Falling for Fate by Caisey Quinn Page B

escaping quickly. Once she saw that all her customers were good for the time being, she locked herself in the ladies’ room. This double-life thing was going to be a bitch.
    First, she’d had to beg another waitress to switch tables with her when a group of guys from the marketing department had sat in her section. Then the party for the new CFO of Maxwell Medical—the boss’s son who probably had no qualifications whatsoever—was held at Lux, the nightclub where she worked, the night before. She’d taken a call from her mother and used it as an excuse to leave the party early.
    She didn’t know why the thought of anyone at Maxwell knowing that she had a second job as a waitress bothered her so much. It just did. She didn’t want to have to explain why she needed the extra money. Didn’t want to tell them that, three months ago, immediately after checking her pain pill addicted mother into rehab, she’d walked into a back room at her rehearsal dinner and found the man she’d been about to marry screwing her maid of honor.
    They’d been planning to move to the city together after the wedding in the Hamptons, already had an apartment and everything. And he’d ruined it, just like that. The worst part? She was the only one who’d been shocked. It had been going on for a while, this ‘blowing off steam,’ ‘getting it out of his system,’ Trevor had said in the many voicemails he’d left. She had been the last one to find out.
    To makes matters worse—if that were possible—the rehab facility her mother was in happened to be the most expensive facility in Dallas. Trevor had informed her he’d no longer help pay for it if she didn’t go through with the wedding.
    So she was on her own now. Luckily, she’d found Gwen, another marketing assistant at Maxwell who needed a roommate. Gwen also had connections at Lux and had helped her get the part-time job she needed to be able to afford her mother’s rehab and her half of the rent. Funny, she’d thought that, after college, she’d be married and done with Ramen noodles. But here she was, back at square one. It was starting to feel like square negative one.
    Glancing at her pale reflection in the mirror, she splashed some water on her face and pulled her hair into a ponytail. She needed a haircut. And a nice, long day in the sun.
    Oh well. It wasn’t like she had anyone to impress. After trying to be perfect for Trevor Harris for four long years, it was kind of nice to just… be.
     
    S unday night Fate was barely able to keep her eyes open. Between Maxwell and Lux, she’d worked more than sixty hours that week. And here she was about to begin another one.
    “Gwen, we’ve run them three different ways. If the Daniel Maxwell’s pretty-boy son can’t see what a difference it would make to pull organ transport in-house, then he’s a frickin’ moron.”
    Fate rubbed her eyes. She was exhausted. Her shift at Lux had run an hour over since the girl scheduled to relieve her hadn’t shown and she’d been stuck pulling double-duty bartending. Because the universe liked to add layers of suck to her life, management had given her a new uniform. Instead of the black shirt and pants she’d been wearing, she’d now be donning a black cocktail dress that was a size too small and didn’t leave nearly enough to the imagination. That’s what she got for mentioning that she had bartending experience.
    “Oh my God,” Gwen announced, her eyes wide as she clamped a hand over her mouth. “I almost forgot.”
    Dread filled her from the inside out. “If it means running these numbers again, please feel free to keep forgetting,” she pleaded.
    “No, not about that. The boss’s son. I met him. After you left the club Friday night.”
    “So he showed after all?” Fate wasn’t upset about having missed him, but the fact that he had been an hour late to his own party was annoying. It also made her wonder what his work ethic would be like.
    “Um, yeah. Boy did he.