Read Online One Broke Girl by Rhonda Helms - Free Book Online Page B

able to come by and fix it—and even more thankfully, he’d taken pity on me and not charged me weekend rates, which were astronomical.
    I moved to the couch and rubbed my aching feet. This week had been crazy busy. The office cleaning was going well; Bianca and I had worked out a system so we got in and out of the offices in record time. But it was still tiring. And last night I’d done some pizza deliveries, running around town on my bike while bearing a pizza bag over my back. The work wasn’t the most fun ever, though I did enjoy having tip money.
    However, some great news from this week had made everything better—one, our condo had a legit offer good enough for us to pay off the mortgage, buy out Mom’s portion of the place (based on advice from the family attorney), sock aside a chunk of money to live on for a few months and buy a cheap car.
    Soon, I could retire this bike to the garage and be back to driving. It was going to be total bliss, and I didn’t even care how crappy the ride would be. A real car, powered by fuel and not my legs.
    The other piece of good news was Dad had found a job on Tuesday—he was painting houses with an old buddy from when we’d lived here before. In fact, Dad was at a job site this evening, working on the interior of a sprawling home over the next couple of weeks. Of course, now when he got home, he practically fell right into bed, exhausted. But it was work, and we were both glad our situation was improving.
    I got up to put on yoga pants when the doorbell rang. Had the plumber forgotten something? I opened the door and saw Bianca and Natalie standing there with massive grins on their faces.
    “We’re taking you out,” Natalie declared. “So put on something cute.”
    My stomach sank in disappointment. “Guys, I’d love to, but I had to just pay a plumber to fix a stupid mistake I made and I can’t afford it right now. Maybe next weekend?” By then, I’d have another paycheck and could free up a few bucks for coffee.
    “We’re paying,” Bianca said as she shoved her way in. She had on an old punk band T-shirt and a pair of leopard-print pants, and her dark hair was twisted in a retro pinup style. “And we won’t take no for an answer.”
    I shook my head. “I can’t keep taking money from you all.”
    “It’s not taking,” Natalie said gently as she led me into the living room. “It’s friendship. We want to spend time with you. And you need to get out of this house. It smells like bologna and desperation.”
    A laugh slipped out of me. “Yeah, I had a lazy dinner.”
    “So it’s settled.” Bianca went into my room, and I heard my closet doors open. “Oh wow, those shoes are hot. I’m so jealous. I need to borrow these sometime. They’re close enough to my size that I can make it work.”
    I walked in there with a grin. I knew exactly which ones she was talking about—my sassy red heels. I couldn’t bear to part with them. Not that I’d had an occasion to wear them around here. “What are we doing, anyway?”
    Bianca stuck her head in my closet then backed out with a skin-tight bright green shirt she thrust at me in triumph. “Wear this paired with flats and skinny jeans. It’s perfect.” She grinned. “We’re going bowling.”
     
     
    If my friends in New York City could see me right now, they’d die laughing. Even as I had that thought while slipping on a pair of bowling shoes, my mind stumbled. Were they my friends anymore? It had been almost two months since I’d moved, and the contact had all but stopped, despite my efforts to send somewhat regular updates. Even Fiona had moved on; I barely rated a response nowadays, other than the occasional braggy picture.
    The dismissal hurt, truth be told, but I tried to not focus on it. Well, whatever. If nothing else, this whole situation with my mom had taught me the value of real friendship—it was in these two girls sitting beside me, laughing and talking with me about how much fun we were