Echo (Bleeding Hearts #1)(4)
“Why don’t we skip the walk this time.” She sat down beside me in the grass. “I bought us some breakfast anyway.”
She dug around inside of her oversize hobo bag, pulling out random objects until she found what she was looking for. A pink bakery box that she handled like it was made of glass.
As she set to work on it with her dainty fingers, she flashed a smile that lit up her entire face.
I imagined Nicole as one of those perky cheerleader types back in high school. She had a perfect figure accented by her Lululemon clothing and long blonde hair that had every man in the park turning their head. She never seemed to notice.
I felt like the poor man’s version. My hair was strawberry blonde, or as I liked to call it, the devil’s mark. It was an unfortunate inheritance from my mother’s Irish roots, which only made me resent it more. I’d also inherited her porcelain skin and hazel eyes. They often changed colors to reflect my mood, but today they were a cloudy hue of gray.
“Here you go.” Nicole wiggled a fluffy pink cupcake in front of me.
“Breakfast?” I laughed.
She handed it off with a flourish and licked the residual frosting from her thumb. “When isn’t a good time for cupcakes? And I promise you, these are the best.”
I twirled the pastel confection in my hand, enjoying the scent of vanilla that wafted into the air. It almost looked too good to eat.
“Thank you, Nicole.”
“No problem,” she said. “Now, I have a question for you.”
“Okay?”
Her face grew serious, and she set her cupcake down before giving me her full concentration. “Would you say you consider me a friend?”
“Of course.” I gave her a weak smile, already knowing where she was going with this.
“Well, friends talk to each other, don’t they?”
“Yes.” I sighed. “But this feels a little too personal. I don’t want to dump my problems on you after only knowing you for a couple of weeks.”
“Well, that’s too bad.” She rolled onto her side and propped her head on her hand. “Because I’m going to have to insist.”
I pulled my knees into my chest, trying to find the right words to describe my situation. I never talked about my problems to anyone, and I feared once I opened that door, I wouldn’t be able to shut it again. There was a lot that could have spilled out of my mouth. Like how difficult the last five years had been. How my brother’s accident had destroyed my family and broken my heart. How I barely managed to graduate high school or how I thought San Francisco was my golden opportunity.
But all of those things were too close to my heart, and Nicole and I weren’t quite on that level yet. So instead, I told her the simple truth of my most urgent problem.
“I worked in a bakery chain back home,” I said. “And the company offered me an apprenticeship. That’s the whole reason I came to San Francisco. But I haven’t even started yet, and I got bumped from the program. They said there were some unexpected budget cuts.”
“I’m sorry, Brighton.” She frowned. “So what are you going to do now?”
I shrugged, because truthfully, I had no idea. I used all of my savings to come here, and I only had enough to keep my room for the next two weeks. I’d been counting on this, and I had nobody else to rely on, but I couldn’t tell Nicole that.
I should have known it was too good to be true. Things like this didn’t just happen out of the blue for me. I should have looked into it better, made certain it was a concrete offer. It wasn’t as if I was dying to be a baker’s apprentice, but it was the only offer I had. And I had clung to it.
“Well, you have some office experience, don’t you?” Nicole asked.
“A little.” I gave her a sheepish nod. “Sometimes I filled in at a tire shop back home. Answering the phones and booking appointments. Not exactly rocket science.”
“Well,” she spoke in a gentle tone, “my company is hiring. It’s normally pretty brutal competition to get in, but there’s an open spot for an office go-to girl, and since you know someone on the inside…”
She left the words hanging in the air, and I took the bait without hesitation.
“You think you could get me an interview?”
“I can do better than an interview.” She winked. “I’m the coordinator for the intern program.”
“You are?” I blinked in confusion. “But you’re so young.”
She stiffened at my blunt observation, and I slumped against the tree. I didn’t mean for it to sound rude, but it was a truth that couldn’t be ignored. Nicole was only a year older than me, which would put her at twenty-two. Even if she was fresh out of college, I didn’t see how she could already be running an internship program.
“I am young,” she agreed. “But I’m in tight with the CEO. And I may look sweet and innocent, but I wouldn’t underestimate me, Brighton.”
She smiled as she said it, but there was also a slight edge to her voice that I found a little odd. It disappeared a moment later when she picked up her cupcake.
“Now we just need to talk about finding you a more permanent place to stay.”
Chapter Two
As the elevator signaled its arrival to the top floor of The Bennett Corporation, my stomach somersaulted with nerves.