Page 26 of Cinderella Is Faking It

She started typing something into her computer. “I’m assuming bowls for food and water, a pet bed, some toys. Does it have to be a specific brand of food?”

Too stumped to perform more than the simplest task, I just told her the two brands of food I usually got for Fitzwilliam.

“Perfect. If you want to have a look at your suite, it’s all yours. Otherwise, I’ll see you tonight.”

“You keep saying suite…”

“Delilah.” Victor materialized next to my chair, making me jump. He swept his arm out in an unmistakable get-out-of-Cordelias-face kind of gesture.

Grabbing the keys from the table, I slipped out of the office. The sweeping staircase in the entry mocked me for letting myself be pushed around like a chess piece once again.I was definitely not going to look at mysuite.There would probably be a bed in there and then I’d collapse and never leave this place again.

“Are you ok?” Victor asked when I didn’t move.

“Yeah, fine. I was out celebrating because I got the job at Truman,” I sighed, rubbing my palms over my blurry eyes. “I don’t know if you know, or what Cordelia has told you, because I was, I mean, before this...”

“I know,” he said and one look at his face told me that hedidknow. “He’s taken care of. Enjoy this. Congratulations.”

My stomach churned the same way it always did whenhewas mentioned. “What do you mean? Taken care of?”

“Do you really want to know?” He cocked an eyebrow. Something in the stern set of his mouth and the way he asked that question told me that,maybe, I did not want to know.

“Thank you.”

“I’ll drive you home,” he nodded at the door, and I was too exhausted to refuse his offer. I almost passed out in the backseat of the car, toppled onto my sofa the second I got home, and only woke up when Fitzwilliam jumped up on me and sank his claws into my back to demand his dinner.

I had all of one hour left to pack up my shit, so I got out my old suitcase, two blue Ikea bags, and I just started dumping stuff into them, while I called Parker and put him on speaker. “Hey babe, can this wait? My shift is over in like an hour.”

“Sorry, I’ll be really quick,” I said while emptying my box of bras into my suitcase. “A pipe burst in the apartment above mine or something, so I have to move out for a few weeks.”

“Oh shit, is your stuff okay? Do you have insurance?”

I blinked at my phone and his name on the screen. Okay, sure, I was lying to him, but his first question was about my stuff?! What about my cat? What about me? “It’s fine,” I huffed. I had no right to be annoyed when I was literally lying through my teeth. “I just have to stay somewhere else for a few weeks until they can get this fixed.”

“Uh, are you asking if you can move in with me? Because I’d have to check with Tanner.”

“No, no, don’t worry.” As nice as Parker was, his brother would smother you in kindness. I’d been to their place all of three times, and Tanner had doted on me like an overeager grandmother. Hand-knit socks included. I’d not gotten a second alone with Parker. “I’m staying with a friend.”

“What friend?”

“You don’t know her yet,” I replied and tossed all the books from my TBR pile by the bed into one of the Ikea bags. Twelve books should last me for the next five weeks, right? Just to be safe, I went and pulled some of my favorite classics from my shelf, only realizing then that Parker hadn’t answered in a minute or two. “Parker?”

“Is it thefriendfrom yesterday?” He asked with a strange emphasis on ‘friend’.

“What friend?”

“The one from the park.”

I clasped a hand over my mouth to stop the gagged sound I was about to make at the thought of moving in with Beck. “I wouldn’t call Beck a friend.”

“I figured,” he scoffed. “How did you pay your rent these last few months, Delilah?”

“What?” I grimaced at the phone. “Savings. What?”

“I saw all your shopping bags of new clothes. I know how much money you spend on those overpriced coffees.”

I tried to piece together the conversationhewas having, when I’d just been focused on my burst-pipe-lie. “What are you asking me exactly?”

“I’m asking ifhe’sthe reason you haven’t been dead broke the last three months.”