Sarah Morgan - Sleepless In Manhattan

Paige watched Claws stretch out on the terrace next to Frankie. “I’m a little angry.” And a lot scared, but she wasn’t admitting that to anyone. “I’m angry with Cynthia because she made huge promises and, it turns out, told a few lies. And I’m angry with myself because I was stupid enough to trust that they meant what they said. If I’d sensed something, maybe we wouldn’t be in this position.”

Eva reached for another napkin. “It isn’t stupid to trust your employer.”

“It’s stupid to trust anyone.” Frankie reached out to stroke Claws and the cat gave a warning hiss.

Paige shook her head. “Sorry. My brother is the only one she trusts, despite the fact I feed her when he’s out. There’s no justice.”

Eva poured dressing onto a salad she’d made. “I don’t know why I’m cooking when none of us are eating. It’s my stress reliever. Fuck Cynthia. Fuck all of them.”

Frankie raised her eyebrows. “I’ve never heard you swear before.”

“I’ve never lost my job before. It’s a first, although this experience definitely wasn’t on my bucket list.” Eva tossed the salad violently, losing a few leaves in the process. They gleamed under the soft light of the terrace, glossy with oil. “At least I won’t have to tell Grams. You know the worst thing? Not working with you two anymore.” Tears glistened in her eyes and Paige was by her side in seconds.

The job was important to her, but her friends, these friends she’d known almost all her life, were more important.

“It’s going to be okay.” She said it fiercely, as if by injecting the words with enough passion they might come true. “We’ll find something.”

“We looked.” Eva’s voice was muffled against her shoulder. “There’s nothing.”

Frankie stood up and walked across to them both. “So we’ll keep looking.” She rubbed Eva’s shoulder and Eva sniffed.

“Is this a group hug? I know things are bad when Frankie hugs me.”

“It was more of a pat than a hug,” Frankie muttered. “And don’t get used to it. Brief lapse on my part. You know I’m about as tactile as Claws. But I feel the same way you do. I don’t care about Star Events. I do care that we won’t be working together anymore.”

Paige felt a rush of anger and helplessness and mingled in there was guilt.

She was the team leader. She should have known. Was there something she’d missed?

She kept going over and over it in her head. “It doesn’t make sense to me that Chase Adams pulled his business because Matilda dropped a tray of champagne.”

“Do you think Matilda knows she was responsible?” Eva sounded worried. “Do you think that’s why she’s not answering her phone? I hope she isn’t feeling guilty.”

“We’ll keep calling. That’s all we can do, Ev. And if we find another job, we’ll try and get her hired. When,” Paige corrected herself quickly. “I mean when we get another job.” Being positive had never felt so exhausting.

She’d been keeping up the fake smile all afternoon as she’d tried to boost their spirits. People lost their jobs all the time, and companies hired all the time. They had skills. They needed to persevere. She’d parroted the words and tried to believe them. And as for her ambitions to run her own company one day, maybe it would be good to get experience elsewhere for a while. The dream was on hold. It wasn’t dead.

She reasoned, rationalized and tried to come to terms with it but an afternoon trawling job websites with Eva and Frankie had slowly drained away her brief moment of optimism, until finally they’d given up and retreated to the roof garden.

Now she felt a rush of frustration. Sitting up here was getting her nowhere.

Eva sat down on one of the chairs, but Paige stayed standing up, staring blindly at the planters spilling over with spring color. She should call some of the businesses they’d run events for. See if they were hiring.

The sound of male voices and the clinking of glass disturbed her thoughts and Paige turned her head and saw her brother appear at the top of the steps.

She immediately conjured up her “I’m perfectly fine” smile. Her smile lasted as long as it took her to spot the glossy dark hair and powerful shoulders of the man behind him.

No, no, no.

She was feeling weak and exposed, and the last person she wanted to be around in that vulnerable state was Jake Romano.

In a world where men were encouraged to get in touch with their feminine side, Jake was unapologetically male. Today, unusually, he was wearing a suit but his shirt was open at the neck and there was no sign of a tie. Even the perfectly tailored cloth did nothing to disguise the width of those shoulders or the raw, restrained power of his body. He was the sort of man you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley on a dark night. Unless you were a woman.

Paige looked away, grateful for the moonlight and flickering candles that created concealing shadows amongst patches of pooled light. Jake knew her better than anyone. Too well.

He’d been the object of all her teenage fantasies and the source of her disillusionment. There was nothing so raw as rejection when you were a teenager, and Jake had been responsible for what would surely have classified as the cruelest rejection ever.

If it had been left to her, she would have made sure she never crossed his path again, but unfortunately that wasn’t an option.

Like it or not, Jake was entwined in their lives.

“There is no celebration. We’ve been laid off. Not only is there no promotion, I’m now officially unemployed.” There was a knot of panic in her stomach. She could hide her emotions, but she couldn’t hide the facts. At some point she’d have to tell her parents, and her mother would worry.

She’d already caused her mother more than enough worry.

Despite the fact she’d been healthy for years, her family still treated Paige like fine china and because of their tendency to worry she did everything she could to make sure she gave them nothing to worry about. They protected her and she protected them right back.

“I saw it on the business news.” Matt put the champagne on the table and pulled her in for a hug. “You should have answered your phone.”

The strength and familiarity of his hug was comforting and she stood in his arms, tense as a bow. “I’m fine.”

“Yeah, right.” His laugh was lacking in humor. “Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Tell me that you’re fine when you’re not.” He closed his hands over her shoulders and eased her away from him so that he could look at her. “Why didn’t you call?”

“I was busy looking for another job. I wanted to have good news, not bad.”

He’d always been there for her. One of her earliest memories was of Matt picking her up when she’d fallen on her face in the sand. He’d brushed off the sand, scooped her up and carried her to the sea to make her laugh.

The only reason her parents had agreed to let her go to college in New York was because they’d trusted Matt to watch over her. At first he’d taken that responsibility a little too seriously and they’d had a few fights.

Gradually they’d learned to compromise, but he still had a tendency to ride to her rescue.

Some men were born protectors and Matt was one of those.

His fingers were firm on her shoulder. “I’m here to cushion the bad news. That’s what big brothers are for. Do you want me to go and punch your boss?”

“No, but if I met Chase Adams I’d punch him myself.” She was horrified by how close she was to tears.

“What does Chase Adams have to do with this?” Jake shrugged off his jacket and sprawled on the nearest chair. He reminded her of a lion or a tiger, always able to make himself comfortable regardless of his surroundings.