Page 18 of One Bad Idea

I was still mulling all of this over when Cassidy said, "He doesn't know the truck's here, does he?"

I sighed. "Notexactly.I mean, I didn't tell himspecificallywhere I was going, just that it was an emergency." I glanced away and muttered. "And besides, he was sleeping. I didn't want to wake him."

Cassidy made a scoffing sound. "How thoughtful of you."

"Oh, shut up."

"Alright, forget last night," she said. "Did you at least call him this morning?"

No. I hadn't.Our conversation from the truck stop was bad enough, and besides, I hadn't the time – or a charged cell phone for that matter.

Now, I tried to make a joke of it. "Are you kidding? He'd just tell me to bring it back."

But Cassidy wasn't laughing. "Well, obviously."

"And besides," I said, "my phone died in Alabama. I couldn’t call him even if I wanted to."

And Ihadn'twanted to.

Yes, I was worried about the consequences, but not nearly as worried as I'd been for Cassidy's safety. Her mom reallywasawful – and not the normal kind of awful either.

Based on little things I'd seen and heard, I was almost certain that her mom was surviving like she always had – by trading sex for money. If that's what she wanted, it was fine by me, as long as she didn't force Cassidy along for the ride.

But the thing thatreallyset me off last night was that tense phone call from Cassidy herself. I knew her all too well. She wouldn't've asked for me to travel ten hours to pick her up if she weren't in serious trouble.

Now, a resigned sigh escaped my lips. "But what did you expect? You sounded scared. And Iknowhow your mom is. You think I'd just give up because I couldn’t drive my own car?"

On the bed, Cassidy looked ready to cry. "I knew you'd come if you could, but God, Allie, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't've asked you in the first place." Now, she was literally wringing her hands. "It was incredibly stupid, and now I'm worried you're gonna get in trouble."

Hoping to ease her worry, I joked, "Did you just call me stupid?"

From the look on her face, she wasn't amused. "No. I calledmestupid. For leaving that message, the first one, I mean."

"That wasn't stupid," I told her. "Now, moving down here?Thatwas stupid." I leaned forward. "But calling me to take you home? That was smart, like the smartest thing you've done all month."

Finally, she gave me the ghost of a smile. "When do you need to be back to work?"

Oh, crap.

For a moment, I debated lying. But that would just make her worry in another way. Finally, I admitted, "I, uh, don't."

She blinked. "What?"

"I was fired, actually."

Her jaw dropped. "What, why?"

I waved away the question. "Long story. It's not important."

"It is, too," she insisted. "You were so excited to get that job. And you've only had it for what? A month?"

Actually, it had been five weeks. In truth, it had been the bestandworst job I'd ever had. On the upside, I'd been working as the personal assistant to some bigtime country music producer. As a huge country music fan, the job had seemed like a dream come true. On the downside, however, my boss had been a total nightmare.

In fact, he'd been such a nightmare that he'd refused to give me any time off to get Cassidy, even when I'd explained that she was in serious trouble.

And then, when I'd informed him that I was going anyway, he gave me the proverbial heave-ho which meant that I was now officially unemployed.

Still, I tried to look on the bright side. At least I wouldn’t be working eighty hours a week anymore. So that was good, right?