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Every time Charlotte tried to break things o , she’d have some other terrible things happen. It would have been cruel to break up with her, so Charlotte soldiered on. Months later, Jayson happened by the restaurant where Brianna had been allegedly fired from and saw her happily waiting tables. No evidence of crippling stomach pain insight. Neither of them had let Charlotte forget it, and for her part, Charlotte had been gun shy about getting back in the dating scene.

“Anyway.” Frania lit another cigarette. “Tell me about her. Did you meet her on Grindr? I heard that’s even better for hooking up than Tinder.”

Charlotte laughed. “I’m pretty sure that’s only for dudes.

And no, I met her the good old-fashioned way. At work.”

“The receptionist?” she guessed, but her tone gave away her disbelief. She’d told her about Paola, but only that they’d hit it o as friends.

“Guess again.”

Frania knit her penciled-in eyebrows together. “Is it your boss?” she joked, but when Charlotte’s only response was a coquettish grin, her dark eyes widened. “You’re shitting me!”

Charlotte laughed as her skin flushed with heat. “I shit you not.”

&n

bsp; Frania pulled her phone out of her endless bra of requirement. “What’s her name again? I need to see what she looks like.”

“Alexandra Leon.” Just saying her name made Charlotte’s heart race.

A moment later, Frania glanced at her phone screen, then at Charlotte, and then back at her phone. “Shit, Charlie.

She’s hot! A total cougar, girl!”

“Don’t be gross, Fran. She’s not a predator and she’s not that old,” she objected, losing her smile.

“Oh jeez. Are you so protective of her already? I’m just saying I can see the appeal. She’s gorgeous.” Frania continued to scroll through the images. “How the hell did you sweet-talk her? Not for nothing, but she’s kind of a little out of your league, isn’t she? She looks loaded.”

The money comment struck an unexpected nerve.

Charlotte resisted the urge to counter with how much money she had in her own savings and investment accounts. To defensively assert that she didn’t care about Alex’s wealth.

But before she moved a muscle in her face to speak, Charlotte remembered that Frania didn’t live in the crappy apartment complex by choice. She, unlike Charlotte, didn’t elect to live on a low-wage budget while putting more than half her salary to work for her future.

“Are you even allowed to date your boss?” Frania asked after a beat.

“I won’t report to her for anything anymore. I just deal with the HR monster,” Charlotte replied, wondering what Linda would say when Alex told her about the new arrangement. Would Linda ask why? Would she guess?

Frania shook her head. “This might blow up in your face worse than Brianna. What if things go south and you lose a damn good job over it? Is it worth it?”

Charlotte couldn’t explain that a relationship with Alex was worth everything. That it was the entire point of getting the job in the first place. If she got close enough to Alex to learn her secrets, then she wouldn’t need the job anymore and the relationship only needed to last that long too. Her stomach soured, but she pushed the dread that inched toward her chest at bay.

“I guess you know what you’re doing,” Frania declared as if giving up any attempt to talk sense to her. “If it works out and y’all get married, can I get one of those fancy hydro facials for free?” She pulled at the skin on her face as if imagining a facelift.

Charlotte laughed. “You got it.”

“Now tell me all about this date you’re going on.”

AFTER GETTING o the phone with Stephanie, who was not thrilled with her decision to become personally involved with Charlotte, Alex called a lawyer. He’d been highly

recommended as a labor law expert and the person she needed to hedge their risk.

Unlike Stephanie, he wasn’t sure she was on an express lane to disaster. He commended her on setting terms before things went wrong instead of trying to put a fire out later when feelings may have soured. He’d have documents ready to sign in the morning and a phone conference with Charlotte in the afternoon.

Alex didn’t like the idea of planning for the worst before they’d even gone on a date, but she wasn’t naive. It was a necessity, even if it wasn’t particularly romantic. A sort of pre-nuptial agreement.

With safeguards in place, Alex relaxed into her driver’s seat and turned down the dusty street toward home. She let her mind wander away from all that could go wrong and toward all that was possible.