“Good. Me, too.”
Another beat went by before Ellis gave a small nod and took her coffeepot back behind the counter. Wow. That was…wow. At least her heart waited to pound and her armpits waited to sweat until she’d set the coffeepot back on its burner, waited until she was safely away from Cherry Davis.
“That was impressive,” Kitty said as she gave an order to Cal. “I could feel the chemistry all the way over here.”
“You could not,” Ellis said with a soft laugh.
“Totally could. You two would make a really cute couple.”
She rolled her eyes. “Okay, let’s not get cray.” There was a huge difference between an attraction and a relationship. A huge difference.
Obviously.
* * *
Cherry would be much happier working in her office if she had a boss who wasn’t such a miserable witch. Seriously, did Amanda Crowley even know how to smile? Was her face broken? Cherry had no reason to think so, and when she racked her brains to try to recall a time when maybe there had been a smile, it was a giant fail.
That being said, she still had to report in. She was allowed to work from home a couple days a week—or in her case, work from wherever—but she was expected to show her face in person every so often. Today was one of those days, and she pushed her way into the office building, took the elevator up to the fifth floor, and was just reaching for the door handle when she heard her name.
Amanda, coming out of the ladies’ room.
Cherry stifled a sigh and pasted on a smile.
“I was going to give you a call,” Amanda said as Cherry pulled the door open and waved for her to enter first. “Three of your claims are—”
“In your inbox,” Cherry said before Amanda could finish. “I emailed them about twenty minutes ago.” If she’d learned anything about her day job, it was that as long as she stayed on top of it and completed her work in a timely manner, Amanda couldn’t complain about her not being in the office. She was so much happier workingout in the world rather than chained to her desk, and since the company handbook said that was allowed as long as productivity was acceptable, there was nothing Amanda could do as long as Cherry performed her duties.
The wind visibly left Amanda’s sails, and Cherry allowed herself to smile. “Great. Just checking.” Amanda headed down the hall to her corner office while Cherry grabbed an empty cubicle. Since the claims adjusters were all in and out at various times, nobody was assigned a particular desk. You just grabbed one that wasn’t currently occupied.
She logged on, checked her email, read a couple of new articles from the corporate office, scrolled on her phone through the photos she’d taken today so far, and stopped on the one of Ellis, used her finger and thumb to enlarge it. Okay, she’d taken it without Ellis knowing, while she was talking to the other waitress behind the counter, and yeah, that was a little shady, but she wasn’t going to do anything with it. She just wanted to look at her again. She wassopretty. Average height, maybe five six. Blond hair that Cherry had only ever seen in a ponytail, and she wondered how long it actually was. What it smelled like. If it was soft. She wasn’t quite sure if her eyes were green or blue—she was pretty sure they were blue—but she knew they were light and large, that her lashes and brows were darker than her hair, and that her skin looked creamy soft.
She might also have taken note of Ellis’s ridiculously awesome ass as she walked away. Twice. Yeah, that ass was fire. Whoa.
With a sad little sigh, she put the photo away and scrolled through others she’d taken that morning on her way to and from the Sunny Side Up. Shots of the lake, selfies with the lake in the background, a patch of daffodils just poking their heads up through the soil along the way. She chose the selfie with the lake and posted it to Instagram, then put the flowers on Snapchat and hashtagged #nofilter and also #springhassprung. She had picked up twenty-one more followers overnight on TikTok and was thinking about her next video for that when she got a text from Amanda asking her to come into her office for a few new claims. Right after that came a reminder from her phone that the Barkathon was this weekend.
“Queers love their animals,” she whispered aloud. She’d been looking forward to the Barkathon for weeks now, and there’d be tons of good stuff for posts. She had a crap ton of hashtags to use that shouldget her in front of lots of newbies and gain her some serious followers. Andi Harding—a super successful LGBTQIA+ influencer who had become a friend—was at over a hundred thousand followers when she’d checked this morning. Oh, to be there one day. She loved posting content, but more than that, she loved coming up with it. She loved having a setting catch her eye or thinking up a great little tale to share. She lived for it, and she wanted it to be her living in the near future.
As if she’d conjured her up just by thinking about her, a text came through from Andi.
Hey newb, free 4 lunch?
Cherry gave her schedule a quick check. She always said yes to Andi whenever possible. There was so much to learn from her. Plus, she liked her. Bonus. Andi had become a good friend.
Yes! Where?
They settled on a place and time just as another text came through, this time from Amanda.
Today, pls.
She grimaced, gathered her things together, and headed into her boss’s office.
Chapter Four
“I like the purple,” Cherry said as she gave Andi’s short hair an affectionate tug when they hugged. “I think it was pink, last time I saw you.”
“It was. I went lavender this time. I might keep it for Pride month.”
They stood in line at Pita, a Mediterranean restaurant they met at often. While Cherry wasn’t super-fond of the cafeteria style counter and trays, the food was amazing. Once they had their lunches, they managed to snag an empty table. Before anything else was said, Andi rearranged her lunch in a more photogenic layout and took a couple shots with her phone.Document everythingwas the first thing she taught Cherry. Even if you ended up not using it, at least you didn’t miss it.
