- Gemma -
walked over to my car after Alex drove away and studied it, wondering if last night had even been real.
It was so clean it was hard to remember what it looked like with spaghetti dripping off the mirrors, takeout boxes stuck to the wipers, and crushed egg shells up and down the hood. Even the asphalt beneath had been hosed down so there wasn’t a stray candy bar wrapper or a dusting of coffee grounds in sight.
It really was like it never happened, and the gesture was such an incredible gift I didn’t know how I’d ever thank him. Or why someone would do something so nice for me. Sure, I knew there were good men in the world, but to clean up another person’s mess like that? Like it was nothing?
He’d changed the whole course of my day for the better. I patted the frame over the driver’s door before heading towards the gym entrance, letting my mind wander back to his admission that he’d been watching my videos.
To be honest, I was initially embarrassed at the news, my brain recalling every blooper and unprofessional camera wobble I’d recorded over the last six months, but I was too happy to dwell on those mistakes for long. After all, if he thought they were cringy, he never would’ve mentioned that he’d watched them. He was too nice a guy to lie to my face like that.
And the fact that he’d shown his mom?! Maybe our chemistry wasn’t all in my head. Maybe he was thinking about me when his head hit the pillow at night, too. Lord knows I was having trouble thinking of anything or anyone else, especially last night after he celebrated my body in that steam room like I was the most beautiful woman in the world.
I didn’t want to get ahead of myself, though, especially since I knew what the opposite of that bliss was. Hell, the memories I had of hitting rock bottom—of feeling totally worthless—hadn’t even collected cobwebs yet. Besides, I couldn’t afford to lose my mind over some guy. I was already homeless and broke.
I mean, I wasn’t totally broke. My dad said he’d pay me back, and I believed him. What choice did I have? Except I couldn’t stay at Jeanie’s forever, and the money I loaned him would go a long way towards a down payment on a place of my own.
But I wasn’t going to feel bad about that now either. There was no point. I was better off reveling in the fact that this gorgeous man thought I was a YouTube sensation. Hell, maybe the videos would go viral someday, and I could have my pick of sweet apartments.
That was a long way off, of course. But if the comments on my videos were anything to go on, I was steadily finding super fans, and they were the ones who made it all worthwhile, the ones whose support kept me going even when I felt tired and uninspired. They were proof that my videos were more than a self-indulgent vanity project, which is what I feared on those nights when my mind played tricks on me at three a.m., reminding me of all my worst qualities and biggest mistakes.
I shuddered at the thought and shook it off, wondering if Alex had tried to do any other digging about me online. Not that he would’ve found anything.
After Ray, I’d disabled all my social media accounts, partly to avoid his trolling and partly because checking them only made me feel like crap. Plus, that girl that used to sit on the couch, stuffing her face while she lusted after other people’s lives, was the old me. I was someone else now. Someone with promise. Someone with fans.
Someone with a man.
I skipped over the curb and pulled the front door open, greeting some regulars at the watercooler on my way to ditch my purse.
“Someone looks like they got out on the right side of the bed,” André said, smiling at me from where he was folding towels behind the wraparound front desk.
“Against all odds,” I said. “And how are you?”
“Better now that you’re here,” he said, lowering his voice and shooting eyes at Mary’s office door.
“Why?” I asked, stashing my purse in a cubby below the counter. “What’s up?”
“Let’s just say not everyone’s so chipper this morning.”
I glanced over my shoulder to make sure no customers were in earshot. “Any idea why?”
He shook his head. “She’s usually in a slightly better mood when she starts the day with a swim, but not today, apparently.”
A moment later, Mary’s skeletal frame peeked out from behind her office door. “Gemma. A word.”
Shit. I flashed eyes at André after she disappeared.
“Good luck,” he said, turning his focus back to tidying the front desk.
I swallowed and hurried towards the door. It was nothing new that I should be the one to suffer the brunt of Mary’s wrath, but it wasn’t something I ever looked forward to. Usually, I made the time pass by imagining throwing scraps of bread to her like a duck. Lord knows her starvation diet played a role in what a bitch she was most of the time.
“Good morning,” I said, slipping into the office.
She didn’t ask me to take a seat. She just looked up from her desk, her face looking especially gaunt since her hair was damp.
I lifted my brows.
She sighed like she was extremely disappointed in me.
I pressed my lips together and hoped she couldn’t hear the tightening in my chest.
“I heard about the stunt you pulled with your new favorite trainee.”
“Pardon?”
“Mr. Edwards told me all about how you and your little boy toy disgraced him in front of the other members.”
“He’s the one that—”
She raised a palm. “I don’t want to hear it. I know you like to play boss when I’m not around, but you took things too far this time.”
“I apologize.”
“Too little too late, I’m afraid,” she said. “I can’t have the rest of the staff following your lead and going rogue.”
“He harassed those girls, Mary. He’s a sexual predator.”
“Says who?” she asked. “Your little boyfriend?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I suppose you don’t know anything about this either?” she asked, dropping a Ziploc bag on her desk.
“What’s that?”
Her face twisted with ugliness. “You don’t recognize your own underwear?”
I stared at the bag, suddenly seeing that the contents were wet, white cloth. The moisture left my mouth, and I felt lightheaded.
“Should I take them out so we can see if the shoe fits or—”
“Mary, I—”
“Save it,” she said. “You’re fired.”
“What?!” I stormed forward. “You can’t fire me.”
She squinted at the ceiling like she was listening for a noise in the distance. “I said that out loud, right? Do you need me to say it again?”
I parted my lips to speak.
“You’re fired.”
I blinked at her.
“That means you don’t work here anymore.”
“I can explain,” I lied.
“Don’t bother. You’ll need all the bullshit you can muster to get another job. Because I guarantee you won’t be getting a reference from me.”
“You can’t do this!” I said. “You don’t even care about this place! I’m the one that keeps it from burning to the ground every day!”
“By squeezing your wet underwear over it?”
“That’s not fair,” I said. “I’ve never put a foot wrong. Don’t you have to give me a warning first?”
“Not if you got naked on the premises, I don’t.”
“Mary, come on. You know how much I care about this place, how much I need this job.”
“Don’t beg, Gemma. It’s unbecoming.”
I clenched my jaw. Perhaps she was right. Perhaps I was wasting my breath. Not only was she the last person I wanted to beg for anything, she never liked me, and I knew it. And now she had the perfect excuse to get rid of me.
“That will be all,” she said, lifting her eyes to me one last time. “Good luck.”