Only, that meant I didn’t get back to my apartment until 2 a.m. and I am exhausted. My usual early morning was toast, and I had to skip breakfast and my first coffee, instead picking up a double from JJ’s Café on the way into the office.
Add to that, I’m knee deep in another edit, a slush pile that never stops growing, and I still haven’t worked out how I’m going to tell Chris about Jessie’s second manuscript.
Oh, andPadréis blowing up my phone. I know why. It’s Thursday and he’s making sure I’m not only coming but turning up ready to be a good, compliant, quiet little girl. Just as he had “raised”me to be. I’ve been in denial and trying to pretend there is no dinner I need to attend tonight. I’m dreading it.
The lift doors open to the Andersen Schulz and Meyers floor, and I nearly spill my coffee all down the front of me.
“What are you doing here?”
“Morning, Rosebud.” Caleb beams at me from where he leans against the reception desk, looking crisp, well rested, and so annoyingly attractive.
“Stop calling me that.”
“Never.”
“Why are you here? Are you following me? This is a new level of desperate, pretty boy, even for you.” I storm past him. To absolutely no one’s surprise, he follows me.
“I like that you think I’m pretty. But also, I’m not here for you.” I scoff.Yeah, and I’m the pope.
“Mr. Smith, this is a nice surprise.” No one is surprised,Chris. “I see you’ve met one of our top editors.” I rear my head back and see Chris walking toward me.
Caleb winks at me before directing his attention back to Chris.
Caleb shakes Chris’s outstretched hand.
Caleb smiles at Chris.
What the fuck?
“Well acquainted. Rosie has been quite hospitable. I know our meeting isn’t until tomorrow, but I wanted to drop off the prospectus for you.” Caleb slides into business mode as easy as pulling on socks, and if I wasn’t still recovering from the shock of him being at my workplace, I’d be impressed. I refuse to make eye contact though, feeling my cheeks heat.He really wasn’t here for me.That certainly doesnotmake me annoyed because that is agoodthing. In fact, it’s amazing that he isn’t here for me because that would betotallyannoying.
“Well, I’ll leave you both to it. I’d hate to waste your time.” I give them both a polite smile and steer myself around the corner to my cubicle, where Jas and Halle stare at me with their mouths agape.
“What? Shut your jaws or you’ll drool all over my Jimmys,” I scold them under my breath, aware that Caleb and Chris are still in hearing distance. When I sit down at my desk, I raise my head slightly to peer over the divider and find Chris’s back to me and Caleb facing my direction. He’s agreeing with whatever Chris is saying, a charming salesman smile on his face, but when his eyes dart to me, his grin deepens and I have to duck.
“Shit.”
“Well?” Jasper practically crawls to my desk to avoid being seen, but Halle-hoe has no shame. She kneels on her office chair and pretty much stares Chris and Caleb down.
“Well, what?” I whisper-shout, trying to set up my desk from my crouching position and yanking on Halle’s sweater to get her to stop fucking staring at them.
“Spill the beans, sis. There is obviously a story about you and sex-on-legs.”
“I don’t know him, and he’s hardly ‘sex-on-legs,’” I scold Halle.
“He is basically the love child of Ryan Gosling and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, the most sittable of all faces.” Halle was living up to her nickname of being a hoe.
“Pfft. Don’t be giving him those compliments, his head is big enough,” I say, and Halle gasps.
“So, you do know him?”
“Yes,” I relent. “We’re friends with the same friends.”
“And you totally fucked him,” Jasper states with confidence.
“I—”
“She totally did,” Caleb whispers as he quickly leans over the divider, following Chris to his office. My neck snaps in his direction, and I deliver him a salty look. He has the audacity to wink at me.
