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EVIE

Focusing on my work usually brings me peace. I’m working on a ring of twisted metal, but I’m distracted. Meatball, my rescue Persian with a squashed face that always makes him look mad, reclines in the sun on the windowsill. But he’s not what’s distracting me.

It’s my roommate, Tasha, on speaker. “To me, it’s obvious you liked him.”

I laugh quietly and, I hope, convincingly. “He was a douchebag. The whole time, he was smoldering at me like he was some kind of bigshot.”

“Smolderingis an interesting choice of words.”

“Staring.”

“But you said ‘smoldering.’”

I don’t reply for a few moments. That describes it perfectly. He wore a shirt with his sleeves rolled up, the top buttons undone, as if to advertise his hulking muscular build. His hair was blackwith threads of silver that made him look both youthful but with the perfect mix of maturity and experience.

When he looked at me, I felt… seen. It was as if he was interested in me for more than a job. At certain points during the interview, it felt like a date.

“Let’s say I had certain thoughts about the brief conversation,” I mutter. “But I’m certain I was just getting carried away. It means nothing. I know better than to feed those fires. It can’t lead anywhere good. I needed a job. He saw through my lie. The end.”

“Methinks thou doth protest too much.”

“Even if you were right, what do you expect me to do? Rock up to his offices in Century City? ‘Hey, Mr. CEO, my roommate thinks we had some chemistry earlier, so I’m thinking you should take me on a date.’”

“It’d be easier than getting a job.”

“Urgh, no. I’d rather be poor than be some rich guy’s plaything for cash.”

“Thenurgh, you’re crazy.”

Meatball purrs as if to agree with Tasha.

“If that makes me crazy, I don’t want to be sane.”

“I’ve just never heard you like this before.”

“Likewhat?”

“Like you’re interested in a guy.”

I turn off the soldering iron and raise my goggles. “Tash, maybe you’ve got a point, okay? There was a certain… vibe. And at theend, when he got close, I won’t lie. It was quite something. But it doesn’t mean anything; I’m never going to see him again.”

There was a moment right at the end when I thought he was going to come after me. My heart was pounding from the sudden physical contact, and I was certain there’d been a glimmer of interest in his dark brown eyes, but he didn’t. Life goes on.

“Hey, relax, I’m just busting your lady balls.”

“I need to get a job. That’s the bottom line. I need to make rent, somehow.”

“I told you, I don’t mind loaning you an extra month.”

“I know you don’t, and you’re the best friend in the whole freaking state, but I don’t want to be a leech.”

“You’re not a leech.”

She’s nice to say that, but how else am I supposed to describe myself when I take and take and don’t give back? I borrowed one month already after the restaurant closed, and I lost my job. Since then, I’ve applied for dozens of positions, but I’ve had no luck. When I saw the ad for Russo Multimedia Group, I knew I had to give it a shot.

I shouldn’t have lied. Or, if I did, I should’ve lied better.

“I need to get back to work,” Tasha says. “Should I pick up a pizza on the way home?”