Page 4 of Brazen

She walked with me out the door to the busy street as she shouted, “Are you kidding? You just flew to Paris and got their designer.”

She directed me into a restaurant next door.

“I’m in shock.”

Even though we were the only customers, she tapped the bar. “Drinks. I’m buying.”

Now, I was charity. I’d been getting my life together with that job and had hopes of a raise. Now four years of work were just gone. I glanced at the clock. “It’s ten.”

The bartender offered the menus as Britney asked, “Are you now a puritan? Text our friends.”

Fair enough. I shook my head as I tried to wrap my mind around what had happened. “No. I could use one.”

I quickly texted Avril, Kelly, Isabel, and Miley, since we were always together for everything as we navigated the dating scenes of New York. I ordered an Aviation, and Britney ordered her cosmopolitan. Neither of us said anything as the bartender mixed our drinks.

I mostly answered texts that promised to come check on me after work got out. I’d come to Britney because she had more control over her own hours.

Now I needed to write a new resume and start calling former competition for possible openings. However, my boss loved to blackball former employees, and she’d probably spent her morning ensuring I was frozen out of everywhere.

Britney opened Regina's page. She was a blogger who was clearly targeting either Charlie or me. “So, who was the hot guy in your pictures? I approve. He’s way above your usual losers in looks.”

My phone rang. I opened my purse as I started to explain. “He… Charlie…” My eyes widened as I showed her my screen. “He’s calling?”

She read the article as I pressed the speaker phone button.

Charlie said, “Hope, I was thinking, since we’re both in New York, I could take you to dinner.”

In Paris, I’d known he was the kind of guy I would never get to keep. It hadn’t mattered there. But flirting and teasing were definitely the old me. I lowered my head. “I can’t.”

“Why?”

I imagined him staring at me with those wide eyes of his that made my legs wobble, but then I also understood he would be the first to leave when an easier woman came around. Patterson—I refused to even think about his first name—had been exactly the same. A player.

Britney spoke into my phone. “Because, Charlie, she lost her job, and you’re why.”

“Britney!” I called out fast and shook my head.

She was usually the leader of the girl group, but this was too much.

“I’m on my way," Charlie said. "Don’t go anywhere.”

I hung up and closed my eyes. At least him showing up was impossible. I smiled at Britney then picked up the stem of my drink. “I didn’t even tell him where I was. Whatever.”

She waved for me to have a second.

I sighed. As soon as I figured out my life, I would buy for her. For now, I only said, “Thanks for the drinks.”

The bartender handed us our second glasses, and this time, I sipped more slowly.

Britney asked me, “What are you going to do now?”

I let out a small laugh as my next steps started to form. “I’m going to have to apply and explain my lack of references.”

She winced. “That’s going to be hard.”

I closed my eyes and put the drink on the bar. I let out a small laugh. “Rent is due, and I have no backup plan. In movies, this is where I have to work in a bar or something and figure out who I am, but I have zero time for that, and no bar is going to pay my bills.”

A familiar warm hand pressed on my back, then Charlie said, “Hi.”