Better Off Away (BOOK 2)(Wattys2016)

When Did I Become A Liar?

On Sunday night the interns are gathered after dinner to meet in a conference room. Jack, however, is not present and for the first time all day I'm able to breathe a sigh of relief. I was tired of smiling and being kind. Earlier, Lola asked me why my mood towards Jack had changed and I had to lie. It seems I have to lie about everything now.

When did I become a liar? Or a really good one at that?

Mia went over the regulations, telling us we would have to be ready to leave in the cars by seven-thirty sharp, since the ride was half an hour long. She said breakfast would be at six-thirty during the week and we were expected to come at our own leisure during that time. Apparently, breakfast during the week was the only flex-meal where we were allowed to be a little lazier.

During all of the talk of early rising, Lola begins cursing under her breath, almost making me laugh. But then the door opens and in walks Jack, causing me to break into a sweat - all signs of a reprieve from lying gone.

I force myself to smile at him and he slides into the seat next to me. I notice he's changed, he's now in a suit and I can't help but notice that it's very well cut and fits him very well.

Mia eyes Jack, not angrily - more admiringly - and just continues her ramble, telling us about the four different locations we'll be interning.

Jack leans in close to me, his breath warm and minty on my cheek. "What did I miss?"

I shrug. "Just the rules for breakfast and rides to work."

He snorts. "I don't need a ride."

I swallow hard and force myself to say what I know is necessary. "But don't you want to ride with me?"

Jack smirks, charm written all over him, but I still see a certain hesitancy in his expression - wondering why I'm so flirty all of a sudden.

"All right," Mia says, shuffling some papers, "Now for the assignments. I'll tell you who you're paired with and the packet I give you will contain your assignment, how you should dress and what will be expected of you. Angel and Cael, here you go." She hands them a thick envelope. "And, Lola and Tom, you'll be paired together." Lola shoots me an apologetic smile, but I already saw that coming.

I already know who I'm paired with and when Mia says my name with Jack's, I feign pleasant surprise, nudging my shoulder against Jack's. He reaches out and takes the envelope from Mia and sets it on the table in front of us.

"Want to open it?" He asks, his brows raised.

I shake my head. "How about we wait until we're excused?"

We wait a few more moments as Mia gives us minor details that she forgot to mention earlier and then we're excused. Jack and I move out to one of the sitting rooms and we sit down on a fancy pale blue couch.

Jack slides his thumb beneath the seal of the envelope and hands me one of the two packets. At the top is my name and Jack's, next to it in bold is CUSTOMER SERVICE.

I look up to see Jack smirk. "God, you've got to be kidding me."

"What?" I ask. Customer Service is obviously grunt work, but it's not completely terrible.

He shakes his head, clearly upset. "My father's doing this on purpose. He knows I hate dealing with disgruntled employees. He can keep trying to get me to stay but I'm not going to. God, I hate him so much."

I don't know what to say to Jack, but there's no need to tell him a lie. He grabs his papers and storms off, upset with his father and completely oblivious to the fact that I'm working for his father in more way than one.

***

Monday morning I'm awoken by an alarm that Lola set for five-thirty. We'd debated the time of the alarm last night before we went to bed and we both knew that the snooze button would be a major factor, so we set it earlier than necessary.

I roll back over, hoping to catch a few more moments of sleep.

A few minutes later I wake up to the pounding on our door and Tom's accented voice, asking us if we're up yet. I'm in a blurry state; unsure why he's asking us that if the alarm just went off a few moments ago. I groggily reach out and grasp my phone. My eyes adjust to the bright light and... Shit! It's already six fifteen! Breakfast is in fifteen minutes!

I chuck my pillow at Lola's sleeping form and yell across the room. "Lola! We have fifteen minutes!
Get your ass moving!"

Lola sits up, her fiery red hair pointing every which way. "What the hell?!"

I jump out of bed and bolt for the closet. I grab a charcoal gray pair of high waisted dress shorts and a white blouse that is a tank-top but kind of fancy. I pull on clean underwear and then the clothes, trying to straighten them, but failing as my fingers fumble with the fabric. I hop over to the bathroom where Lola is trying to run a comb through her bob, but it's so tangled she's pulling out good-sized chunks of hair.

I move around Lola and grab my bottle of dry shampoo, spraying it all over my hair, causing me to cough a little on the fumes. While my hair sets I brush my teeth and wash my face before I quickly do a milk maid braid right across the top, hoping it doesn't look sloppy in a bad way, but maybe in the I-effortlessly-did-this-and-made-it-look-purposefully-messy. That's what I hope for at least.

I move across the room to my makeup and begin applying concealer and then a touch of bronzer. I really gotta hurry; it's already six twenty-five. I quickly put some liquid liner on my eyes and mascara before brushing on some red lipstick.

I slide my shoes on while simultaneously yelling, "Lola! I'm ready! We gotta go!"

Lola runs out of her closet, her hair surprisingly tame and dressed in a pair of black skinny jeans and a white and black striped shirt. She's hopping on one foot while tying the shoe on the other. "I'm ready! Let's go!"

We hurry into the hallway where Tom stands, waiting frantically. "Where the hell have you two been?"

I shook my head while Lola gives him a death glare. "Don't ask," I mutter as we begin to rush to the Dining Room.

When we get to the Dining Room my eyes immediately meet Jeremiah's. He gives me a significant look and suddenly, I'm completely, horribly reminded of the little deal we struck. And how Jack will surely hate me in the end when he finds out. Because I can't see an alternate ending where Jack doesn't find out. He will, and when he does, he'll know I played him. Who am I?

I look around the room, seeing if Jack is here yet, but he isn't. I slide into my seat and a plate of Belgian waffles is placed in front of me. I scoop strawberries and blueberries onto them before sprinkling powdered sugar over all of it with whipped cream. Despite being rushed, I take my time eating the waffles and boy, am I glad I didn't miss breakfast. The food is amazing here; Jack is right.

But, then, at the end of the meal, we're being rushed out of the Dining Room and towards the front of the mansion where cars wait to take us to our stations. I count the cars... One, two, three. And where is Jack?

"Mia," I turn to her because she's been directing us, "Where's Jack and where is the fourth set of interns going to ride?"

Mia arches an eyebrow, but doesn't answer because a sound of a car engine revs and all of us turn to see a sleek red sports car slide up behind the other cars. The driver's door opens and shocker of shocks, Jack steps out, his eyes immediately meeting mine as he says, "Your chariot awaits."