?Guess what you're going to do, Miss HoityToity!' ?What?' I croaked. ?Rhetorical question, you dumb bitch! Shut up!' Brianna opened one of my desk dra...ers, idly poked through it and then smiledat me. Standing, with arms folded, she announced her intentions. ?You are going to hire me as your personal assistant!' Shocked, I gaped at her and tried to protest but my mouth would not work. Brianna laughed. ?I suppose you'd like to say a million things right now but unfortunately,I told you to shut up. Then, with a long slow exhale, he began to explain. ‘I worked for the San Francisco Examiner for three years, but they fired me when I started writing about topics that they didn’t want to print.’ The smoke curled up from his cigarette and he looked for a place to tap the ash and realized there was no ashtray in the office. ‘Guess I should have asked, huh?’ he said, walking to the window. He opened it, stubbed the cigarette out on the outside ledge and, with a deft flick, launched it down to. She replied, "No idea. I had parked by my uncle's cabin on the way to retrieve the last of my stuff, and those two started chasing me. When they caught me, they started dragging me here. I'm not sure where we are."She was disoriented and needed daylight to know where she was.I went to the cabin door and found it locked as expected. Cathleen showed her resiliency by lifting several flower pots from the porch rail. She exclaimed happily when she found a key.We entered a large, one-room cabin. A. " But I'm mostly at home in the evenings. You can call me there." And have to abide by Mom's draconian time limit - no thanks! Besides, you'll need privacy so you can tell me all the juicy gossip. And before you try to tell me that you don't have any gossip, that's going to change too. You'll be spending more time with Julia and Ava, coming up to high school to have lunch with them sometimes, or they'll come down to middle school to have lunch with you and your friends, and we'll be doing.