Chap­ter 22

I spend the next week avoid­ing Andrew Win­ches­ter.
I can’t even deny any­more that I have feel­ings for him. Not just feel­ings. I have a very seri­ous crush on this man. I think about him all the time. I even dream about him kiss­ing me.
And he might have feel­ings for me, too, even though he claims he loves Nina. But the key point is I don’t want to lose this job. You don’t keep jobs by sleep­ing with your mar­ried boss. So I do my best to stuff all my feel­ings away. Andrew is at work most of the day any­way. It’s easy enough to stay out of his way.

Tonight, as I’m putting plates of food out for din­ner, prepar­ing to dash off before Andrew comes into the room, Nina wan­ders into the din­ing area. She bobs her head in approval at the salmon with a side of wild rice. And of course, chick­en nuggets for Cecelia.

“That smells won­der­ful, Mil­lie,” she remarks.

“Thanks.” I hov­er near the kitchen, ready to call it quits for the evening—our usu­al rou­tine. “Will that be all?”

“Just one thing.” She pats her blond hair. “Were you able to book those tick­ets for Show­down?”

“Yes!” I snatched up the last two orches­tra seats for Show­down this Sun­day night—I was so proud of myself. They cost a small for­tune, but the Win­ches­ters can afford it. “You are in the sixth row from the stage. You could prac­ti­cal­ly touch the actors.”

“Won­der­ful!” Nina claps her hands togeth­er. “And you booked the hotel room?”

“At The Plaza.”

Since it’s a bit of a dri­ve into the city, Nina and Andrew will be stay­ing overnight at The Plaza hotel. Cecelia is going to be stay­ing at a friend’s house, and I’ll get the whole damn house to myself. I can walk around naked if I want. (I’m not plan­ning to walk around naked. But it’s nice to know I could.)

“It will be so love­ly,” Nina sighs. “Andy and I real­ly need this.”

I bite my tongue. I’m not going to com­ment on the state of Nina and Andrew’s rela­tion­ship, espe­cial­ly since the door slams at that moment, which means Andrew is home. Suf­fice to say, ever since that doctor’s vis­it and their sub­se­quent fight, they seem to have been some­what dis­tant from each oth­er. Not that I’m pay­ing atten­tion, but it’s hard not to notice the awk­ward polite­ness they have around each oth­er. And Nina her­self seems off her game. Like right now, her white blouse is but­toned wrong. She missed a but­ton, and the whole thing is lop­sided. I’m itch­ing to tell her, but she’ll scream at me if I do, so I keep my mouth shut.

“I hope you have a won­der­ful time,” I say.

“We will!” She beams at me. “I can hard­ly wait all week!”

I frown. “All week? The show is in three days.”

Andrew strides into the kitchen din­ing room, pulling off his tie. He stops short when he sees me, but he sti­fles a reac­tion. And I sti­fle my own reac­tion to how hand­some he looks in that suit.

“Three days?” Nina repeats. “Mil­lie, I asked you to book the tick­ets for a week from Sun­day! I dis­tinct­ly remem­ber.”

“Yes…” I shake my head. “But you told me that over a week ago. So I booked them for this Sun­day.”

Nina’s cheeks turn pink. “So you admit I told you to book it for a week from Sun­day and you still booked for this Sun­day?”

“No, what I’m say­ing is—”

“I can’t believe you could be so care­less.” She folds her arms across her chest. “I can’t make the show this Sun­day. I have to dri­ve Cecelia to her sum­mer camp in Mass­a­chu­setts Sun­day and I’m spend­ing the night out there.”

What? I could’ve sworn she told me to book it for this com­ing Sun­day, and that Cecelia would be stay­ing at a friend’s house. There’s no way I got this messed up. “Maybe some­body else could take her? I mean, the tick­ets are non­re­fund­able.”