Page 72 of Angel

Chapter Twenty-Two - Paige

Mrs. Salvatore leaned forward against the counter, her soft hair sweeping across her cheek. “What did you do?”

Sophia shrugged and bit into a carrot stick. “I kept playing. It seemed like the best thing to do, you know? What’s another bare ass”

Sophia’s Fridays at work, whether they happened at one of her DJ gigs or at hersecond job, were way more interesting than mine. You could hardly call my computer crashing or the break room running out of coffee exciting.

Reading my mind, Mrs. Salvatore turned her brown eyes on mine. “And how is your job, Paige? Are you enjoying working for Victor?”

I sat up a little straighter on the stool. “Yes. Very much.”

“Paige likes to stay busy,” Sophia offered.

I murmured an agreement. “It’s good to have a regular job after temping for so long. It helps stop me from going crazy.”

Mrs. Salvatore gave the counter a quick rap with her nails. “I understand that all too well. I think I’ve come close to redecorating this house three times in the last year.”

“It’s beautiful,” I told her. “Amazing.”

“Yeah,” Sophia agreed, her eyes roving towards the window. Past the back patio with a fire pit, a covered pool sat waiting for summer, and beyond that a hot tub. There was even a tiny building that housed an outdoor kitchen, its two open sides shuttered for the winter.

I sighed to think of summer in that back yard. Between the pool, the blender, and the ample sunning space, there seemed to be no reason to ever leave the spot.

“Do you have a boyfriend, Sophia?” Mrs. Salvatore asked.

“Nu-uh. I can’t handle that right now. My career is pretty all encompassing at this point. Plus Paige and Angelo’s relationship has me covered. Just hearing about it all the time is enough, you know?”

I stuck out my tongue at her and she blew a kiss my way.

Female voices came from a room nearby. I turned around in my stool just in time to see Mariel and a tall, brown haired girl emerge in the doorway.

“Hello,” the girl said simply, her eyes grazing across the three of us in one quick swoop. She had one of those faces that was impossible to put an exact age on. She could have been anywhere from eighteen to thirty.

“Where have you been?” Mrs. Salvatore asked.

The girl ignored her and looked pointedly at me and Sophia.

“Lia,” Mrs. Salvatore said, “You remember Paige and Sophia?”

Her eyes flicked up and down my body. “Yeah.”

Lia was a woman of few words.

“How’s it going?” Soph asked her.

“Good,” she nodded. “It’s been a while.”

Mariel patted Lia on the shoulder and went to the fridge. “Mr. Salvatore needs ice,” she explained to no one in particular.

Lia squinted her eyes at Sophia. “I have a faint memory of TPing someone’s car… Were you there?”

“Oh, yeah,” Sophia replied. “Mr. Stanley’s. He was our eighth-grade math teacher.”

“That’s right! God, he was a prick.”

Sophia chuckled. “He was cute though.”

“That must have been the second reason we did it. Who else was there?”