Page 1 of Unexpected You

Chapter One

Cade

“I’m seriously fucked this time,” I said to my best friend Hunter as I checked my email for the thousandth time to see if any of the jobs I’d put in applications for had gotten back to me.

Nothing.

Hunter grabbed a fry from the basket in front of me and rolled her big blue eyes. “You always say that, and then somehow everything always works out.”

“I mean, sort of. I wish ‘working out’ led to actual consistent employment and not me patching jobs together here and there that are never long term. The stress is going to kill me.”

Hunter gave me a sympathetic look and squeezed my arm across the sticky table. She had treated me to lunch today, but I was having trouble choking down my fish and chips, even though it was normally one of my favorite things.

“I’m sorry, my love. I wish I could help more.” She opened her mouth to tell me, for what felt like the millionth time, that she could loan me some money, but I put my hand up to stop her. We’d done this little dance too many times before and I was never going to let her do it. Other than buying me lunch, and giving me leads on jobs, and just being my best friend, I couldn’t accept more. Even if she had money to spare from her parents. It was a line I refused to cross.

“Can we please talk about something other than the crushing weight of my life?” I asked.

She perked up and smiled. “Mmmm, maybe we can talk about going out to Sapph next week? I know it’s weird with you working there sometimes, but it’s the only place with so many hot queer people around.” She had me there.

Our other friend, Reid, had hooked me up bartending a few times at Sapph, the only bar in the entire state of Maine that catered to queer women.

I sighed. “Fine. We can go and pester Reid to make us annoyingly complicated drinks.”

Hunter snorted. “Yeah, she loves it when we do that.”

“What are friends for?”

I choked down the rest of my lunch and we took a walk down the pier. Summer had fully arrived, and the place was crawling with tourists who walked too slow and took up too much room. But that was the price you paid for living here. By mid-September, everyone cleared out and peace was restored until the next summer season.

“Let’s find some shade,” I said, looking at my arms. I’d put on my regular layer of sunscreen, but that had been a while ago. No matter what I did, my pale, freckled skin seemed determined to burn every year. The curse of being a natural redhead.

Hunter claimed a bench near the ice cream stand, and I thumped down next to her.

My phone went off and I read the notification, my heart beating with excitement and nervousness.

One of the jobs had responded.

“Oh shit,” I said, reading the email. “I have an interview.”

“For real? Which job?” Hunter stopped fiddling with her long hair and leaned over to read my phone.

“The weird one working for an author. I’m still not totally convinced it’s not a scam or a trap, but I couldn’t miss the chance that it might be real. My desperation is probably going to compromise my safety at some point.” Still, the job listing had intrigued me, and I couldn’t really say why. Light on details as to who I’d be working for, but with a very specific job description.

Normally I would have just kept scrolling, but I’d done the little dance of inputting my resume and then adding the same information. Instead of a cover letter, they’d asked for your five favorite books and why. That was the part that had really interested me. I loved to read, so actually narrowing down my favorite books to only five had been a challenge. In the end, I’d also listed several more. Maybe that was a mistake, but enthusiasm couldn’t hurt, right?

And now I had an interview.

“They want me to meet in a public place for the interview, so that’s good.” And it was in just a few days, which was also good. The faster I could get through a job process, the faster I could either get the job, or move on to another application. I couldn’t pay my rent with job interviews.

“When is it?” I told her the day and the time, and she nodded before getting out her phone and then fiddling with it.

“Yeah, I can do that. I’m going with you. Just in case.”

Hunter’s parents were rich, and she dabbled in a number of random jobs, including real estate, watercolor painting, teaching yoga, and making online hair tutorials. If she didn’t work as hard as she did, I probably wouldn’t have been friends with her. Our upbringings had been so opposite that it was a wonder we’d even bumped into each other at all a few years ago at Sapph. I’d actually met Reid first, and then we’d sort of adopted Hunter. Our rich-girl friend.

“You don’t have to, but I’m not going to turn it down,” I said. Better safe than wind up on a true crime podcast.

“Good. Plus, if it goes well, we can celebrate, and if it doesn’t go well, I can help you drown your feelings with our favorite fries and a mojito.” That sounded like perfection. One of the best local restaurants (and there were many) served french fries cooked in duck fat and served with truffle aioli and they were pure heaven. I’d eat my weight in those fries if I could afford it.