Char watched me. “Why did you take this job again?”
“Besides being on the verge of eviction? I’m good at it. I’m a good planner; a problem solver. And I am certain there is a better way than sending their entire staff on a project hunt frenzy this time of year.”
“Have you tried sharing your thoughts?” Char dug into a dumpling.
“I don’t have any ideas if no one tells me what’s going on. Besides, Dean would hardly listen to me. And why should he? My job has already been threatened twice since I started.”
Char frowned at me.And I immediately felt guilty, rambling on about my first world problems while she just had her heart broken. “But enough about work. Tell me what happened with Mark.”
“I just did. He ended it.”
“That’s it?” I didn’t know why I even asked. Char didn’t talk about her feelings. Mostly because she rarely gave men much of her heart to begin with. If any of it at all. She mentally and emotionally held them at arm’s length. It was no wonder his mother picked up on it right off the bat.
“That’s it—maybe after the second glass, I’ll have more to say, but right now, I need distraction.”
Boy, do I have one for you…
“I don’t know what’s going on with me, Char. I’ve never been so unhappy and so afraid to lose work.”
“Welcome to the real-world, Elle. Not everyone has a fantasy job where their boss treated them like a partner and every project felt like walking on air.”
I took another sip to keep me from coming out of my skin. Then I thought of the one bright side to the entire disaster my new job ended up being.
Scott.
Charmingly sexy and completely off-limits. Somehow, during our three separate encounters, I managed to break away from his inviting charisma.
And unfortunately for me, on every occasion, it was because I needed to get back to work—that wasmylifestyle. Not his.
“What was that? Where’d you go?” Char broke into my thoughts pryingly.
I cracked, knowing damn well, I could use the advice. “Remember that party I worked last Sunday?”
“You mean the ‘make it or break it; take one’? Yes.”
I went on to describe nearly every detail of meeting the devastatingly gorgeous billionaire at the Hayes event. And then again the next morning. Followed by the trick lunch date the day after that. And… the one step too far. “We’re going out tomorrow night.”
“Wow. I’m in the wrong business to meet men.” Char was a lawyer and a badass one at that. Besides being tall, blond and basically a knockout, she was also quite intimidating. So the fact that she didn’t meet the right men had zero to do with where she worked. I too would be afraid to go anywhere near her when she had her high heels, black rimmed glasses and a vibe that screamed ‘I will crush you in there’.
“That was stupid, right? I shouldn’t have agreed to see him again.”
“See him again? You are downright dating the man, Elle.” Char sat back as if assessing the situation. “Who thinks you’re what again?”
“I never said. He just…assumed.”
“Assumed what?” Her sharp tone made me flinch a little.
“That I was one of the guests at the event—which was full of high-powered executives and socialites. He probably thinks I’m a VIP of some major organization…oh hell, I don’t know what he thinks, Char.”
“Iwonderwhatever would make him think that.” Her prosecutor tone was in full effect.
“I am not a fraud,” I practically shouted. “I never lied.” I turned away from Char’s glare. “I just let him believe something that isn’t true.”
Char tilted her head to the side in her best effort to show compassion. “Sweety, if he’s that into you, it shouldn’t matter.”
“It does matter. For so many reasons. And I don’t even know why I agreed to this date. I was running to get back to work. I had to end it somehow. He kind of sprung Saturday night toward the end of lunch. What was I supposed to say, sorry this was incredible, but I can’t see you again?”
“Of course not.But now, you don’t have to rush out to get back to work. Now you can tell him the hilarious misunderstanding.”
