A Bad Bit Nice Read Free Page A

you, personally or professionally. Everyone knows that if you hadn’t been covering for him on that last project, the Holbrook Firm’s reputation would have gone down in flames. How many times has he presented something to the partners as his own idea when it was actually yours? And I’m not even going to start on the way he treats you outside of the office. You need a break from Tripp. Like a permanent break. Forever.”
    Em sighed. She knew Ashley was right. Hell, they had the exact conversation, but reversed, when Ashley was miserable with her former real estate firm and that horrible boyfriend, Richard.
    “Okay, one thing at a time, Ash. I’ll do the interview. It’s a start, right?”

Chapter 2     
September
    Em sat staring at the offer letter in her hand. It was real. It was really, really real.
    She hadn’t truly believed it when the recruiter called yesterday with the verbal offer, and when she said that a written offer letter would arrive shortly, boy, she didn’t exaggerate: the letter came by courier within 20 minutes of their conversation.
    Better yet, the offer included a 90-day lead time to wrap everything up at her current job so she didn’t leave anybody in a lurch. The substantial bump in pay, plus a nice signing bonus, plus quarterly bonus, only sweetened the deal. It was perfect. No more crawling under desks to find out that some partner had “accidentally” unplugged his computer and no more cleaning up viruses from work computers infected by downloading porn from contaminated sites.
    Em thought back to her interview with the charismatic Irishman. He had truly seemed to value her ideas. He asked interesting questions during the interview, and she thought he answered her own questions candidly.
    Em sent Ashley a quick text: “Got the dream job.” Seconds later, her phone rang.
    “Woo! Now you can get a new place and a new boyfriend!” Ashley gushed.
    Em snorted.
    “That converted Victorian is for sale, you know, Em,” Ashley said nonchalantly. “You know, the one that you drool over whenever we pass it? I think it’s a sign.” Ashley knew very well that her best friend saw portents everywhere.
    “Really?” Em said, trying very hard not to sound interested. “Oh, Ashley, it’s too big. What would I do with a place that big?”
    “It’s just the top floor that’s for sale; the bottom floor sold about five years ago. The upper apartment was a rental and the owners don’t want to deal with it anymore. And guess who the agent handling the property is?” Ashley sounded very pleased with herself.
    “Ash, that’s great! Congratulations!”
    “We can go see it tomorrow.”
    “Ashley, we’ve talked about this. I am not buying a house, at least not yet. Tripp and I are looking around for a condo, probably at the Belle Avalon development.”
    Ashley scoffed at Em. “My doubts about you actually buying a house with that asshat aside, you’re not a condo type of girl. You’re a converted Victorian type of girl, and you know it. And besides, I thought you wanted your own place?”
    “Well, now that I’m not going to be working with Tripp every day, maybe things will get better between us.” Em cringed as soon as the words came out of her mouth. She sure hoped things improved, but they couldn’t get much worse. She sighed. “I guess it couldn’t hurt to look, could it?”
    “Yay! You’re going to love it!”
    *****
    “What do you mean, you got another job? What about our team? What am I going to do?” Tripp Holbrook both sounded and looked like a petulant child.
    “You stick out that lip much more, you’re going to step on it,” Em said.
    Tripp rolled his eyes. “God, I hate it when you get all folksy.”
    Em glared at him. “Tripp, you know I’ve wanted to move in another direction for quite some time. This is a perfect opportunity to do so. Besides, I’m not starting for a good three months so I’ve plenty of time to wrap things up and get you up to speed. Suck