Chapter 4

• By the time I left the diner, my spine felt like it had personally beefed with gravity and lost. The diner finally emptied out around one thirty in the morning and I clocked out with shaking hands and a promise to get myself to quit this job the moment something—anything—better came along.
• Spoiler: ‘it was the same damn promise I made to myself every night for close to two years now. Nothing better ever came along.’
• The train ride home was filled with thoughts of the gray-eyed man and his friend. He was familiar. I knew who he was when I had collected his card to run his payments. He was Grayson Wolfe, the CEO of the Wolfe Enterprise—one of the most successful tech companies in America, and though it was a major conglomerate, it’s known best for its tech affiliations. The man I had come across today and argued with was a successful man. He was one of the most influential men in the world and with the memory of our little banter earlier, I couldn’t shake the dread that settled in my gut that maybe I had made a mistake by taking the job from Christine instead of simply telling her to stop being a bitch.
• When I got back to the apartment Mira and I shared, it was already a little past two. Mira was still awake—which was nothing new—with a pint of cookie dough ice cream beside her on the couch she was curled up on and her laptop balanced on her knees.
• “Welcome home, exhausted peasant.” She greeted dramatically as I kicked off my shoes at the door with a groan.
• “Thanks, my queen. I come bearing the scent of french fries and crushed dignity.”
• She snorted, still not looking away from her laptop screen as she kept typing. “Want a spoon?”
• “Only if it comes with a glass of wine and six hours of uninterrupted sleep.”
• I dropped onto the couch beside her, tossing my apron onto the floor like it had personally offended me. And perhaps it had because it kept reminding me of him. My feet were on fire and my brain was mush. I was seconds away from turning into a decorative throw pillow at this point. I didn’t know if I could handle the stress much longer.
• “You look like you wrestled a weakass god and lost.” Mira said, barely looking at me as she poked my cheek with her index finger.
• “I met Grayson Wolfe.” I said quietly after a few seconds of silence filled with the clickclack of Mira’s keyboard as she typed.
• Her head snapped to me, her eyes wide. “Excuse me?”
• “Yeah.” I breathed. “The Grayson Wolfe. And a friend of his. They were at the diner.”
• She dropped her spoon that was in her left hand and placed her laptop on the coffee table in front of us with her right hand so she could turn to me properly. “Why didn’t you start with that?”
• “Because I was too busy wondering if I could use a steak knife to cut through my student debts.” I said flatly.
• She laughed, but I didn’t. Not really because after the initial weirdness wore off, the reality had settled back in—rent was due in five days and I had less than a third of my share.
• Mira must’ve sensed my train of thoughts because she reached over and squeezed my hand. “I’ve got you if you need me to.”
• I was already shaking my head way before she could finish her sentence. “No way, Mimi.” I said. “You’ve already done it twice in a row, I’m not about to freeload off my best friend while serving reheated meatloaf for pennies.”
• She sighed, tilting her head to the side slightly. “Z, we’re roommates and—as you said—best friends. Not a bank account and a guilt complex.”
• She had a point but I couldn’t. Not again. It never really did sit right with me.
• I sighed when Mira picked up her laptop to get back to the story she had been working on. She always had some kind of deadline to meet up to and because she was more of a night owl, she was always here to keep me company when I got back home late from one of my jobs.
• Ping.
• It was my phone, I got an email. No one ever sent me emails. The last email notification I got was two nights ago from my bank telling me about the unusual activity going on with my account since I had withdrawn most of the little money I had there to pay for the light bills since my money couldn’t cover my share of the rent.
• I sighed again as I opened my email app, half expecting it to be a message from my bank again with a very depressing account statement for the month.
• My breath hitched as I read the subject of the email.
• ‘Wolfe Enterprises - Opportunity Inquiry’
• I sat up straighter, that caught Mira’s attention.
• “What is it?” She asked, trying to peek at my screen as she squinted at me questioningly.
• I opened the email. It was short, direct and terrifyingly official.
• ‘Good evening, Ms. Smith,
• Mr. Wolfe asked that I reach out to you regarding a potential opportunity with Wolfe Enterprises. He found the interaction between the two of you as well as your demeanor at the restaurant… refreshing. We would like to offer you a preliminary interview for an open administrative position.
• If you are interested, kindly respond to this email and we will arrange the necessary details.
• Warm regards,
• Matthias Rhoades
• Vice President, Wolfe Enterprises.’
• I blinked, my confusion palpable.
• Then I blinked again, half-expecting the email to fade, only for me to come to stare at a blank screen that confirmed that my imagination was overly active tonight. But the email was still there when my eyes refocused on my cracked phone screen.
• “Shit.” I breathed.
• Mira grabbed my phone but I was still staring at where my phone was—at my now empty palms—as I tried to understand what I had just read.
• “Are you kidding me? Is this real?” Mira whispered, as though afraid to break the atmosphere.
• “I…” I cleared my throat. Was it real? I mean, I saw the name, the email address, there were so many possibilities that could be that this was fake but was it really? “I think so…”
• “Fuck, Z.” She cursed as she read over the email again. “This is fate. This is the fucking universe saying ‘hey girl, get off your fucking broke ass and go get your life together’.”
• I groaned as I rubbed my eyes. “I don’t know, Mira. This feels sketchy. Why would some tech billionaire care about a tired waitress that gave him shit?”
• “Because,” Mira drawled as she gave me back my phone and turned to me again with a wide grin. “You’re hot and mean. Obviously.”
• “Mira.” I sighed.
• She leaned in, her voice soft. “Z, I know what you’re thinking.” Her smile turned softer as she took my hands in hers. “You don’t want to owe anyone anything, Not ‘him’,” I bristled at that, we both knew who the ‘him’ was. “Not your parents and not even me. But this isn’t about pride, it’s about survival, Zariah. You need this job. And I’m sure you made so many promises that you would get a better job the moment the opportunity presented itself. What’s the worst that could happen if you took this opportunity and tried?”
• She was right. Mira Caldwell always was. She was right when she told me ‘he’ would never look back if he had to leave me. She was right when she told me to save myself the trouble and move on before I got too attached to ‘him’ close to seven years ago when we were still in college but I had never listened. Now here we were again and I had to remember to trust my best friend.
• She was right when she said I wanted to owe nobody anything and this Mr. Wolfe man was presenting me with an opportunity to get myself back on my own two feet.