Page 54 of Rich Girl
“Because you love me,” she yells back. “You’re supposed to support me!”
“I support you, woman!”
“Then don’t tell people I want to fire my employees!”
They make me laugh with their back and forth on this. It would be a boring ride home otherwise, so I don’t complain.
“Evie,” I call out to her when there’s a break in their bickering. “What makes you think Hayden never worked in a flower shop before?”
I snicker to myself, knowing full well that Hayden doesn’t know shit about flowers other than if she is on the receiving end of it.
“She knows nothing about flowers,” Evie declares. “When I say nothing, I meannothing. But she’s a hard worker, I have to say.”
I stop laughing, my heart filling with warmth at what Evie is telling me.
“She’s been struggling with this one arrangement,” she continues. “I shouldn’t have let her fight with it like she did, but she was so cute trying to hide that she was copying something off Pinterest.”
I chuckle at that.
“She managed to put her own spin on it, and it turned out really good. I thought she could make more since she’d finally gotten the hang of it, you know?”
“Yeah,” I nod. In my head, I am picturing Hayden as she concentrates on creating this flower arrangement she knows nothing about.
“When I told her, she cried so hard, she broke my heart.”
All amusement dies in an instant. I hate thinking of Hayden crying like that. While I haven’t known her for long, I grew to really enjoy her little quirks. I thought it would be funny to see how far she’s willing to go with this, but not at the cost of her own sanity.
“Ray, I want to assure you that I am not firing Hayden.” She takes a long pause. “Despite what my boyfriend might think.”
She says that part louder to make it obvious that it is directed at Cal, and not me.
“I can teach her,” Evie insists. “I really like her, and I want her to like me, too.”
“Who cares if she likes you or not?” Cal wonders out loud. “She’s here only until we have the Cinco de Mayo party. We just need Ray to win this bet.”
I drop my head back against the seat, frustrated with everything. I went from being amused to being annoyed in the blink of an eye.
“Fuck,” I groan out loud. “This was supposed to be funny. Why is it becoming a problem?”
“It’s a problem only of you make it one, brother.” Cal becomes the voice of reason. “Just bring her to the party, then you go to hers, and you’re done. Once it’s all over, if you really want a serious girlfriend, we’ll find you one.”
Evie’s sigh comes over the line. “Hayden is so beautiful, though. I don’t know what it is about her… She’s super classy…”
“All the more reason for him to drop her,” Cal declares. “She’s high maintenance. You can tell.”
“How can you tell, Cal?” she snaps at him. “You’ve never even met her.”
Cal snorts sarcastically. “You told me enough about her. That’s all you talk about when you get home from work. How would you like it if I talked about one of my employees like that every day?”
“Like who?” Evie’s tone sounds suspicious now. “Is there anyone I should worry about?”
“Fucking hell, I’m done talking about this.”
“No,” Evie insists. “No, I want to know. Is it that one girl…”
I stop listening to them and hang up. I doubt they’d notice anyway.
The rest of the drive home is smooth, with no incidents, which gives me some time to think.
