“ALEX,” MY AUNT DELORES CROWED into the phone. “When are you coming back to San Diego to visit me?”
“I’m not sure,” I muttered. I’d planned to make the trip next month, but now that I was back to square one when it came to my job hunt, I didn’t know when I’d be able to financially.
I’d officially made the decision to go into rabbit retirement about twenty minutes after I’d left the Devlins’ mansion. Unofficially, I’d probably made that decision two seconds after I’d put on the costume.
Alas, despite the financial bind it’d now put me in, I wasn’t cut out to humiliate myself at kids’ birthday parties. Something about not being able to defend myself against the little shit-talkers didn’t sit well with me.
Earlier this morning, when I’d dropped off the costume at Princess Party Productions, I’d given my verbal “no days’” notice. And surprisingly, without any “magical” argument, Princess Prozac had Tina from HR cut me a pink and glittery check for five hundred Princess Dollars, and we’d gone our separate ways. I had a hunch Kitty Devlin and her Botoxed mouth had gifted some complaints to my employee file.
“I’m not going to be around much longer, ya know,” Aunt Delores muttered, and I rolled my eyes. She might have been seventy, but she was as healthy as an ox and had more energy than most thirty-year-olds. Hell, she still got up on her roof once a month to clean out her gutters.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said through a laugh. “You’ll probably live longer than I will.”
“I’m seventy, honey. Time is ticking, and death is practically knocking at my door.”
I sighed. It was pointless to argue with her once she started into the whole “death is knocking at my door” bit. “Okay, fine. What about next month?”
I didn’t know if it was doable, but I’d try to find a way to make it work.
“Next month isn’t good. I’m going to Vegas with the ladies from church.”
“A church trip to Vegas? That’s a tad ironic, don’t you think?”
“Don’t be such a do-gooder,” she retorted. “A little gambling in the name of the Lord is good for the soul.”
“Okay…what about August?”
“I’ll have to check my schedule. We might be taking the church bus to Salt Lake City.”
“What’s in Salt Lake?”
“Mormons.”
“But I thought you were Baptist?”
“I am. That’s why we need to go to Salt Lake. Preach the name of the Lord to the Mormons.”
“That makes no sense, Aunt Delores. Mormons are Christian, too.”
“Fine.” She sighed. “You caught me in a lie. We’re probably going to Vegas again.”
“I’m starting to wonder if your church group is actually a gambling group,” I chastised.
“You’re too damn curious for your own good.”
“You mean for your own good?” I corrected.
“That’s neither here nor there, Alex,” she muttered. “More importantly, have you enrolled in school yet?”
I cringed. “I’m still trying to save up some money.”
“You’ve been saying that since you left San Diego—which was over a year ago.”
“I know, but it’s not exactly easy starting from scratch. Plus, I haven’t decided what I want to major in, and I’m not going to take classes that won’t count toward my degree. College is too expensive to waste money on useless courses.”
“Are you still working at that bar?”
“No.”
“Where are you working now?”
Nowhere.
“I’ve got a few odds and ends jobs.”
“Sounds like you’re floundering like a beached fish. Do you need money, Alex? I can send you money.”
Yes, I do. But I can’t take money from you…
“No. I don’t need money. I’m fine.”
“I think you should move back to San Diego. You can go to school here. Live with me for free.”
“I appreciate that, I really do. But I’m happy here.”
Well, I was sort of happy. I mean, my situation could be better. Money, new friends, a better apartment, those kinds of things would’ve helped my current life outlook.
“The offer always stands, Alex.”
“Thanks.”
“Okay, honey. I’ve gotta scoot. I’m meeting the girls for lunch. I’ll let you know about August.”
“Love you, Aunt Delores.”
“Love you too.”
I hung up the phone and plopped my ass onto my sofa, and Deena, my cat, hopped onto my legs and curled up in my lap. Mindlessly, I ran my fingers through her black coat as I contemplated the meaning of my life.
How had I gotten to this point?
Over a year ago, I’d left San Diego with high hopes of finding a job, enrolling in classes at UCLA, and making a fresh start for myself. It wasn’t that I hadn’t liked San Diego, but I’d needed a change. I’d needed to spread my wings and not be so reliant on Aunt Delores.
I’d needed to grow up.
And I’d also wanted to surround myself with people who weren’t so complacent with their mundane, monotonous lives.
It was like one day I’d woken up from a dream and I was bored. I’d felt stuck and out of place and like life had no real purpose. I’d grown tired of working at the gas station up the street from my aunt’s house. My days had become predictable. Work, hang out with my then-boyfriend Randy and our friends at the local bar, sleep, wake up, and then do it all over again.
I wanted something more.
When I’d made the decision to move to LA, I’d basically left everything behind—my friends, my boyfriend, my life.
But even now, I still didn’t regret it. The more I was searching for was here somewhere; I could feel it.
I just hated that it was taking me so long to figure it all out.
Three hard knocks to my door startled me out of my thoughts. I slid Deena off my lap and headed toward my door, but five more knocks, even harsher than before, followed.
Jesus, hold your horses.
I peered out of the peephole and internally sighed the instant I caught sight of Vinnie Pat, my landlord. With a big beer belly and greasy, thinning hair, he wasn’t the kind of man to make house calls unless he had an important message—otherwise known as an eviction notice—to give you.
Ah, fuck.
I leaned my back against the door and sighed.
“I know you’re in there, Alex! Open up,” he shouted from the other side.
Shit.
I took a deep breath, turned, lifted my breasts a little higher out the top of my shirt, and opened the door. “Hey, Vin,” I greeted in a sugary-sweet voice.
“You’re behind on rent.”
“I know,” I admitted, thrusting my chest forward in the hopes that it would distract him from the forthcoming fib. “But I just dropped a check in the box for one month’s rent, and I’ll have the rest that I owe you next week.” I hadn’t actually dropped the check in the box yet, but I would…even though it would clean me out completely. And I might not have the rest by next week, but that would at least give me time to figure something out.
Unfortunately, he seemed immune to the power of my breasts.
“Here.” He shoved an envelope into my hands.
“What’s this?”
“An eviction notice.”
“But I’m almost caught up on my rent!” I argued.
He rolled his eyes. “You have one week to get out.”
“Wait…what?” I questioned, my voice rising to a near shriek. “A week?”
“Yeah. One week to move your shit out or I’m tossing it all in the trash.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me right now!” I exclaimed, crumpling up the envelope in my hands and throwing it to the ground. “Legally, you’re supposed to give me thirty days!”
His laugh was smarmy. “Well, I’m giving you a week, sweet cheeks. Seven days and you need to find another place to call home.”
“If I had the money for a lawyer, I’d be suing you, you sucky human being!”
He just grinned over his shoulder as he headed for the stairs, unaffected. “If you had the money for a lawyer, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, and I wouldn’t be evicting you.”
“You suck!” I shouted and realized how stupid I sounded. “I mean…your apartments suck! I don’t want to be here anyway! And I’m canceling that fucking check. So…suck it, Vinnie. Yeah…suck it!”
The bastard didn’t react to my words. He just kept on walking until he was no longer in sight, and the stairwell door closed behind him with a thud.
“You suck!” I shouted again and then once more until I realized I was just standing in the hallway yelling at no one. “You suck!” I screamed at the top of my lungs just because and walked into my apartment and slammed the door shut.
I was certain of two things: Vinnie Pat deserved a good, hard kick to the balls, and I really needed to work on my comebacks.
Also, my timeline to figure out my next move had dwindled significantly.
I scrubbed a hand down my face and walked back toward the sofa. Deena stared up at me from her perch on the cushion.
“What are we going to do?” I asked her. She just offered a soft purr in response as she stretched out on the couch and started softly licking her paws.
“Jesus, now is not the time to kick back and lick ourselves.” I sighed. “We only have seven days to find a job and a new place to live.”
She licked at her paws a few more times before hopping to her feet and jumping onto the coffee table. Her long legs glided across the wooden surface until they stopped right in front of a familiar white card resting on top of last week’s issue of Us Weekly.
I picked up the sleek card and held it between my fingertips.
Wonderland, Inc.
Matt Hadder, CEO
“Come see me.” His words ran through my mind. “I think you’d find that my company is a much better fit for you.”
I had no clue what Wonderland, Inc.’s company purpose was, but I knew it was my only shot at getting myself out of this situation without ending up back in San Diego in Aunt Delores’s house.
I held the card to my nose and was quickly reminded of how fucking good Matt Hadder smelled…and looked. He wasn’t the kind of man a woman could easily forget about. Alpha. Dominating. The kind of eyes that held the power to drive a woman mad. His entire presence demanded to be remembered.
Before I could think twice about it, I snagged my phone off the coffee table, turned the card over and dialed the cell number listed.
Two rings and the word, “Hello?” practically rumbled in my ear.
“Uh…” Uncertainty clenched my gut, and I paused.
Was I sure about this? No, I definitely wasn’t.
But did I really have any other options? Not really…
“Uh… Is this Matt?’