Page 17 of Ten Rules for Faking It
Stacey paused. “Did Simon phone?”
Everly shook her head. “Nope. I doubt he will. I think the coffee and bagels all over the floor made things clear.”
“You do anything last night? Maybe add something fun to that list?”
Everly laughed, gesturing to the door. “Hung out. Looked up kittens.”
Stacey’s eyes widened, but she opened it. “Careful. No hoarding.”
“One is not a hoard.” The door drifted shut behind them.
“That’s how it starts.”
Stacey pushed through the swinging door that opened up to the hallway, which led to the control room.
The early-morning deejay, Mason Hearth, waved as he spoke into the microphone.
“Sorry about our internet being down, folks. I’m going to make it up to you with a no-repeat, thirty-minute hit list.”
Everly winced.Yeah. Sorry about the whole internet thing.Mason’s producer, Mari, had her head down in her own booth. Passing the meeting room, a storage room, bathroom, and a couple of smaller rooms, Everly and Stacey went into Chris’s office together.
Chris sat behind his desk, looking through a stack of paperwork. When his head popped up at their approach, Everly was surprised he looked tired. His hair was mussed, his tie off, and his suit jacket hung across the chair in front of his desk. He looked… sexy.Note to self: Boss is hotter when he’s frazzled. P.S. on note to self: Do not notice things like your boss being hot.
“You look like you’ve been here all night,” Stacey said, taking the chair that didn’t have his jacket.
Chris stood up, his gaze, whichfeltintense, on Everly as he moved around the desk. “I have. I came in late last night.” He moved his jacket and gestured to the chair.
Unease poked at Everly’s insides. Why was he watching her like that? Did he regret bringing her chocolate pie? She didn’t regret eating it and wished she had a large slice right this minute. Something to do with her hands. Something to focus on other than his stare. This had to be about the backlash over TUI. Chris leaned against his desk, crossed his arms over hischest. Had his chest always been so wide and sculpted?No, Ev, he worked out extra hard last night and now he’s all muscle.He’d rolled the sleeves of his dress shirt up, and she got stuck staring at his forearms.Okay, okay. He has nice arms. Big deal. Didn’t you just swear off men? No. Maybe you should have. Just some men. Like guys you don’t connect with and bosses.She’d swear off those men.
Letting her gaze wander up, she felt a jolt of something she couldn’t put a name to zip through her veins. Why the hell was he looking at her like that?
“What’s going on, Chris? You’re staring. It’s making Everly nervous,” Stacey said.
Everly widened her eyes at her friend. She wasn’t wrong, butstill.“I’m fine.”
Chris looked over at Stacey and smiled. When his gaze returned to Everly, he sighed.Ahhh, Everly Dean. Making men everywhere sigh in frustration.
Rubbing a hand over his face, he moved back behind his desk. This time, when he met Everly’s gaze, there was the familiar layer of detachment. Cool professionalism.
“Sorry about that, Ms. Dean. I haven’t had much sleep.”
Seriously? The man brought her chocolate pie and now they were back to last names? And not even in the cool jock-style way. Everly shared a “what the heck?” glance with Stacey, who shrugged.
“No harm,Mr. Jansen.”
Stacey snorted. “Jesus. You did not wake me up at the crack of stupid so I could witness you being weird. What are we doing here?”
Chris took a deep breath, and Everly realized that he was nervous. Which was incredibly strange and had the added bonus of making her feel more of the same.
“We’ve had over a thousand phone calls in the last two days, regarding your… incident,” he told Everly.
There were only so many times she could sink into a pit ofshame.Not your fault. None of it was on you.That didn’t make the mental replays of each of the events feel any better.
“I’m calling itthe Unfortunate Incidentin my head,” she said.Did you need to tell him that?“Sorry.”
Chris’s lips twitched. He waved a hand and then folded both of his on his desktop. “Please, don’t apologize. People are livid on your behalf. Our email got so overloaded, the server crashed.”
Everly winced. “I heard. Also, I can’t log on to the email.”
