Page 3 of Sunset Serenade
Rose felt so embarrassed that she didn’t question it. She rushed up to the twelfth floor, though she was pretty certain she was supposed to be on the third. When a woman asked her if she was here for the interview, she said yes and didn’t question why she was hurried into a makeup chair, her face dabbed with this and that.
Rose wasn’t one to question things. She assumed other people knew better than she did, that she must have missed something, and surely there was a reason they were sitting her in front of a camera.
It had to be part of the interview. A test. There had to be a reason, and it only evaded her because she had missed a detail, some crucial email, perhaps.
Clearly, there was no self-doubt too far-fetched for Rose to believe.
The screen in front of her lit up with a dazzlingly beautiful news anchor. “We are so happy to have you on the show today, Rose. I’m sorry, Dr. Woodson. Do you mind if I call you Rose?”
Her heart dropped into her stomach. Something had gone wrong.Verywrong. She was not supposed to be here. She didn’t know what this was, but it was not an interview for an administrative assistant job. She was not a doctor, her last name was Woodley, and her suit jacket might actually be trying to strangle her to death.
Yet it was happening, and it couldn’t have happened to a more perfect victim. She was panicking, and when Rose panicked, her mind went blank. It was like the white light people talk about when they have a near-death experience: bright, blinding, and all-encompassing.
Rose blinked rapidly and forced a smile. “Of course! Call me Rose. Just Rose. Thank you for having me.”
Chapter Two
“You all right?”
Craig’s eyes shot up from his half-eaten sub. “Me? Yeah. I’m good, thanks.”
“If they messed it up…” The waitress motioned to his plate. “We’ll make you another one. You don’t have to torture yourself.”
Craig laughed. He’d forgotten he was in public. He knew better than to hunch his shoulders down like this, sighing and grimacing. “The sandwich isn’t torture. It’s great.” He nodded his head down to his phone. “Work is...the problem.”
She eyed him for a moment, then smiled. “All right. Good. More coffee?”
“Please.”
She topped off his mug and disappeared.
Work. Work was always the problem.
Craig took a swig, savoring the slightly caramel tones. He loved this diner. It was right next to the office, and their coffee was always fresh and cheap.
The food was always good, too. Consistent. Whenever it started to feel like the pressure was building up at work, like he was going to combust with one more request, Craig escaped and sat at this counter. Coffee. A sandwich. A slice of pie, sometimes, if he had the stomach for it.
Today he didn’t. He’d spent the morning in meetings, acting like everything was fine.
It wasn’t. How many years now had it been? How many years had he felt like a college kid pretending to be a COO? Through the rounds of funding, the years of expansion. Their dating app had gone from a few users to a few hundred to a fewmillion.
It didn’t matter how he felt. HewasCOO. People counted on him. His company provided their livelihoods. These people actually knew what they were doing – analysts, coders, accountants. They didn’t deserve to lose everything because he couldn’t keep faking competence.
Craig sighed. Something had to change. He didn’t know what, or how, but he had to figure it out.
It was precisely at that moment that he sat back and something—rather, someone—on the TV caught his eye.
Was it her bright smile? Her calm, intelligent demeanor? Or the description under her name:Relationship Expert.
Why hadn’t he thought of finding a relationship expert?
“Hey,” Craig called out, “can you turn that up?”
The waitress nodded and increased the volume.
It was a local news program – not something Craig normally watched. He didn’t have time to watch TV anymore.
The newscaster sat at a desk, her hands clasped in an eager sort of way. “What got you interested in the science of relationships?”
