Page 13 of Hooked
“I’m taking you back to the wizard chess room now.” She steered him through the growing crowd, mindful of the uneven floor in the old building where Jeremy had his shop. “Teach those kids something.”
“I’m not dropping this,” he said. “No matter what either of you say.”
Either of us?Had Jeremy talked to his grandfather about her? Shit. That wasn’t good. She flirted with Jeremy. He couldn’t get attached. Tayla wasn’t made for long-term relationships. If Jeremy got attached to her, that would ruin everything.
She left Gus in the back room with the chess kids and drank her lemonade in the corner of the room, watching the crowd that filled the comic book shop.
Emmie with Ox at her back—he’d finally finished work—laughed with a couple who held a baby in their arms while their younger kid played with the train table in the corner. Daisy, Spider, and Ethan were watching a table where Jeremy was supervising a large tabletop game with a wizard theme. It was the same game set up in an attractive display by the door, the one people had been walking out the door with all night.
He was good at this. Jeremy had the ability to create passion in other people. If he was excited about something, he could infect others. He was a natural salesman without being obnoxious about it.
“Just tell me when and where.”
Never and nowhere.
Sadly, Jeremy Allen was a keeper, and that was the one kind of man that Tayla strictly avoided. She’d been drawn in, and she needed to be better at keeping her distance.
Tayla felt her phone buzz in her pocket. She opened it, then nearly deleted the message, thinking it was from the SOKA mailing list. Her thumb had nearly swiped all the way to the left before she caught the subject line:We’re interested if you are.
She slid her thumb back and tapped on the message.
Dear Ms. McKinnon,
We enjoyed your interest form, and we’d like to hear more from you. Could you please fill out the extended interest form and attach a current résumé when replying to this email?
Sincerely,
Kabisa Nandi
SOKA Team Building
PS: No one here would dream of insulting romance novels. We pass too many around the office.
Well. This was an interesting twist.
Tayla satdown at Café Maya the next afternoon with thoughts tumbling through her head. She’d filled out the extended interest form for SOKA and quickly updated her résumé to send this morning. She’d spent most of her morning messaging back and forth with various online friends, trying to find out just who else had been getting interest from the company and what the buzz was around social media.
She was more confused than ever.
While multiple blogging friends had filled out the interest form, only a few had been approached for more information. She’d been fielding messages every time she checked her phone.
OMG!
Ur perfect. Brilliant.
Btch, id hate u but i like u 2 much.
Wait, what form? SOKA is expanding? How?
I havent heard but OMG coolness!
If you work there do you get a discount?
They emailed you back? K.
Tayla raised her eyebrow at thatK.Whatever, Lyssa. Be a bitch.The rest of her blogging friends were excited. A few were being cagey enough that she guessed they’d also gotten interest and viewed her as competition. That was fine.
Tayla never minded healthy competition. She wasn’t a backstabber and she knew her worth. She’d play the game until it wasn’t fun anymore. She had a business of her own, and she was growing her social media presence. She didn’t need SOKA, and she wasn’t going to jump through any hoops she didn’t feel like jumping.
