Clean Slate
Page 3
Chapter Five
I stop outside the deli that Hannah told me was on the street level of our office building and take a deep breath, trying to shake the nerves away. After steeling myself for a moment, I open the door on the right to be greeted by a long hallway with elevators on the left-hand side.
“First day?” A woman’s voice says as I take another deep breath and hesitantly press the up button.
I turn to my left to find a blonde in a blue dress and heels who looks like she just stepped off the cover of Vogue. Strike that, not Vogue, more like Cosmo. Yeah, Cosmo.
“Kind of.” I hold my bag in front of me with both hands clasped to the handles.
“I’m Chelsea. I started working on the twenty-first floor with a non-profit a couple months ago. What floor do you work on?”
I smile. “Twenty-first.”
She points. “The assistant?”
I nod.
She adjusts her bag up onto her shoulder and extends her arm out toward me. “Hi. I’m the marketing manager. Chelsea Walsh.”
I shake her hand. “Victoria Clarke.”
“Nice to meet you. Hannah hired me two months ago and we’ve been trying to do a lot of it ourselves, but I’m so happy you’ll be joining us. I’ve been busier than a five-dollar hooker.”
I smile, not sure what to make of her comment when the elevator dings open and we file in. She presses the button and we wait.
She checks out my hands. “No ring. Single?”
“Divorced.”
She nods. “Me, too. Not the best club to be a member of, but more often than not, it’s a happy club. Am I right?” She elbows me like we’re a bunch of guys razzing each other about who will win the super bowl.
I smile.
“Isn’t dating a let down? I went out with this guy recently because he had a motorcycle. Yeah, I love the bad boys. You’d think my ex would’ve ruined that for me. Sadly, still think I can change them.” She waves off her last comments like they’re nothing important. “So…this guy picks me up on his motorcycle and yeah, I know it’s Chicago and cold but what am I going to say? Pick me up in your Honda? No way.” She inhales a breath and I can see where she might be lightheaded with the way she’s talking so much. “I thought we’d go along the lakefront or something, but he drives me to some upscale bar in the suburbs to hang around outside with his other wannabe bad boy biker gang, minus any SOA vibes.”
“Bummer.” I’m not sure what else to say. I’ve never met anyone as open as this woman is with a practical stranger.
“Bummer’s right. It turns out the bike wasn’t even his. It was his dad’s. Can you believe that? The kid—and I say kid because he lied about his age. He was twenty-one.” She holds up her hand. “I’m all about dating a younger guy, but there’s no way this kid who stole his daddy’s bike was going to know his way around the erogenous zones. Am I right?”
“You’re right.” I look up to the elevator buttons. Thankfully, it lands on twenty-one and the doors open.
“I wanted to ask him for his daddy’s number.”
She laughs and we both step off the elevator into what is our new office.
Small is right, but it’s quaint and cute. There’s a small reception area for guests to wait with leather chairs and a couch. Magazines are fanned out on a coffee table with a cooler full of water bottles in the corner in case they’re thirsty.
“What are you talking about?” The woman I’ve only seen through a video appears from down the hall. “Victoria!” she exclaims like I’m some long-lost sorority sister.
“Good morning, Ms. Crowley,” I say, and she stops dead in her tracks. Her arms falling to her sides and her exuberant expression falling.
“No, no, no. Call me Hannah. You need to forget everything Jagger ever taught you.” Her arms stretch and embrace me in a hug that I lightly reciprocate with a few pats on the back. She pulls away probably sensing my timidness. “Welcome.” A soft smile crosses her face. “What are you carrying on about?” she directs her question to Chelsea.
“Well, it’s Monday,” she singsongs, her head bobbing back and forth.
“Oh yes, divorcee dating recap?” Hannah rolls her eyes in a cute, playful manner to say she secretly enjoys them.
“You guessed right.”
“You’ll have to fill me in in a bit.” Hannah says, leading me over to a desk situated near a window. “Here’s your desk.”
My desk is gray and has a large screen monitor on it, a holder full of pens, notebooks and a phone. Everything looks all set for me to start.
“Looks great. Thank you so much.”
Chelsea smiles on from across the desk. “Hannah, did you know she’s divorced, too?”
Hannah nods “And she’s got a daughter. Jade, right?”
“Yeah.” I take out the picture frame from my bag and place it on my desk. Whether or not I get fired, this time I’m not ashamed to be a single mom. I should be proud to raise a daughter and not thinking my boss will perceive me as someone who will constantly be calling in sick.
“She’s adorable.” Chelsea wastes no time to pick up the frame and inspect it. “She looks just like you.”
Poor Pete. We both hear that all the time. But I see a lot of him in her, especially in her character.
“We’re like the modern-day version of the First Wives Club.” Chelsea places the picture back down. Both Hannah and I look over at her, not understanding. “You know, that movie with Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn and…” she snaps her fingers. “What’s the other one’s name?”
“Bette Midler.” I chime in.
She places her hand up in the air. “Are you a movie lover, too?”
“Oh, that one where they seek revenge on their ex’s?” Hannah asks.
“That’s the one. We’re kind of like them except we’re not going to extort our ex’s,” Chelsea says. “Though I would’ve if mine had had anything worth having.”
“Mine is probably dating someone half his age,” Hannah says with disgust in her voice.
“Mine is probably in jail right about now,” Chelsea adds.
“Mine is a workaholic.” My story doesn’t sound nearly as bad as these two. “But I do have to have constant communication with him because we share a child.”
They both laugh.
“True.” Chelsea says. “I thank the heavens I didn’t end up knocked up with my bastard of an ex. No offense.”
“None taken.” I look down at the picture of Jade, knowing Pete in my life isn’t half as bad as having Jade not in it.
“Hold on girls.” Hannah walks down the hall.
“There’s a small break room down there,” Chelsea says.
Hannah returns a minute later with a bottle of champagne and three coffee to-go cups.
“We’re going to celebrate. To the kick off RISE. To us starting our lives over. To being free of controlling males.”
She pries the bottle open easier than I could’ve and pours us each a drink. Placing the bottle down, she holds up her cup. “To a clean slate and new adventures.”
Chelsea and I knock our paper cups against hers. “To a clean slate and new adventures,” we say in unison.
As the bubbles from the champagne tickle my throat, I smile, knowing I made a good decision coming here. Surrounding myself with a duo of empowering women, helping my mom and raising my daughter without a man in my life sounds like the perfect way to start over.
Looking back, that sentiment seems laughable given what happened the following week.
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About the Author
Piper Rayne, or Piper and Rayne, whichever you prefer because we’re not one author, we’
re two. Yep, you get two USA Today Bestselling authors for the price of one. Our goal is to bring you romance stories that have "Heartwarming Humor With a Side of Sizzle" (okay...you caught us, that's our tagline). A little about us... We both have kindle’s full of one-clickable books. We're both married to husbands who drive us to drink. We're both chauffeurs to our kids. Most of all, we love hot heroes and quirky heroines that make us laugh, and we hope you do, too.
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