Promise Me (The Me Novellas) (10 page)

Just like always.

“
OK,” I finally said. “Well, you really have nothing to be jealous about. We talked about his organization. I told him why I went to Puerto Vallarta. He wanted to hear about my time with Rosa and Eduardo but he had a meeting to get to.”

“
Oh.”

I ate another chip. “So I might talk to him again. Just so you know. Do I like need to tell you the time and place?”

He frowned at me. “No. Not what I’m saying.”

“
Well, I don’t want to piss you off. Upset you.”

“
I’ll figure it out,” he said. His frown deepened. “Did you clean your hands before you started eating those?”

I took a deep breath. “Yes, Grant. I’ve been properly sanitized.”

He nodded, relieved. “OK.” He reached for a chip.

“
About Dex,” I began again but he held his hand up.

“
It’s fine,” he said quickly. “I get it. I’m just being an ass. If you need to talk to him, then do it.”

“
OK.”

“
I’m serious.” He reached across the table and covered my hand with his. “I’m sorry I was an ass. I just wasn’t expecting to see you there. With someone.”

I squeezed his hand. “OK. I forgive you. This time.”

The server arrived with our food, a plate of chimichangas for me and a massive beef burrito for Grant. I dug in, slicing into the crispy tortilla with my fork. I would never get tired of this kind of Mexican food. Beans and rice and plain tortillas? Yeah, I was still pretty burned on those. But this? I ate a forkful. Never.

“
So you got some applications turned in?” he asked.

I nodded, swallowing my food. “Yeah. A few. The breakfast place down on PB Drive. And World Famous.”

“And places at the mall, too?”

“
Yeah. Probably won’t lead to anything. All of my experience has been at a restaurant so that’s probably where I’ll end up working.”

He scooped a forkful of rice. “You never know.”

I ate another bite. Without looking at him, I said, “Well, I haven’t heard back from The Catamaran. You know, the gift shop opening.”

I didn’t know if the silence suddenly became thick or I just imagined it.

Grant took a long drink of his water. “No?” he asked.

My heart beat a little faster. “No. Do you think that means they’re just not interested?”

I’d given him the perfect opportunity to come clean. To either admit he’d forgotten to turn it in or whatever it was that had happened.

“
I dunno,” he said. “Maybe.”

I bit my lip and said nothing. Maybe Jonathan in Human Resources had lied. Maybe there was no protocol for handing off applications and maybe, just maybe, Grant had given it to him like he said he would. But there was something about how Grant suddenly became absorbed in cutting his burrito into bite-size pieces that didn’t sit well with me.

“You did give him the application, right?”

He looked up. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I have?”

“I don’t know.”

“
I handed it to him,” he told me. “Told him it was for the gift shop.”

“
OK,” I said. I looked away. He sounded sincere. And I felt like a total bitch for not believing him.

“
Look, don’t worry so much about the job thing,” he said. “Something will come up. If not at the hotel, then one of the restaurants. I promise.”

I just gave him a half-smile and nodded. I wasn’t sure that was a promise I wanted anyone to keep.

FIFTEEN

A baby boutique called the next day, one of the stores from the mall. After a five-minute phone call, I had an interview lined up. For that afternoon.

Sage was less than thrilled when I called her with the news. She’d wanted to hit the beach after work. “A baby boutique?”

“At least it’s not a restaurant,” I said. I wasn’t thrilled with it, either, but a job was a job. And my dad had asked—loudly—if I’d had any success on the job hunting front when I’d returned from dinner with Grant the night before.

“
I guess,” she said. “But what the hell do you know about babies?”

“
What do you know about paper products?” I fired back.

She laughed. “Good one. OK, so job interview. And classes start next week, right?”

“Yep.”

“
And these are all things you want to do?”

No. I didn’t want to do any of them. But I didn’t have anything else lined up, either.

“Yeah,” I finally said.

“
Alright. Well, then go and be awesome. And call me when you’re done.”

I hung up and started getting ready for my interview. Chose the just-washed white dress that I knew looked nice on me, paired it with a short-sleeved navy blue sweater that was hanging in my closet. I added some make-up, brushed out my hair and, with doubt and uncertainty swirling in my stomach, made the half-hour drive to the mall.

Fifteen minutes later, I had the job.

It hadn’t been an interview at all. It had been a, “You’re alive and we need someone and please fill out this W-2. You are available weekends, right?”

I walked out in a daze.

And called Sage.

“Wow,” was all she said. “Guess they really needed someone, huh?”

“
I guess.” I’d parked myself on a bench at the mall, out of sight of The Baby Boutique. Because that’s what it was called. The Baby Boutique. I wondered how successful I’d be at selling frilly dresses for newborns and strollers that cost more money than the car I was currently driving.

“
Is the pay decent?”

“
Ten bucks an hour,” I said. It wasn’t great and I knew I could make more at my dad’s restaurant.

“
Huh.” She paused. “You know, there might be an opening here. Not in the office but down at the warehouse. Those guys make bank.”

“
Have you seen me, Sage?” I sighed in frustration. “Do I look like I can lift massive boxes of paper?”

“
Maybe they could train you how to use one of those little forklift thingies.”

I shook my head. “No.” As much as I didn’t want to work in a store selling bibs and scented baby lotion, I didn’t want to work in a warehouse, either. “It’ll be fine. Easy. And I can keep looking.”

“True,” she said. “OK, so now what? I’m off in an hour. We could still hit the beach. Or I could meet you at the mall. Shop a little.”

“
No,” I said quickly. I was going to be spending enough time at the mall in the foreseeable future. The last thing I wanted to do was spend the rest of the afternoon there. “I think I’ll swing by and see Grant.”

Things had been good between us when we said goodbye after dinner. We stopped talking about Dex and Mexico and I let Grant talk, instead. About school and the classes he was taking. About his parents, who were finishing with the remodel of their house in Julian. And when he’d dropped me off, he’d kissed me longer than usual, even touching his tongue briefly to my lips, before he’d whispered, “I love you.”

“Fine,” she said in a voice that indicated it was anything but. “I hate taking the back seat to him, you know.”

“
Yeah, probably the same way I hated not seeing you the week before I left for Mexico...”

“
That was different.”

“
Only different because you were locked away in your bedroom with your man. I’ll see you tomorrow. We can go to the beach or something.” The Baby Boutique was going to call me with my schedule but Andrea, the manager, had assured me that I wouldn’t be on the schedule until next week.

“
Whatever,” Sage said. “Just find me when you’re done with him.”

I promised and hung up. I stopped for an iced coffee at Starbucks before heading out to the parking lot. I held my drink with one hand and texted Grant with the other, letting him know I was planning to stop by. He responded immediately.

When
?

I found him in my contact list and pressed dial.

“Fifteen minutes?” I said. “Is that cool?”

He hesitated. “Uh. Yeah. That would work.”

“Are you sure? I want to tell you–”

Another line at the hotel started ringing. “Hang on,” he said.

“Never mind. I’ll tell you when I get there.”

He flipped over to the other call and I hung up just as I got to my car. I slid inside, my legs sticking to the vinyl seat. I blasted the air, trying to cool off the interior. I’d need to remember to park in the covered lots when I came to work.

Work. I grimaced. What was I getting myself into? I thought about it as I drove, trying to remember all of the positives of finally having a job. Admittedly, there weren’t many.

Twenty minutes later, I’d parked in the hotel lot and was walking through the double doors of the hotel. I approached the front desk. Juan was there, sitting off to the left of the registration window. He smiled, a little nervously, I thought, when he saw me.

“Hey, Emma,” he said.

“
Hi.” I looked around. “Is Grant here?”

He shuffled some papers on the desk. “Yeah. I think he went to the bathroom? He’ll be back any minute.”

“OK.” I waited for a second. “Actually, I think I’m going to go use the restroom.” The iced coffee had gone right through me.

Juan started to say something, then stopped. Instead he just looked at me, his dark eyes unreadable as he chewed his lower lip.

I headed toward the bathroom, rounding the corner to the hallway. There were guests coming in from the pool, a couple and their young kids, towels wrapped around their mid-sections. The youngest, a baby perched on her mother’s hip, wailed loudly. I smiled sympathetically at them but all I could think of was that I would probably be hearing a lot more of that in the days to come. Unless people shopped at The Baby Boutique without their babies.

I used the bathroom, washed my hands and pulled open the bathroom door. The men’s room was across from where I stood and I wondered if Grant was still in there or if he’d gone back to the desk. I’d actually thought I’d pass by him on my way to the bathroom. But the door stayed closed and there were no sounds of flushing toilets or running water. I stepped fully into the hallway and turned to head back to the front desk. I noticed another room off to the right, a housekeeping room. And heard voices. Low, almost a whisper, but heated.

I cocked my head. One of the voices sounded familiar. I inched forward just a bit, curious.

“–
understand how you could do this to me,” a girl said. Her voice was ragged, choked with tears.

“
I didn’t do anything to you.”

Grant.

I froze.

“
How can you even say that?” the girl cried.

“
Look, I told you what happened. It was a mistake.”

“
Which time?” she hissed. “The time at Stacy’s birthday party or the time you came to my apartment? Or maybe–”

He cut her off. “Everything. It was all a mistake. And I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry?” She hiccuped on her tears. “I tell you I love you and you’re sorry.”

I blinked back tears. My heart tripped like a jackhammer and I leaned up against the wall, trying to steady myself. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe it was just someone who sounded like my boyfriend.

“Jamie, wait.”

“
No.” Her voice rose an octave. “I’m done waiting. You’re an asshole, Grant.”

Before I could move, before I could process that no, it was actually my boyfriend this girl was talking to, she flew out of the room. A small, dark-haired girl my age wearing the same style hotel polo as Grant, her bangs trimmed close, her brown-eyes reddened with tears. She glared at me.

“Eavesdrop much?” she snarled.

I backed up, flattening myself against the wall. And said nothing.

A few seconds later, Grant appeared, his mouth open as if to say something. His eyes focused on Jamie before his gaze darted at me. And it was his turn to freeze.

“
Em.”

Jamie whirled on him. “
This
is your girlfriend?”

“
Shit,” Grant muttered, raking his hand through his hair.

I pushed off from the wall. “No,” I said slowly. “I
was
his girlfriend.”

SIXTEEN

“
I’m not going to say I was right.”

I sniffled. “Gee, that’s big of you.”

Sage put her arm around me. We were at Fashion Valley, the same bench I’d sat on when I’d called her about the job. But this time, she was with me. And I was telling her about what I’d just witnessed at the hotel.