Chapter 53
The next morning, I woke in Jake's bed to find him gone. I vaguely recalled him mentioning some early morning errand. But honestly, most of the previous night was such a wonderful blur, that the details were a little foggy.
I stumbled out of bed, took a quick shower, and threw on some of the new casual clothes from our shopping trip. I had no car and no computer, but I did have a smartphone. So I sacked out on Jake's sofa and started scrolling through some of the more popular help-wanted sites in search of a new job.
I'd searching less than a half-hour when I heard a knock at the door. When I pushed off the sofa and looked out the peephole, I saw one of the last people I would have expected – Vince Hammond.
Puzzled, I squinted through the peephole for a better look. This time, he was alone, at least as far as I could tell. He was dressed in a business suit and holding a white sheet of paper loose at his side
When he knocked again, I reluctantly opened the door and stuck my head out. "Sorry," I told him, "but Jake's not here."
"You think I want to seehim?"
I glanced around. "Well, thisishis place."
"Maybe. But I'm here to seeyou."
Instantly, snippets of that awful argument with Jake came flooding back. Against all logic, Jake had claimed that Vince wanted me. At the time, I'd been sure Jake was nuts. Now, given Vince's statement, I wasn't so sure.
"Me?" I said. "Why?"
Vince grinned. "I've got a proposition for you."
"Look," I said, "whatever it is, the answer's no."
He lifted an eyebrow. "Shouldn't you, oh I dunno, listen to it before you shoot me down?"
"Nope."
At this, he actually laughed. "Why not?"
God, how did someone answer that? Finally, I settled on, "because Jake wouldn't like it." The answer was stupid, and I felt a little silly using it. I mean, I was an adult, capable of making my own choices. But honestly, I didn't know what else to say.
"Aw come on," Vince said. "Humor me, alright?"
"Why should I?"
"Because I'm here to offer you a job."
"A job?" I said. "What kind of job?"
"Something in our P.R. department."
"Look," I said, "I'm not naïve."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning, if this so-called P.R. position is real—"
"Which it is."
"Ifit's real," I continued, "you could go on the internet right now and find a hundred resumes within minutes. Why me?"
"For one thing," he said, lifting his sheet of paper. "I already did that. I found me a great candidate right here."
I looked down at the paper. The text on it looked oddly familiar. "Is that my resume?" I asked.
"I don't know," he said. "Is your name Luna Moon?"