Page 24 of Forty, Flirty & Fake-ly Yours

ROSALIND

The thing about January in Seattle is that the rain makes everything feel like a metaphor. This morning's steady drizzle patters against my office windows like nature's own PowerPoint presentation—each drop a bullet point in an endless list of why mixing business with pleasure is a terrible idea.

Especially when "pleasure" involves a certain tech CEO who definitely didn't text me "good morning" with a statistical analysis of last night's "successful relationship presentation metrics."

I tear my eyes away from my phone—and the viral photos lighting up every tech blog on the West Cost—to focus on the client file in front of me.

- Serena Johnson

- Corporate lawyer

- Thirty-eight

- Looking for someone who can keep up with her intellectually but isn't afraid to be spontaneous.

Good luck with that combo.

"You're brooding again," Olivia announces, appearing in my doorway like the ghost of relationships past. "And wearing yesterday's backup office cardigan."

"I am not brooding." I tug the worn blue sweater closer. After last night's designer dress, it feels like leaving the penthouse and coming home to a cozy cabin. A cozy cabin that smells like burnt marshmallows. "I'm working. And this cardigan is a classic."

“Classically full of holes. But I get your point.” She settles into my visitor's chair with the ease of someone who's been my best friend since that fateful speed-dating disaster fifteen years ago. “So, how was last night?”

“Last night was…fine.”

“Fine. Huh. So fine that you've been staring at the same file for twenty minutes while sighing at your phone?"

"I don't sigh."

"MOMMY!" A small tornado of pink sequins and K-pop merchandise bursts into my office. "Jun-seo oppa posted a new dance video!"

"Inside voice, Bianca," Olivia reminds her eldest, just as her younger daughter Mia skips in wearing what appears to be every BTS accessory ever manufactured.

"Daddy says we can get bubble tea after lunch!" Mia announces at exactly the same volume. "Can Roz come? She never has lunch with us anymore."

Derek appears in the doorway, still in his hospital scrubs, looking exactly like the hot barista-turned-doctor who caught Olivia's eye at Meet Cute Coffee Co. all those years ago. "Sorry, babe. They insisted on surprising you at work before our lunch date."

"Best surprise ever," Olivia says, and the way they look at each other—still, after all these years—makes my heart do acha-chain my chest.

"Roz!" Bianca tugs at my cardigan. "Did you see the newBlackpink video? Mom says you're dating a billionaire now. Does he like K-pop? Can he buy us concert tickets?"

"I'm not—" I start, but Mia's already climbing into my lap, her BTS backpack somehow managing to knock over both my coffee and Serena Johnson’s file.

"Can we come to your wedding? I want to be a flower girl. Bianca says she should be flower girl because she's older but I say we should both?—"

"Okay!" Derek swoops in, somehow managing to gather both girls and their various K-pop paraphernalia in one practiced motion. "Let's let Roz work. We can interrogate her about her love life over bubble tea next time."

"But Dad! Jun-seo oppa?—"

"Will still be dancing on your tablets after lunch," he finishes, shepherding them toward the door. "Come on, your mom's only got an hour before her next client meeting."

Olivia stands, but instead of following her family, she gives me that look—the one that usually precedes uncomfortable truths.

“Nope,” I warn her. “Don’t even.”

"Don't even what? Point out that you're hiding in your office wearing your emotional support cardigan while your fake boyfriend's face is trending on socials?”

"I'm not hiding. I'm working." I gesture at the scattered papers from Serena’s file. "Some of us can't spend our lunch breaks making heart eyes at our soulmates."

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