Life Is Sweet

by Lily Seabrooke

  He narrowed his eyes, studying me carefully. I couldn’t blame him. Here I was dressed up like Candy Land personified, giving him a firmer response than I’d ever given in my years of wearing a suit.

  “You realize it’s an invitation back to the industry,” he said. “It’s about leaving this. Leaving your… candy shop, and coming back to the family.”

  “Yeah, I know that. But I have this shop, and I have Melissa, and I’m seriously happy. But I’m still going to go just so I can properly end things with my father. Time and place, and then the door, sir.”

  He sighed. “I can’t understand why you would leave, Kayla. We had the whole world ahead of us. I don’t…”

  “Time and place.”

  He gave me the time and place, and he left. I felt a skip in my step as I returned to the counter, shot Melissa a text, telling her about it and asking her if she was still up for it.

  I’d go to the ends of the earth for you. I’ll be there. Her response was lightning-quick, and I stared with wide eyes. God, that was a good response.

  Is there any time we can meet soon? I just want to talk about what happened with him.

  I’ll get back to you by the end of your shift with the earliest I can manage.

  For some reason, just the little fact that she knew when we closed made me so happy. I could have danced around the building.

  It was thirty minutes before close when she texted me a time slot for tomorrow. I texted her a message full of heart emojis and telling her she meant the world to me, and before I knew it, we were flirting over text, and I almost forgot about closing.

  I had an amazing girlfriend. Even if her contact photo was all I saw of her most days now.

  ∞∞∞

  Melissa looked me over when she came in the door. “You look cute like that, too.”

  I giggled. I’d changed into a t-shirt and sweatpants first thing when I got home, letting my hair down and letting it be as tangled as it wanted to, taking all my makeup off. “I was feeling lazy. You like this too?”

  She backed me into the wall, wrapped her arms around my waist and laid her forehead against mine. “I love it. Anything you do is beautiful. And for the record, I still think you look absolutely delicious even when you’re not dressed like a gumdrop.”

  I giggled. “Gumdrops don’t wear clothes.”

  She kissed me, a long and slow kiss, her body molding into mine. “Not what I meant, but you look especially delicious like that, too,” she said after parting. “Now, I’m pretty sure you wanted to talk about something more important than me hitting on you.”

  I licked my lips. “You hitting on me is really nice. But yeah, I did have a couple things I wanted to say.”

  I led her over to the sofa, where Leonardo joined us immediately, sitting between us like the cheating little jerk he was instead of just picking a side. Melissa was the one who petted him, because I wasn’t about to reward that jerk for his indecisiveness. “Sorry to hear Jacob got on your case again,” she said once we sat down.

  “Actually,” I said, my voice small, “I… he… it felt so different. It didn’t bother me at all this time. I told him off. I had ten times more courage than I ever had before. And it was… you know…” I fiddled with my hands in my lap. “It was because of you…”

  She put a hand on my arm, trailed up to play with my hair. “Kayla,” she breathed, and without thinking, I leaned into her. She kissed me on the cheek, but I turned and pulled her into another long kiss, savoring the way her lips on mine sent chills through my body.

  “Oh my gosh,” I laughed breathlessly after I pulled away. “Talking about serious things instead of just sitting here and kissing you is hard.”

  She shrugged. “I’m here for either.”

  “Oh, don’t go tempting me! You know I’m weak to temptation.” I shook my head. “I was going to talk about Jacob. And my family. So… I shouldn’t be saying this, but my parents run a company. It’s a consulting firm. Jacob works for them.”

  “Uh-oh.” She shifted, moving closer to me, moving Leonardo onto her lap and pressing her leg up to mine. “That kind of consulting firm?”

  “Well, yeah,” I mumbled. “I guess. Are consulting firms all phony cover-ups for—”

  “Yes,” she said firmly. “Yes, they are. Except for maybe, like, two.”

  I laughed nervously. “Well, I guess that makes me feel a little better. You see, I… I used to work there, too.”

  “Mm-hm.” She nodded, running her hand through my hair. Just listening, not judging. I didn’t know how much I dared to trust her with, or—I knew I could trust her, but the little gremlin of doubt inside me was saying I couldn’t trust her, couldn’t trust anyone. “And they made you do phony work, too.”

  “We really just ran Ponzi schemes. We offered paid communities… you know. It sounds like you’re an expert in this kind of thing.”

  “Much more than I ever wanted to be.”

  “I was… I did a lot of that.” I fidgeted awkwardly with my hands in my lap. “Does that make me…”

  “Not at all. Not at all. They pushed you into it. I wouldn’t be able to blame you even if it wasn’t your own family. The fact that you were brave enough to leave is incredible. You’re incredible, and you shouldn’t ever forget that.”

  “Jeez,” I mumbled. “I’m trying to do, like, a confessional here, and you’re telling me how great I am.”

  “You know you didn’t do anything wrong, though, don’t you?”

  I gulped. I really wasn’t sure the answer to that. “My dad started the business and Jacob was his first hire. And he kind of… pushed me and Jacob together. And I was young and naïve and stupid, more than I am now, so I fell for everything they were saying and I thought I liked Jacob and everything.”

  “That kind of thing is just brainwashing,” she said, her voice small. “Not to mention it sounds kind of like grooming.”

  “I was at least of age already when it all happened,” I laughed nervously. “Either way, it was really bad. I don’t know how I had the guts to leave. I actually tried a few times, but Jacob…”

  I shuddered, thinking back to the panic of running, the terror of getting caught. Jacob looming over me when I was dragged back. The bruises…

  I realized I was crying when Melissa brushed a tear from my cheek, pulling me into her chest. “You made it, though. You’re stronger than anyone I know.”

  “I changed my last name,” I laughed. “I used to be a Barton. It wasn’t even a good name.”

  “Barton?” She squinted at me. “That’s the family’s name? And they run a consulting firm?”

  I stared for a second, the tears fading along with the memories of Jacob. “Yeah… Barton Consulting. They don’t have a lot of creativity.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Really…”

  “What? What’s the matter?” I felt my heartrate picking up.

  “They have accounts with us,” she said, her voice small, and my stomach dropped. “And I’m pretty sure there’s a lot of money between it all.”

  “So… you’ve worked with them?” I breathed.

  “Not directly. Barton…” She clenched a fistful of my shirt. It felt so alien to hear my old family name on her lips. “I see. I’ll look into this.”

  “What? Like, what? Doing what?”

  “I don’t know. But I don’t like this.” She let out a sharp breath, and then the next thing I knew, she swept me into a fierce kiss, pressing me up into her so hard I felt the breath leave me. I melted into her, still not believing this incredibly gorgeous woman was my girlfriend, and when she parted, I fell against her. “You’re incredible, though. I’m proud of you for escaping. And it takes even more bravery to go back. I’ll be there for you.”

  “Wow,” I laughed breathlessly. “You’re really good. I have the perfect girlfriend.”

  “I don’t know if I’d say perfect, but I try my best.”

  I knew I’d say perfect, though.

  Chapter 17
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  Melissa

  David was seriously not happy. I mean, he never really was, but this was a surprising new level. Ever since I’d gotten back from Georgia, he acted like I was a traitor to the company.

  “God, you were gone forever,” he’d said in that first day I was back, pacing his office. “And you barely responded to anything while you were away. Do you think this is some salaried position with paid leave?”

  I folded my arms, leaned back in my chair. “No, I think that I’ve created tens of millions of dollars in value for this company by sacrificing myself twenty-four seven, and I can at least take time once a year to go spend time with my family and girlfriend. Especially since I missed Christmas,” I said, with maybe a little more venom than I needed.

  “Girlfriend?” He squinted at me. “You have a girlfriend now? Seriously?”

  “David, you have a wife. And you seem to get a lot more time with her than I get with my girlfriend.”

  “That’s—she’s my—never mind.” He rolled his eyes. “Just make sure you work double to make up.”

  “Just so you know, my sister is giving birth soon, and I will be flying out again to see my niece.”

  “Melissa, your niece will still be there. At this rate, this company won’t.”

  And at the time, all I’d had to say was, “I’m going to go. I trust you won’t threaten to fire me if I leave for a weekend to see my sister’s newborn.”

  And he said he wouldn’t, but judging by his expression, he was still foreseeing the death of the company if I so much as stepped away from my desk.

  That was the kind of work environment we went to every day. David was just getting angrier with every passing day, and I heard him yelling from his office at least three times a day, someone coming out later looking dazed. Needless to say I put my head down and got some goddamn work done, afraid I was going to get flayed alive if I put in less than every waking minute, but the day after Kayla had opened up about her family, I went in with a very different mindset.

  I opened a database, scrolled around. Searched accounts, going through every level of security clearance to get anything other than the name. But sure enough, it didn’t take too long to find them.

  Barton Consulting. This was extremely interesting. Why they needed eight different accounts, I wasn’t sure, but there was a combined seventy-four million between them, and the portfolios on them were generating next to nothing. Everything as safe as possible.

  They weren’t really working with us. They were using us as a bank, because they knew we weren’t going to ask as many questions as the bank would.

  This was definitely interesting.

  I checked my schedule, looking out to find when the event they’d invited Kayla to was—still another month. Right before the holiday season.

  I wondered how many times I’d get to see Kayla before then.

  “Melissa!” David threw my door open and I closed everything on the computer in a panic. “Bruce is coming in, two pm. I want you to handle him.”

  “Me?” I looked up, incredulous. “Why? That’s Rebecca’s job.”

  “Well, Rebecca is home with her family. So I thought it’d be fair for you to be the one to cover her.”

  I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Seriously, David? You’re giving me busy work as a punishment for attending my sister’s baby shower?”

  “Just saying, Melissa. We’ve all got weight to pull around here. Thinking this will help you get back to even.”

  I didn’t want to get back to even. I didn’t feel like I was getting comfortable anywhere under David.

  ∞∞∞

  “Hey, Trish,” I said, answering the phone. The promise of Trisha helped me feel a little more at home, even though I was sleeping under my desk tonight.

  “Melissa,” my mom’s voice said, and my stomach dropped. “Get your ass down here.”

  I sat up and hit my head on the desk. “Trish—”

  “She’s early.”

  “Two weeks early?”

  “Well, don’t ask me, ask the baby! Just tell me you can get down here as soon as possible!”

  I rubbed my head where I’d hit it. I was overbooked. I’d been working until midnight and I’d barely managed to curl up on the floor to get a few hours of sleep before I started things up again. “I… I was scheduling for two weeks out still…”

  “Are you telling me you’re not going to be here for this?”

  My stomach churned. It was Trish’s baby. But tomorrow… today now… this was the absolute worst timing, and I felt my head spinning.

  “I can’t… I’ll still be there when I was originally planning to be—”

  “You can’t take one day? How much do you have?”

  “Mom, my job is already on the line because I visited for the shower. I’ve gotten the work of at least one other person dropped on me to punish me for it. If I go now, I’ll be lucky if I keep my job, and it’s a sure thing I won’t be there for Christmas.”

  There was silence. I almost wished she’d yell at me, but when she responded again, her voice was quiet. “That’s horrible,” she whispered. “I can’t believe it. That can’t be legal.”

  “Who even knows? Labor laws don’t apply here.”

  I heard her let out a heavy sigh, and it crushed me knowing I’d ruined the birth of her first grandchild for her. “So… two weeks still?”

  “I’m sorry,” I sighed. “Yes. Two weeks still. I’ll be there then.”

  “All right. I can’t wait to see you again. I love you, Melissa.”

  “I love you too, Mom. Congratulations. To you, to everyone. I’ll Skype call later.”

  Still, even after we ended the call, I couldn’t sleep. Down there right now, my niece was coming into the world. The sister I’d grown up with, my bratty little sister who used to cheat at hide-and-seek, was delivering her daughter.

  And here I was, sleeping under a desk.

  I’d really achieved the dream, huh? The top of my field. I had it all. I’d played the game and fucking won.

  What a stupid goddamn prize at the end of this game.

  ∞∞∞

  My stomach was churning when I texted Kayla at the end of the day. And not just because I hadn’t had anything to eat all day but snacks. I’d woken up at four, gotten back to work, and now it was just shy of midnight and my head was spinning.

  She’d been waiting a week just for another chance to see me. We’d scheduled karaoke, and I’d actually been looking forward to it.

  Kayla, I’m sorry, I sent. I can’t make karaoke.

  She responded almost right away, saying she understood, but I could tell from her tone I’d hurt her. That she was as upset as she had every right to be. Don’t worry about it, she finished.

  Trish was early. I’m taking the time slot to fly down and meet my niece.

  She started typing, and then stopped, started again, stopped again, and then typed it all out in a rush. Oh my god you should have just said so!!!!!!

  I didn’t even know how many exclamation points that was. She sent congratulations with more celebratory emojis than I realized there were, and I sighed, sinking back into my chair.

  You really never get mad at me, do you?

  Can I go with you?

  I froze, staring at the phone. I hadn’t been expecting that. That was a pretty serious date, going to go see my newborn niece together.

  Of course, I sent back. You’re not busy?

  I’ll get Shay to open the next day! She’ll understand.

  I laid my phone down on my desk, stretching my arms over my head. All right. That would work just fine.

  Maybe I’d be fine working like this after all.

  I curled up under my desk—for the first time in my life, doing it twice in a row.

  What a milestone.

  Chapter 18

  Kayla

  Melissa drove us in a different direction, taking a turn away from the airport.

  “Wait,” I said. “Where are we goi
ng?”

  She sighed. “I’m in a hurry.”

  “In a hurry? So we’re skipping the airport? I don’t get it.”

  “Yes.”

  I didn’t get it. Not until we arrived at the charter airfield.

  And so, that was the day I got to fly in a private jet.

  “I really avoid doing this as much as I can,” Melissa sighed, leading me into the cabin like it was a personal shame. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing—it looked like a living room in a really fancy house, not an airplane cabin.

  “I, uh, don’t mind it that much.” I sat down next to her on an unreasonably comfortable seat, and she sank back into her seat.

  “Red or white?”

  I blinked. “Oh. This one includes wine, too.”

  She gave me a cheeky smile. “Kayla, sweetheart, it’s a private jet. It’s as over-the-top indulgent as you’d think. I could probably get someone to feed you grapes, if you wanted.”

  “Oh, c’mon.” I slapped her on the arm, laughing nervously. Jeez. I’d kind of gotten used to the fancy car, and for a second I’d forgotten just how stupid rich Melissa was. “I like white better,” I said.

  “Have you had a Moscato before? I think you’d like it.”

  I got treated to a Moscato. And I did like it. It was sweet and bubbly and just a little sharp, and I didn’t realize wine could be this candylike.

  “So…” I said, after our conversation over wine had winded down. “Are you okay? You look like you’re feeling down.”

  She put a hand to her forehead. “It’s… work has been hard. David has been doubling down on me ever since Georgia, to try to get back at me for leaving.”

  “What?” I paled. “That can’t be legal.”

  “You’d think,” she sighed. “I’m doing all right, I guess, but my mom called, told me the baby was early, told me to come down as soon as I could, and I had to… had to say I couldn’t. That was really hard.”

  I put a hand on her arm. “I’m sorry. Thank you for taking me, though. I know it’s more time and money for you to bring me with you.”

  She set down her wine glass. “Not really. And even if it were, you’d be worth any amount.”