Page 37 of Theo (Stone Brothers #6)

"Sure," I say, but I'm not sure at all. I hang up without a goodbye when I hear Genie's office door open. She struts past on her green heels. She's clutching her notes and file folders. She whisks past me without a word.

For the next hour, I busy myself with work and push the earlier worry from my head.

Peggy is right. It'll be fine. At least that's what I'm still telling myself when the conference room door flies open.

Genie comes racing out. She's holding a file folder behind her ass.

She kicks off her heels after three frantic steps and starts to run. Her face is contorted and red.

"You're fired!" she screams as she continues to her office. The door slams shut. I sit in my chair and stare at my own reflection in my monitor. Seconds later, the phone rings. It's the Cruella phone.

She's FaceTiming me from her bathroom. I've seen her look angry, but she looks positively lethal as she glowers into her phone. "Leave now. You're through here. I will make sure you never, ever find a job in this town again!"

I have nothing to pack. It all belongs to the company. I drop her special phone into the trash can, pull my purse out of the desk drawer and walk out of the office.

"Another list of errands?" Rachel asks cheerily as I wander in full zombie state past the reception desk.

I don't answer. The city looks different, less inviting, more dangerous as I walk to the parking garage.

A few raindrops fall from the one dark cloud in the sky.

Fittingly enough, it seems to be following me.

I reach the garage and my car, actually, not my car, the company car.

I still have the keys, so I climb inside, send off a text to Peggy letting her know there'll be no shrimp salad today.

I drop my phone on the seat, sit back and the tears start rolling.

* * *

After an hour-long meltdown in the cool shadows of the parking garage, I drive home to my apartment, actually, not my apartment, a company apartment.

It's a beauty with big picture windows and lush gray carpeting that I love to rub my bare feet along.

It's in the middle of the city and just a block from a great Italian bakery where I buy almond-filled pastries for Sunday breakfast. I worry that I tossed my Cruella phone away too quickly.

What if Genie changes her mind? What if she decides to ask me back?

I laugh out loud as I walk up the steps to my apartment. She will never ask me back.

Mr. Evans, the apartment manager, is standing at my door. He sees me and looks sheepishly away for a second. He wears enough cologne to kill an elephant, and I stop to sneeze before continuing to the door.

His combover flutters in the breeze, and his expression is filled with sympathy.

"I'm sorry, Miss Nash, you're no longer a tenant in this apartment.

Ms. Ross called me an hour ago to tell me I can let you in for ten minutes to collect your things.

She told me to make sure you only take your own belongings. "

It's another gut punch, but it seems I'm all cried out at the moment.

Sadly, it takes me only the given ten minutes to collect my belongings.

I was riding the gravy train with this job.

Genie is a wretched person to work for. I assume it's why she offers so many perks like an apartment and car and clothes.

I avoid Mr. Evans' sad frown as I walk past with my duffle bag.

It's filled with jeans, T-shirts, socks and Landon's sweatshirt.

I reach the car and feel another cryfest coming on. I haven't cried this much since—since that terrible day when everything felt dark and wrong, and the earth stopped moving. That day took the one person I needed more than anyone right now—my dad.

I have only a few friends in town. It's still early.

I have time to take Landon his lucky sweatshirt.

At least I still have him. I met him through Genie, but she can't repossess him.

Although she's probably still sitting on the throne right now trying to think of other ways to punish me.

I laugh for a few seconds thinking about the way she looked as she tore out of that meeting.

I imagine the investors were a little stunned as well.

The bout of laughter feels good, cathartic.

Landon has been acting since he was a little boy doing commercials and bit parts on television.

He's handsome, talented and well on his way to superstardom, and by some miracle, I've managed to snag him.

We are coming up on our one-year dating anniversary.

I still remember literally pinching myself after he took me to Tommy's Burgers and a movie on our first date.

We made out in the front seat of his Land Rover for two hours, then he dropped me home and told me he'd call.

I was sure that was only a line to make me feel less used after a long make out session.

The next morning two dozen pink and red roses arrived at the office.

Genie giggled like a blushing teen, certain the flowers were for her.

She was bitchy the rest of the day when she found out they were for me.

At the time, I didn't tell her they were from Landon.

I was sure if she knew she'd find a way to sabotage it.

I'm relieved to see his silver Land Rover in the driveway of the midcentury house he rents in the middle of town.

I realize I badly need him to hold me. The shock of the morning is wearing off, and it's really starting to hit me.

I have no job, and now, I have no place to live.

I'm sure Landon won't mind me sleeping at his place for a week or two until I figure out what to do next.

I'm going to push Genie's threat, the firing, the loss of my apartment out of my head and fall naked into Landon's bed.

He'll know what to do to put a smile on my face.

My stomach is growling. It's been a long morning.

I should have been sitting in my favorite café having a shrimp salad and catching up on all the latest office building gossip.

I glance into the back seat for the box of crackers I left there last week.

Half of them are crumbs, and they're low sodium.

Damn me for trying to be healthy. I really need that sodium after all those tears.

I shovel in a few crackers and hope that there's still some iced tea in Landon's fridge.

I can hear music blasting through the speakers before I reach the door.

I knock twice, but he doesn't hear me over the music.

I search in my purse for the key to his place.

We exchanged keys with the promise that they would only be used for emergencies.

We haven't been together long enough to just walk into each other's places unannounced.

My hunger, thirst and headache tell me this is an emergency.

The music shakes the entire house as I step inside.

"Landon?" I call. "I need you badly … in every way possible.

" I drop my keys on the table behind his leather couch and then something catches my eye—something that makes my heart drop clear through to my stomach.

Then I hear it, a sound that is light enough I would have missed it if not for the song break. It was a giggle, a flirty giggle.

I lift the pink bra off the arm of the couch.

It's dangling from my fingers as Landon steps out of the bedroom wearing only a pair of briefs.

I always considered Landon one of the most handsome men I know, but some of that glossiness falls away, and I see the cheating bastard beneath the leading man facade.

His mouth drops as his blue eyes fall on the bra. Some of the color leaves his face.

"I didn't realize you were a double-D cup, and I'm not sure if pink is your color.

" I hurl the bra across the room just as the owner of the bra, I presume, steps out.

The redhead is stark naked and definitely a double-D.

She sees me and dashes back into the bedroom like a scared rabbit running for its hole.

"Indi, I can explain." They are the first words out of Landon's mouth, and they're even more idiotic than I expected.

I put up a hand. "Nope, I can explain. You were fucking a redhead, and that is her pink bra and now I'm leaving." I stun myself at how well I'm keeping it together when all I want to do is shatter into a million pieces.

Landon rushes past me and blocks the door. "She's an extra from that stupid disaster flick I was in last year. Sadie was just in town and?—"

I shake my head. "Don't bother to put a name and cute little story to any of it. It still sucks that you were sleeping with someone else, and I don't—I won't forgive you."

"Come on, babe. Don't be like that." Landon reaches for me.

I stumble away from his grasp. "Like what?

You mean reasonable? You mean like a person with a shred of dignity cuz I can tell you, babe , after the morning I've had, that shred is barely hanging on.

I can't believe I came here to be comforted by those arms. Only they've been around Miss Double-D.

Sorry, this is it for us." He's still in front of the door, so I walk to the kitchen for a much-needed glass of water.

I'm taking this better than expected, but I'm sure it's because I've already been through a humongous shock this morning.

It'll hit me later—like a belated freight train.

I didn't hear him walk up behind me, and the last thing I expect is for him to have the balls to wrap his arms around me from behind—with his Monday morning special still naked in his room.

I spin around fast in his arms and shove him. I never expected him to shove back, and when he does, I fall to the side and land hard against the edge of the counter. My ribs take the brunt of the hit.

"God, Indi, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that."

I blink my eyes fast to stop the tears. He follows me out of the kitchen and tries to grab my hand.

"Stop touching me!" I scream. The pain in my ribs momentarily takes my breath away. I struggle to retrieve it around the sharp pain in my side. The tears are back with a vengeance.

"I didn't mean to push you. But you pushed first," he says sounding petulant like a kid. Did I ever really love this man, or was it just the shiny veneer of fame and fortune that had me fooled?

With perfect timing, the redhead steps out of the bedroom, shyly playing with a piece of hair. She's pulled on one of Landon's T-shirts. Her pink bra is still clinging to the place it landed, the corner of the television set.

"I hate to interrupt." Her voice is squeaky and small.

"Then don't, Sadie. Please, go back to the bedroom," Landon orders. Now he sounds like a bossy old teacher or uncle. The layers of gloss are peeling away fast.

"Fine," Sadie says. I half-expect her to stomp her foot. "But she should probably know that her car is being towed." She turns on her heels and marches back to the bedroom. It takes me a second to decipher what she said.

"My car," I repeat. "My car! Fuck, fuck, fuck."

Landon doesn't let the fact that he's still clad only in briefs stop him from following me as I slam out the door and race down to the end of the brick-paved driveway where a man with a bouncing belly and long beard is humming a tune as he climbs into the cab of his tow truck.

He flashes a mean grin as he peels away from the curb.

"Wait!" I plead. "Wait. My stuff!" I lunge toward the car as it rolls away. I'm in so much pain, I stop to bend over and catch my breath. My duffle bag is sitting in the street. "My purse," I whimper weakly. A good strong case of hiccups joins the tears to torture my bruised ribs even more.

Landon's nosy neighbors have left their houses to see what the commotion is about. A few get some nice, probably valuable, photos of Landon in his underwear. He reaches for the duffle, but I pull it back.

"Were you leaving town without telling me?" He has the gall to look hurt.

I stare hard at him. "I wasn't but I am now." I turn and start walking.

"Wait, Indi. Stay. I'll give you a lift somewhere. Wait for me to get dressed."

I hold up my middle finger as I head toward somewhere, anywhere far away from my toxic boss, my cheating boyfriend and this traffic-choked city.