Andabout mixing work and romance.
He leaned one slender, designer suit clad hip against the edge of my desk.
“True. Besides, half the time Iameating with a VIP. Contacts are everything, babe. I snagged an interview with Matilda Morris Hunt,” he bragged. “The old broad’s as dry as burnt toast, but I can always spice up my article with a few extra juicy ‘facts.’”
He made air quotes with his fingers when he said the word. “… maybe doctor up her boring quotes a little.”
My gasp was audible. “You can’t… we’d never… it’s… it’s…”
Sterling looked down at me and laughed. “Listen to you stutter. I’m onlyjoking.”
His wink made me wonder if hewasn’tjoking about committing basically every journalistic sin in the book.
Plopping the handled paper bag onto my desk, he announced, “Brought you some Soho Sashimi.”
“Oh, no thanks. I couldn’t.”
I’d told Sterling I didn’t eat sushi almost as many times as I’d turned down his incessant lunch, dinner, and booty call invitations. Listening wasnothis strong suit.
Neither was what had happened in the bedroom on those occasions in the past when I’d been stupid enough to say, “yes.”
“I know, I know what you’re going to say… too expensive.” He swished a hand through the air, dismissing the thought. “You should learn to value yourself more. I’ll behappyto spoil you anytime you’re ready to give me another chance.”
Erin had been absolutely right about dating in this city. Turned out that more-fish-in-the-sea thing only meant I was a guppy swimming with a whole lot of sharks.
The stuff I’d said to Erin about being patient and letting it happen? I’d been patient. It wasn’t going to happen.
I’d accepted meeting “the one” just wasn’t in the cards for some people, and that mind-blowing sex thing? It didn’t exist outside of romance novels.
Sterling Gaston was a prime example of why I was happier at this point staying in on weekend nights with a cup of tea and a book boyfriend than wasting anymore of my time further proving the point.
Sterling lowered his voice and leaned closer. “I miss you, Bon-bon. I miss your laugh, your big smile, your tight little bod in my bed...”
He waggled his eyebrows. “... the way you always enjoyed everything as if you were seeing and doing it for the first time. You were like a breath of fresh air.”
Andyouwere like this stinky fish smell—nauseating and hard to get rid of.
I couldn’t say that out loud to my boss’s son, but I needed to get him—and the sushi—out of my immediate vicinity. Pronto—before I lost my economical lunch.
“I’m seeing someone,” I said.
It was trueifyou counted the occasional platonic outing with Erin’s brother Matt. Who was gay.
“Besides, your father issued that new no-fraternization policy for co-workers, remember?”
Sterling smirked and stood. “What Daddy doesn’t know won’t hurt him. I’ll be inheriting before long anyway.” As he strolled away, he drawled, “The offer’s always open, babe—anytime you’re ready.”
As soon as he rounded the corner toward his large, windowed office, I got up and rushed to the break room where I deposited the unopened takeout bag of raw fish into the trashcan.
The janitor, Mr. Ocampo, emptied it a few times a day, so hopefully the smell wouldn’t nauseate my co-workers the way it did me.
When I got back to my desk, an inter-office message blinked on the computer screen.
Would you step in for a minute?
It was from my boss, Charlotte, the editor of the paper’s book section. I placed a bookmark in my novel and closed it then hurried toward Charlotte’s office. The door was open. I poked my head in.
“Hi. You wanted to see me?”
