the driveway?
Nope. Nada. Not happening.
There was no way I could recover from that, right? Anyone could notice that he didn’t enjoy my presence, but I didn’t think I wassoinsufferable that he was willing to give himself a concussion at the sight of me.
With that, I decided I would wallow. Because when I walked into work tomorrow, I was left with no choice but to quit. I wasn’t sure when Abel was planning on firing me, but the head-bashing gave me reason to believe that it would be happening sooner rather than later. I knew my pride couldn’t bear the blow of him firing me, so I had to beat him to it.
In the midst of my depressive episode over the loss of a job that I didn’t even like, Mae walked out of her office with a huff holding out two different headshots of the same girl toward me. My eyes scanned over the photos for a long moment. “Left,” I answered honestly, pointing to the photo where the girl looked more relaxed, yet still striking.
Around the same time I started my cooking blog, Mae started her own modeling agency after her former employer was caught in a scandal that showcased the disgusting antics some of the scouts and photographers got up to while on the job. She decided that if other agencies weren’t going to advocate and support their models, she would take it upon herself to create one that did so.
Between Mae’s company expansion, my book deal, and my impending loss of a job, tensions were high in the house. What the two of us needed was a night of good clean fun to unwind and relax from the stress of our work lives.
“I knew that was the better one,” she mumbled, biting her lip as she walked back into her office.
“Did you hear me? I said that I’m quitting my job working with Abel,” I grumbled, slightly annoyed that Mae wasn’t feeding into my momentary display of dramatics. Didn’t she notice that I wasobviouslyin crisis mode?
“I heard you.” Mae’s face remained neutral as she walked back into the living room. “And frankly, I’m thrilled! Now you can come work for me.” She flashed me a mischievous dimpled smile as she sat on the edge of the couch where my feet lay. Her long legs extended outward and two new headshots faced downward in her lap. “Whatever he’s paying you… I’ll double it. Free room and board included,” she said with waggled eyebrows.
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. “I already get free room and board,” I fired back at her with a scowl.
When Mae offered to let me move into the pool house, I told her that I would be paying her rent every month. Although she was the one to offer, I didn’t want her to think that I was taking advantage of her.
We never discussed a set amount, so I scrounged up what I could manage and wrote her a check on the first of every month. Nearly nine months later, and none of the checks that I had given to her had been cashed.
Not a single one.
“Your checks got lost in the mail.” She attempted to lie right to my face. Though both of us knew, I handed each of the checks directly to her.
“Last time I asked, you told me they fell into a puddle on your way into the bank…”
“Same difference.” She shrugged before holding up the two headshots from her lap for me to review. I let out a groan as I pointed to the one on the right, which was the obvious choice even at first glance.
Mae might’ve thrown on a tough exterior and admittedly been awee bitselfish at times—as her best friend, I was the only one allowed to say that. But when she finally let her guard down with someone, she exposed her heart of gold. It just happened to be buried deep, deep,deepdown there.
“I’m being serious, Mae! I have no choice but to quit,” I huffed. “The guy was banging his head on the steering wheel when he saw me leaving his house this morning.” I mimicked the head-banging motion for her as I recounted the memory that I so desperately wished to forget.
“That bad, huh?” Her eyes softened and her lips turned down into a pout. “Scar, you know I’m always on your side. But do you think that… maybe you’re only seeing what you want to see when it comes to Abel?” she questioned, gently placing her hand on top of mine, which lay folded on top of my stomach.
I paused and took her question into consideration, but all possibilities of her being right came up short. Nope, not freaking possible.
Someone didn’t blatantly ignore their employee every day for nearly a year if they were a nice person. Or throw out the food their chef spent hours making for them. Or concuss themself at the sight of said chef.
“Hmm… doubtful,” I replied, shaking my head side to side.
“C’mon, Scar, the guy has been nothing but nice to me anytime that I’ve interacted with him. Remember when he saw me struggling with that giant package last summer and he ran across the street and carried it up the stairs for me?” She paused, waiting for my answer, but I refused to feed into her persuasion tactics. “And you know Lea has told us countless stories about how he pays for his parents to travel full-time and how he beats all his other teammates’ charity hours by a long shot every year.”
Hmm, I must have tuned those stories out because they didn’t ring a bell. Not to mention the fact that I’d spent thirty hours a week with him whereas Mae had spent all of half an hour with him… if that!
His good looks could easily catch someone’s attention, soof courseshe would give him a pass so easily. But unfortunately for him, good looks wouldn’t cancel out his dickish personality.
What a shame that someone so good-looking was such a terrible human. Hopefully Hell would be hot.
