Page 67 of Use Me

“Ashtyn …” I smiled at Leonard, waiting for him to continue. “Doyouknow what that means?”

I nodded. Since I’d been hired, Leonard knew I’d always wanted to broadcast the evening news and not the ten o’clock nightly news. It had the best hours for what I wanted in life—or what I wanted in life before Corey broke up with me—and had the best ratings.

“Will you be ready once the new year hits?”

That was in two weeks, but I nodded my head again. “Yes!”

“Then let’s go talk in my office.”

There were congratulations sputtered to Barbara and me as we all exited the room. I followed Leonard to his office, and he closed the door as I sat in a chair in front of his desk.

“So, your yes is a yes to move to the evening news?”

“Of course. That’s where I want to be.”

“Perfect, and just so you’re aware, there will be a raise involved.”

“Thank you so much!” I beamed.

“Tomorrow you can work on promos for the switch with the marketing team.”

“Great. I’m excited.”

“Good. And just for the record, I’m glad to have you back.”

I smiled. “Thank you.”

“Have a good show tonight.”

“Thank you,” I said again and stood to leave.

People say that when you hit rock bottom, the only way is up. I thought breaking up with Corey was my rock bottom when, in reality, it was the change I’d needed in my life for all the pieces to fall into place.

A few hours later, I was heating up a Cup Noodles—or what I called a cup of noodles because Cup Noodles sounded funny on my tongue—in the microwave for dinner. I’d already eaten a cupcake and was going to have another after I ate my soup.

My phone dinged with a text.

Rhys: You doing okay, Cupcake?

Me: Yes, thank you for my cupcake bouquet. I’m looking forward to all the ways you promised in your note ;)

Rhys: It’s my favorite dessert.

Iwasn’t sure what I was going to walk into when I arrived home, but two girls singingBaby Got Backwith our new Emmys as the microphones wasn’t it.

At first, they didn’t hear me come in, so I stood just inside the door, leaning against the doorjamb with my arms crossed over my chest and a huge fucking smile on my face.

“Ooh, Rumpelstiltskin, you say you want to roll in my Benz? Well, use me, use me. ‘Cause my booty says I’m juicy.” Ashtyn turned around and shook her ass, the words Juicy spread across her backside.

I chuckled silently as Abby laughed. “That’s not the words!” They moved their hips to the beat, and Abby turned, her mouth opened as though she was about to start to sing, but then stopped as her gaze met mine. She nudged Ashtyn, but Ashtyn continued to dance. I still had a huge smirk on my face because watching her finally laugh again was the best fucking feeling in the world. I knew without a doubt that I loved her. I just didn’t want to tell her and scare her off because we’d just started dating. I would, though, once the time was right.

Ashtyn finally looked over at me and stopped dancing. When it registered that it was me standing with the door still opened behind me, she rushed over and threw her arms around my neck. “Tiger!”

“Tiger?” I grinned.

Ashtyn pulled her head back, her arms still around my neck. “Yeah. Rawrrrrr.” She nipped at my ear as though she was the tiger and not me.

I chuckled. “All right, Cupcake. I take it you had a good night?”