Chained To Me: A Billionaire Enemies To Lovers Romance

Chapter 2- Everly

I push my reddish brown hair back from my face and scan the newspaper for the millionth time, looking for a job.

I need to find something.

Being a crisis manager isn't a lucrative career when nothing is going on in the world for me to diffuse.

I've searched The Seattle Herald every day this week, looking for news of some drama that might need my attention, but there's nothing. Every politician and celebrity is playing nice, for once.

I pet my roommate's cat, shut the paper, and sigh. If I don't find something soon, I'll have to take a job at Grinders Coffee, which would be a disaster, considering my talents.

Julie comes into the room, eyeing me. "Still nothing, huh?"

"Nope." I shake my head, defeated. "I've never hit a career slump like this before. I don't understand what's going on."

"What's going on is that your career is an exceptional kind of deal. You need drama to work. The world isn't very chaotic at the moment." She takes a seat opposite me and pets Emerald's head, her white Persian cat.

"You mean that Seattle isn't very dramatic at the moment." I've just said what both Julie and I are thinking—there's a possibility I might need to move for my job.

"Come on, you just need to hang on for a little longer. Something will come up. Someone is bound to slip up, and then you can rescue them."

I analyze her, wanting to memorize everything about my best friend. She has short brunette hair that she tucks behind each ear. Her almond eyes are brown, the color of honey, and she has high cheekbones. Her slim body is the result of all the barre classes she teaches on the weekends when she's not doing her real job, which is being the manager of The Violet Duke, the best restaurant in town.

"I hope you're right. I can't survive much longer without a job."

The last crisis I was hired to fix was two months ago and entailed a famous senator caught on camera with his mistress. He needed me to ensure his impeccable image as a family man remained intact. And, given the circumstances, I did a pretty good job. We explained his position, apologized, and now he's home with his wife, still residing in the Senate.

The truth is, I thrive off of drama.

Maybe it's because I grew up in an unstable home where my parents always fought. There was never a dull moment in the Hunter household. I learned to cope by smoothing things over between the opposing sides. And eventually, chaos became second nature to me. I craved it.

Now I find myself in this position. I'm Seattle's best crisis manager. But the problem is, nothing's been happening in town for quite a while.

I focus on Julie. "I hate to say this, but we both know I might have to relocate."

She shakes her head, her big, honeyed eyes full of sadness. "No. Never."

Tears spring to my own eyes as I consider leaving her and the life we've built behind.

We have a cozy apartment on Bleak Street that we've decorated according to our tastes—modern chic. She's been my best friend since college, and we've lived together for as long. Now, I'm twenty-six and haven't left Julie's side in almost a decade. I don't know what I'd do without her.

Then there's my sister.

"What about Kaley?" Julie reads my mind.

"I can't afford her rehab if I don't find a job soon." I blow out a breath, feeling frustrated by the situation.

My little sister Kaley has struggled with addiction ever since she first tried pot in high school. She didn't thrive off our parents' fighting as I did. Instead, she turned to substances to help her through it. First, it was marijuana, and then she moved on to harder things. Now, she has a full-blown addiction that she can't control.

Since our parents have disowned her because of it, I'm all she has. And I haven't given up on her getting better.

"She needs your support," Julie says. "Especially since she's about to turn eighteen."

I shudder to think of it. Once Kaley has her birthday, she'll be free to leave the treatment center. They won't be able to hold her there. And to think of her going back out to the streets of Seattle, to her addiction, makes me feel sick inside.

"If you leave town to take another job, how will you provide that support?" Julie asks.

"I know that she needs me. But what good am I to her if I can't pay for her treatment?"

It's an impossible situation.

I want to be here for Kaley. Of course I do. But with no job prospects, I have to look at leaving Seattle. There's drama enough around the country. I could go to L.A. and make a full-time living, never worrying about work again.

But as I look at Julie, at the tears in her eyes, I know the price of leaving.

It would be so hard to leave Kaley, and to leave Julie. She's my home, my best friend. My entire life is here in Seattle.

"I know you'll do what you have to," she says. "I'm just going to miss you, that's all."

I pull her into a hug. "Me too. Don't think that this is an easy choice because it's not. But I have to go where work calls."

"I understand." She nods.

Now, both of us are crying.

Eventually, I pull away from her and go to my room with my computer, intent on finding a job elsewhere. Surely, someone out there needs me to help them with their image. I need to find the right fit, the right situation for me.

It's on the horizon. I know it.