New Money by Lorraine Zago Rosenthal

Author:Lorraine Zago Rosenthal [Rosenthal, Lorraine Zago]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781250025340
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2013-09-10T00:00:00+00:00

Thirteen

My apartment was dark, but a blow-dryer was humming in the guest bathroom. I tossed my keys and my purse onto a table, walked down the dim hall, and passed Tina’s bedroom. Kyle the bartender was inside, sleeping facedown with his arm hanging off the mattress and his knuckles skimming the floor.

Was the moon full tonight? I was running into sex everywhere. I shook my head, went to Tina’s bathroom, and opened the door. She was standing at the counter in a skimpy negligee made of lilac lace, looking in the mirror and styling her hair. The air was steamy from the shower as I shut the door, walked past her, and sat on the edge of the tub.

“A little soon, isn’t it?” I asked, jerking my thumb toward her bedroom.

She fingered the silky bow around her narrow waist. “Don’t be mad, Savannah. I know this is your apartment, but I didn’t think you’d mind if I—”

“It’s not that. This is your apartment, too. What I mean is that letting a man into your bed forty-eight hours after meeting him is a bad idea. It’s never ended well for you.”

She slammed her comb onto the counter. “He’s a nice guy. Don’t ruin this.”

“I’m not ruining anything. I’m being sensible. I don’t want you to get used again.”

“Nobody ever uses me,” she said in her toughest voice, as if that would make it true.

I rubbed my aching neck. “Just take care of yourself, Tina. I worry about you.”

She stared at me for a long moment before cinching the bow snugly around her waist. “I know,” she said as my eyes moved toward a snuffed-out Marlboro Light in an empty soap dish beside the sink.

I glared at her. “I thought you weren’t going to smoke in the apartment.”

She let out a nervous giggle. “The bathroom counts?”

“You know it does.”

She picked up the soap dish and dumped the cigarette butt into the toilet. “Won’t happen again,” she said, and quickly changed the subject. “Guess what? I got an interview for a job at a homeless shelter on West Forty-first. It’s at eleven thirty tomorrow. Maybe I can convince them that I’d be helpful there. I’m not as useless as everybody thinks.”

“I don’t think you’re useless, and you know that. They’d be lucky to have you.”

She scrunched her mouth into one corner. “How was your day?” she asked while she absentmindedly organized her makeup. “Did it improve?”

“It got worse,” I said, and then she joined me on the bathtub rim, where I told her about what I’d seen in Ned’s office and his attempt to manipulate me. “I’m not sure what to do.”

“Rat him out to Kitty,” Tina said decidedly as she crossed her legs.

“She might not believe me. Ned was right about that.”

Tina shrugged one shoulder. “Maybe he wasn’t. And if you’re her friend, you won’t keep this from her. A real friend always tells the truth.”

“Yes,” I said, “a real friend always does.”

She shifted uneasily and said she was going to sleep.

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