I was still staring when suddenly my view of the camera was blocked by Brody's back. He lunged toward Roy, saying, "Get that fucking thing out of her face."
Roy had no chance to respond before Brody ripped the camera from Roy's grip and hurled it onto the walkway, where it broke into several pieces.
I couldn’t see Roy's face, but Icouldsee the veins in Brody's arms as he stood blocking me from Roy's path.
On a choked sob, I asked, "Why'd you do that?"
Brody turned to face me. "Because," he said, "you don't work here anymore."
Chapter 70
Arden
"So," Cami said, "are you gonna cash it or not?"
It had been five days since my ill-fated apology.
After the camera's destruction, Brody had hustled me back to the crew house and silently watched as I'd gathered up my things.
Unsurprisingly, I had much more than when I'd arrived – more work clothes, cute little work boots courtesy of Brody, my red hard hat, and safety glasses, too.
By the time I'd finished shoving everything that would fit into my duffle bag, and then crammed the rest of it into a white garbage bag of all things, a town car had already arrived to take me wherever I wanted to go.
"Wherever" turned out to be Cami's parent's house, where I was sharing Cami's old childhood bedroom.
I knew I couldn't stay here forever, but Cami swore up and down that she was glad for the company, and Cami's parents were being surprisingly nice about the whole thing.
I was still waiting on a decent job offer, but so far, none had materialized.
In the meantime, I was trying to repay the hospitality of Cami's parents by repainting their front porch –andfixing the loose boards on the back deck.
I wasn't quite a pro, but I'd learned a lot while helping to fix up my grandparent's place.
No.Nottheirplace.
Brody's place.
It was his house, fair and square, and I needed to accept that.
As far as the check from Brody, I'd left it, along with the cookies, in my bedroom closet at the crew house while Brody had slipped briefly away, presumably to order the town car.
Or who knows, maybe he'd scheduled the car in advance, knowing that he was about to give me the old heave-ho.
Either way, it wasn't the last I'd seen of the check. It had arrived by overnight mail shortly after noon today. The envelope had contained nothing else.No note. No letter. No crushed cookies, either.
To Cami's question about whether I planned to cash the check, I replied, "I don't think so."
"But why not?" she said. "It's thirty thousand dollars. That's a fortune."
Not to Brody, it wasn't.But I saw what she meant. "I know. But when you think about it, I didn'treallymake it to the end."
"Of the show?" she said. "But that's Brody's fault, not yours."
"I dunno. Maybe it's both of our faults."
"So cashhalfof the check," she said. "Or how about this? Cash the whole thing, and sendhima check for fifteen thousand."
I tried to laugh. "Oh sure. Then he can refuse to cash his, and we'll be starting the cycle all over again."
