Chapter 2 Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

Aurora POV

"What?! No! I won't!!"

I knew that fighting with her over this wouldn't change the fact that she'd already applied, and now we were just waiting on a reply. Right now, I needed everything possible to end this application, since Alexa had clearly decided to be part of this charade.

"What do we do now?" I asked her as she turned away from the desk.

Just then, Evans appeared at the door. I hesitated before slinging my bag over my shoulder to leave. I already knew he was here to remind me my shift was up.

"You've wasted twenty minutes of Alexa's time."

My chest tightened a little at that. Wasted? I stayed there the whole time. There was nothing wasted about it.

Evans was the manager now — Italian, couldn't have been more than late twenties, and twice as sharp-tongued as the man he'd replaced. Mr. Kain had gotten himself fired after losing six thousand dollars to a customer he'd fallen for, a drunkard not unlike my mom, using the bar's money to play the part of the man who'd always be there for her. Sarcastic, considering how that turned out.

"I wasn't wasting her time, Evans. She still has to change into her uniform, and I was waiting for her."

He didn't answer right away. His eyes dropped to my footwear, lip curling slightly.

"Then let her change without you bugging her with your talk," he said, already turning toward the exit. Then he stopped and turned back. "Did you take my advice from last week?"

I hissed and looked away.

"Try hitting the gym, Aurora."

"You don't have to be rude every time, Evans," Alexa fired back from behind me.

I looked at her, my heart shattering a little more. Every day, he found some way to call me chubby. He'd suggested I register for a gym last week — I just hadn't realized he meant it.

Alexa adjusted her collar as she walked over, handed me her phone, and motioned for me to look at the screen.

"Your application was accepted." She said it without even glancing at Evans, who was still standing there.

I stared at the screen, then at her, then back at the screen. The words didn't move, no matter how many times I read them.

"Alexa—"

"Don't," she said with a grin. "For once in your life, stop overthinking and just say yes."

I opened my mouth to argue, but nothing came out. The thought of walking into that mansion, of being under the same roof as a man who ran half the underworld in Hell Valley, sat heavy in my chest. But so did the thought of another year behind this desk, wiping stains off bottles that weren't even mine to clean.

Evans cleared his throat from the doorway, clearly enjoying whatever this was turning into. "Don't let me stop you two. I've got a bar to run."

"You're not stopping anything," I muttered, not even looking at him.

He smirked and finally walked off, his footsteps fading down the hall. Alexa waited until he was gone before she leaned in, lowering her voice like the walls themselves might be listening.

"Aurora. Do you know what they pay the nannies in that house? You wouldn't have to choose between rent and your mom's mess ever again."

I wanted to hate her for saying it so plainly, mostly because she wasn't wrong. I'd spent two years doing math in my head every time I clocked out — rent, light bill, the six-pack she'd guilt me into buying her so she wouldn't show up at my job. A nanny's salary at the Moretti estate could probably erase all of it in a month.

"And if he's half of what people say he is?" I asked. “Last time a worker disappeared after breaking a rule, what do we say about that?”

"Then you keep your head down, do your job, and collect your paycheck." She shrugged like it was that simple. Maybe for her, it was.

I slung my bag over my shoulder, the weight of it suddenly feeling lighter than the weight of the decision in front of me.

"You make it sound easy," I said, heading for the door with her falling into step beside me.

"It is easy. You show up, you watch a kid, you go home." She bumped my shoulder with hers. "You're overcomplicating a job description, Aurora."

"It's not just any house, Alexa." The cool evening air hit my face the moment we stepped outside, and I pulled my jacket tighter around me. "It's the Morettis. People don't just work for them and walk away whenever they please."

"You're not signing your soul over. You're babysitting a teenager." She fished her car keys out of her bag, twirling them once before unlocking the door. "Besides, I already told them you'd come in for an interview tomorrow."

I stopped walking. "You did what?"

"Ten a.m." She slid into the driver's seat like she hadn't just dropped a bomb on me, like my whole life wasn't currently unraveling in a gravel parking lot. "Get in. I'll drive you home so you can actually sleep tonight instead of arguing with me about something you're going to do anyway."

I stood there a second longer, torn between irritation and something closer to relief that the decision had basically already been made for me.

"What about Evans?" I asked. "He's not exactly going to be thrilled I'm leaving him short-staffed."

She leaned on the window glass, unbothered. "Evans doesn't get a vote."

I climbed in beside her, because she was right, and we both knew it.