Page 39 of Crash and Burn

"I can't believe you of all people are trying to ruin this for me," I said. "I'd expect this from my parents, but I thought you supported me."

"Liz—" Grant reached out an arm, but I slid out from behind the table before he could grab my hand.

"And so what if this guy wants to get in my pants?" I bit out. "I'm allowed to date or sleep with whomever I want." I raised a snide eyebrow at him. "Unless there's a reason why you think you should have a say in that?"

Grant's jaw clenched, but he didn't say anything. He stayed silent.

"Right, then." I grabbed my bag and hefted it over my shoulder. "Good to know you never really believed in me after all."

"That's not—"

"I'll see you at work," I cut him off. "I'm sure the new guy, Evan, will be excited for me."

Grant's displeased frown said it all.

I turned on my heel and stalked out of the diner.

I didn't look back once.

13

The front double doors of the Farrow and Paige home office were glass with chrome handles, letting me look through them to the front desk and further into the building.

Every single person I saw walking past the admin's front desk was ridiculously stylish, wearing clothes with the hottest trends and all with perfectly coiffed hair. Any one of them could have been a model themselves.

To say that I was intimated was something of an understatement, but I refused to let nerves get to me. I ran a hand over my hair to smooth it down, straightened my back, and pulled on the front door handles.

For a split second I had a horror-filled vision of the doors not budging, of them beingpushdoors instead ofpull,making me humiliate myself in front of everyone.

The doors opened easily and I said a silent thanks.

The admin looked up from her desk, perky and smiling.

"Hi there," she chirped, almost too perky considering it was barely past nine in the morning. "How can I help you?"

Her tone was so similar to the one I used on customers I couldn't help but smile in return. This certainly wasn't the same bored-sounding woman who had answered the phone and taken my name.

"I'm here for a meeting with Mr. Carling," I told her, trying to sound blasé about it.

She gave me a subtle once over, her eyes growing wide, before she smoothed her face.

"Wait one moment please," she said politely, waving for me to take a seat on a nearby lounge chair. "I'll give him a call."

She picked up the phone and I had another terrible daydream-vision.

She would call up and it would turn out that there was no meeting scheduled after all. The whole thing had been a mistake, or a joke. Maybe this was the kind of prank Cliff Carling played on people.

Stop it,I snapped internally as I sat down primly on the leather chair and placed my hands in my lap.

I had to believe in myself, even if no one else did.

Especially if no one else did.

A tinge of annoyance went through me as Grant's face flicked across my mind.

He was the one who was supposed to support me. Supposed to support my dreams. But he hadn't been happy for me at all. I would have expected something like that from my parents, but not from him?

His words echoed in my ears.