The Millionaire Myth

by Jennifer Taylor

  Gina took a step closer to Tess. “How would Mick know about Steven and I, Tess? I know I haven't told him.”

  Tess looked at Gina, pleading, “Gina, listen to me, okay? I didn't mean for this to happen...”

  Gina held up a hand, silencing Tess. It was odd that a room with so many people in it could be so silent. Everyone was shocked and waiting to see what would happen next. Gina stared at Tess for a few seconds, deciding what to say. Her face was so full of anger it looked like she might explode. Then finally she did. She took a deep breath and screamed at Tess, “I can't believe you! I always knew you were a liar, but I had no idea you'd stoop this low! You spent months trying to convince me to leave Steven, and now I know why! You are such a whore!”

  Tess came back at Gina immediately, “Don't talk to me like that! I didn't mean to have this happen, Steven and I...we just-”

  Gina cut her off, mocking, “'Steven and I...we just,' What? You just what? Were married?” Gina bumped the heel of her hand against her forehead. “Oh no, wait! You aren't married, Steven and I are married! What happened, were you too busy coming onto him to remember that?”

  Tess stiffened and glared at Gina. Her face lost any trace of remorse and her eyes grew narrow. Her words came out like ice, “Fine. I'm done trying to shelter you from this. You want to know what really happened? Steven came onto me.” She let a smile spread across her face as she stressed the next words. “Several times.” She paused to let her words sink in before she continued, “At first I turned him down, because I felt bad for you. How embarrassing to have your husband looking around for someone to satisfy him. But after a few more requests, I took pity on him. After all, a hot guy like that, he deserves better than some woman who can't give him what he needs.”

  Gina took a small step back. “I can't believe you're saying this to me, Tess. I thought you and I were friends. Why would you pretend to care about me, when the whole time you were lying to my face?”

  “Hey, I was your friend. You and I were tight until you took pity on the Loaded Lobby Chick over there. You dropped me like a hot rock when you found someone to follow you around all day.” Tess flipped her hair off her shoulder and looked down her nose at Gina. “That's the real reason you and I could never be real friends, you're too weak to be my equal. I'm better than you in every way,” Tess smiled. “Just ask Steven.”

  Before Tess had any time to gloat over her words, Gina pulled her hand back and full on punched Tess in the face. The force of the punch whipped Tess's head to the right and she cried out in pain. I half expected Tess to drop to the ground, but she was too tough to give Gina the satisfaction. She held her hand to her face and stared at Gina in shock.

  Gina smiled at Tess. It was as if she'd channeled all her fury into that punch and was left calm and collected. “You know what, Tess? You can have Steven. He's a moron.” She chuckled. “I mean, really, what else can you call a man who would give up a woman like me,” She held her hand to her chest. “To hop in the sac,” She motioned to Tess. “With a train wreck like you.”

  Gina turned her attention to Slick who was still grinning like an idiot. “I gotta tell you, I've always thought you were a real ass hole.” Gina patted the shoulder of his black suit. “This just proves I was right, I guess. I do have to thank you though, for telling me what was going on behind my back. So, thank you, ass hole.”

  Gina moved past him without another word. Slick looked like he wanted to say something, but Gina didn't give him much of a chance. She came to stand by me. I didn't know what to do, she was still oddly calm. I smiled at her. “Are you okay?”

  She returned my smile and added a shoulder shrug. “Eh, yes and no. Apparently my husband is a cheating prick who likes to stick it to any piece of trash he meets,” she waved behind her toward Tess. “And she just happened to be the nearest hunk of garbage.”

  I looked over at Slick. “Why would you keep something like that from her? What is wrong with you?”

  He hadn't moved a muscle during the entire fight between Gina and Tess, but my words seemed to thaw his frozen stance. He moved toward me. “Do you really think you're in any position to be talking about secrets and lies? You lied to this entire office Estelle! I can't believe all the time I wasted with you!”

  Gina stood up for me. “Come off it, Mick! You're just pissed that she beat you at your own game! And you deserved it! You do anything to close a deal. I guess it doesn't feel too good to be manipulated, does it?”

  Slick leveled his eyes on Gina. “Don't you have enough problems to worry about? Maybe if you spent less time concerned with other people's lives, your own wouldn't be such a mess.”

  I looked at Slick. “How could you do that to her, Mick? Jesus, you told her that her husband is cheating on her just because you were mad at me?” I looked at Gina. “You're right, he really is an ass hole.”

  She nodded. “I know, right?”

  Now it was my turn to chuckle. I looked past Slick to see Tess, Cathy, and all the other perfectly coiffed agents staring back at me. Why had I spent so much time worrying about what they thought? Why hadn't I seen what I see now? They were just a bunch of normal people, all trying their best to impress each other.

  Still looking at all of them, I asked to no one in particular, “What the hell am I doing here?”

  Although I hadn't been speaking to anyone directly, Gina answered me, “My thoughts exactly.”

  “Listen up everyone. I know by now you all know this, but just for the sake of clarity, I told you all a big, fat lie. My grandpa didn't leave me any money. I made it all up, mainly because it sounded fun. You all spend most of your time walking right past me. When you do address me it's to bark an order at me. I admit, I wanted to see what it'd be like to be the important one for a change. So, I lied, and just as I predicted, you all tripped over each other in your rush to be my new best friend.

  “You all had different approaches, of course. Tess, you tried to get on my good side with lunches and compliments. Cathy, you gave me an overly sympathetic shoulder just to get all the dirt, and Mick, you...well, we all know how far you went to get into my good graces.” I blew a kiss at him, only to be rewarded with another evil glare.

  “What I've realized, is that none of it matters. None of you care about me, and that's fine. Now that I see what you're all really like, I'd rather not have any of you in my eye line, much less call any of you a friend.”

  I looked at Gina. “You wanna get out of here?”

  “I was ready to go right after I punched the whore.”

  I grinned. “Okay then, let's hit it.”

  Chapter 32

  “So, what are you going to do now?” I asked Gina as I tossed my bag into the passenger seat of my car.

  She let out a long sigh. “I don't really know. But I'm strangely invigorated.”

  “I've heard violence can do that to people.”

  “Are you really going to tell me you don't think she deserved it?”

  I shook my head. “You kidding? I think she deserved more than one shot to the face. I think you showed restraint.”

  “This sounds weird to say, but I kind of feel like I'm over it. I was so angry, I really felt like I could have killed her. But I think I'm starting to realize that she did me a huge favor. I meant what I said earlier; she can have him.”

  “I'm glad you feel that way. But, what do you do now? Are you going to move out?”

  She laughed out loud. “Why would I do that? It's my house. I bought that house long before I met that ass hole, and I'm going to have it long after I get rid of him.” Gina gave me a quick hug. “I'm off, I need to get to the house and start clearing his crap out of there. I'll call you later though, okay? We can grab a drink?”

  “Okay, let me know if you need help moving anything, okay?”

  “Honey, I've got all the help I need right here.” She held up her phone. I'm going to hire some movers. No heavy lifting for this lady.”

  I smiled as I watched her saunter to
ward her car. I had all the help I needed too. I got into my car and pulled out my own phone to help me find the nearest temp agency.

  * * *

  “Ah, I love Relaxurdays,” Kami sighed as she leaned back into the massage chair.

  I examined two different shades of red before deciding on the brighter one. I handed it to the woman doing my pedicure, then turned to Kami. “You do realize it's Wednesday, right? You can't technically call this a Relaxurday.” I leaned back into my own massage chair.

  Kami waved a dismissive hand at me without opening her eyes. “Fine, then I love Pednesdays.”

  I eyed her. “What?”

  “Pednesdays.” She finally opened her eyes and looked at me. Pedicure plus Wednesday. You're very slow today.”

  I chuckled and leaned back in my chair. “You're insane.”

  “You should be nicer to me, I had to change everything around to meet you today.”

  “You asked your mom to babysit her only grandchild. That's not exactly a huge sacrifice.”

  “Just wait till I get that little monster back from her, high from tons of sugar and cranky from no nap. That's when the sacrifice comes in my friend.”

  “That does sound scary. Thanks for taking that hit for me.”

  “Anytime.”

  We sat quietly for a few minutes, both of us enjoying the feeling of the warm water and massage jets. I felt so decadent, being able to do this in the middle of the week. It had only been two days since I walked out of Lawson & Stone, but I could definitely get used to this lazy schedule.

  Kami turned to look at me. “I hate to interrupt this calm moment, but what are you going to do about work?”

  “Don't worry, I went to a temp agency yesterday. I already filled out all the paperwork, and the lady said she has a few places that are looking for someone with my particular skill set.”

  “You mean how you can make coffee and type?”

  “Hey, I can also answer phones and file things. I'm quite an asset, thank you very much. Anyway, she's going to call me tomorrow with some options. Good thing too, because while I love all this free time, my bank account can't take it.”

  “Too bad that Millionaire Myth wasn't a Riches Reality.”

  I sat forward and looked at Kami. “What do you do? Do you stay up at night and think these things up?”

  Kami laughed. “I'm insulted! This is spur of the moment creation, Baby.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.”

  “It all worked out then, you're away from Lawson & Stone, and that hostile atmosphere. Hopefully you'll love the new place you get assigned to.”

  “Hopefully,” I agreed. “Besides, if I hate it, it's just a temp job, I can always find something else.”

  “That's true. I really think that after you get settled in a new job you'll be much happier.”

  “I think so too.”

  Chapter 33

  I'm not proud of it, but I've been ignoring my car. That annoying light in the shape of a gas pump had been lit up for 2 days. But, seeing as how I had no income, I was trying to spread my cash as far as I could.

  My car decided to kick things up a notch though, and began dinging and donging at me. I guess it assumed I was too stupid to understand the gas pump light, and needed an audible hint. Hint taken.

  I was feeling less stressed about the job situation because I had just finished up at the blood lab. I had participated in the time honored tradition of the urine test. You know the one, not only do you get the humiliation of peeing into the world's tiniest cup, but you also get to hand it over to the nurse for testing. I always enjoy the part before heading into the bathroom, when I'm patted down like a felon. I realize that there are some people who smuggle in urine, but I am definitely not one of them. Aside from the fear of getting arrested for having or using illegal drugs, the idea that I'd have to handle any urine other than my own to get a job, pretty much guarantees that I'd never mess with illegal substances. Give me the legal liquid ones any day.

  So, despite the drug test hassle, things were looking up. The temp agency lady had a job lined up for me, and I was starting on Monday. The best news? It was for a heavy equipment rental place. I was looking forward to guys in jeans and baseball caps. There should be no suits in sight!

  Trying to ignore my cars dinging, I made a right and headed toward the gas station. I was only a couple blocks away when my car started acting funny. Out of nowhere the engine started to die. I panicked, and gripped the steering wheel, looking around for an answer to the problem.

  All of the sudden, the engine caught and everything returned to normal. I barely had time to let out a sigh of relief before it died again. “What the hell?” I asked myself, struggling to pull the car over without the benefit of power steering.

  Once I had it at the curb and in park, I sat back in the seat, stunned. Did I really just run out of gas? This doesn't happened to real people! It's a TV thing...

  After a couple more minutes I realized it was definitely real. I groaned and squinted, seeing the gas station sign still two blocks ahead. “Damn it!” I yanked at my suit jacket, since it was already getting warm without the air conditioner. I tossed the jacket on the backseat, and it was followed quickly by my heels. I grabbed my old grungy tennis shoes from the floorboard of the passenger seat. They'd been there for weeks, ever since I'd committed to taking walks at lunch instead of pigging out. Needless to say, they hadn't been used.

  But they were getting used today. I was not prancing down to the gas station in my good heels. I pulled the shoes on, grabbed my purse and the keys from the ignition. I pushed the button to activate my hazards, and climbed from the car. I looked left and right, then jogged across the street.

  I jogged down the block, hoping to get the gas and get on my way as quickly as possible. Between the jogging and the heat, I was starting to warm up quickly. I pulled the rubber band from my wrist and wrangled my hear up into a messy bun. Yep. I just couldn't feel sexier. Fuck it. At least the air was hitting my neck.

  I got to the gas station, where I quickly bought a small gas can, a super big gulp and a King Size Snickers. I paid for everything and went out to fill my gas can. I shoved the candy bar into my purse and set my vat of soda down on the curb.

  As I started to unscrew the top of my little red gas can, it occurred to me that I'd never filled one with gas before. I remembered my dad always had gas in the garage for the mower. I'd seen him do it a few times, and it seemed easy enough.

  I started filling the can, being careful to watch the level. The last thing I needed after everything else was to get gas on me too. Amazingly, I managed to fill the can without incident. To celebrate my small victory, I took my gas and soda and went to sit under a tree at the side of the station. There was a small patch of grass that looked like it was made for me.

  I dropped down on the grass and dug the candy bar out of my purse. I took a big bite of the candy and leaned my head back and sighed. Heaven. I spent the next few minutes sitting there in the shade ingesting my solid and liquid sugar forms.

  I had just taken another large bite of my candy when I heard a small giggle. I looked across the lot, trying to spot the giggler. There she was. Trina.

  And she was standing right next to a large, white Ford truck. And also standing next to it was Drew.

  Without thinking, I stood up. I felt like such an idiot, and for some reason I thought I'd be less of an idiot if I was vertical. I was wrong. In my rush, I bumped my super big gulp and it fell over. The lid popped off, and the remaining three-quarters soaked my left foot.

  I looked down at my foot, not sure what to do. I looked back up at Drew. I wanted to say something. I wanted to apologize, maybe beg his forgiveness. At the very least, I wanted to hypnotize him, make him forget the last thirty seconds.

  I didn't get to do any of that. Trina laced her arm through his and laughed again, shaking her head. I heard her say, “C'mon, Babe. Let's get out of here.” Before pulling him along. He looked at me for j
ust another moment before turning and following behind her.

  Now my day was complete. I grabbed my purse and headed back toward my car. I dropped the rest of the candy and soda in the garbage I passed. I wasn't hungry anymore, suddenly I wanted to throw up.

  * * *

  Hours later I felt much better. After I filled up my gas tank I went straight home. After I tossed the tennis shoes in the trash, I went into the bathroom to take a shower. I groaned when I saw my reflection, seeing exactly what Drew had seen. My frizzy, tangled hair in a lopsided bun on the top of my head, my makeup streaked from the heat, and as a bonus, sweat stains under my arms. Well, at least I gave him a memorable last sighting of me.

  The embarrassment faded after my shower-and my margarita. I dropped onto my couch and put my feet up, feeling grateful for the safety and privacy of my own home. I started the latest episode of Rehab Addict. It was a show about a single mom who fixed up houses, and I was addicted. I loved to save up a bunch of episodes and have marathons. I was excited to see that I had five to enjoy. I wondered how pathetic it made me to be truly excited about those five episodes.

  I was about halfway through my first episode when there was knock at the door. I paused the show and grabbed my wallet. I had ordered pizza. The only thing that would make Rehab Addict better.

  I swung open the door, too busy looking though my wallet to look up. “You guys did get the extra cheese, right? 'Cause last time you forgot.” I looked up expecting to see the slightly greasy teen who usually delivered my pizza, but instead I saw the very un-greasy face that belonged to Drew.

  My God! Must I always be about to stuff my face when I see him?

  I just stood there staring at him like a moron. Not a big deal, I guess. He'd seen me act like a moron more than a few times.

  “Can I come in?” He asked.

  I didn't move from the door, and after a few seconds to consider his words, I said, “Why do you even want to come in? Don't you hate me?”

  “Uh, no. Not that I'm aware of.”