Page 72 of Dream (Fighting Fate)

“I didn’t mean that to sound harsh. I’m just not in the head space for dating—pretend or otherwise—so as long as you’re okay with that, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

The smile she gave me was the definition of fake, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. It was virtually impossible to be honest and nice at the same time in these kinds of situations.

“Of course,” she said. “I’m over the drama of it all too. Everyone seems to have an agenda these days. No one cares who they’re stepping on, on their way up.”

She almost seemed sincere. M

aybe she was. Maybe she wasn’t. That was the problem with the industry I worked in. Everyone was good at pretending.

Steven clapped his hands, and a short, red-haired man came running toward us. “Places, people.”

As he ran away again, I gave Hannah a smile and gestured with my hand. “After you.”

As she pleasantly turned on her heel and strode onto the set, I drew in a long, deep breath. I had a feeling things were about to get complicated.

Chapter 43

Olivia

Shoving my cell phone into my handbag, I slung it over my shoulder and rushed for the door. Sam laughed as I dashed past her, coffee in hand. “And I thought I was the late one.”

I huffed as we made our way down the four flights of stairs. “Sorry about that. Mom gets a little talkative sometimes.”

Her eyes bugged, oozing with sarcasm. “A little? You were on the phone for, like, two hours.”

Pushing through the building’s front doors, I laughed. “Yeah, that’s not unusual. We’re still getting used to the fact that we don’t see each other every day.”

Weaving through the crowded sidewalk, I quickened my steps to keep up with her. Sam smirked at me. “I wish I had that kind of a relationship with my mom. We can hardly stand to be in the same room with each other for more than ten minutes. After that, the gloves come off.”

I wasn’t sure if she was joking or not, so I went with a smile instead of laughing. “It can’t be that bad.” Sam grabbed my arm and yanked me toward her, a second before a bicycle courier flew past at break-neck speed. I was starting to doubt I would ever get used to the fast pace of the city. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” she said, resuming her pace. “And I’d love to say I was kidding about my mom, but I’m not. We don’t get along very well.”

I contemplated what that must be like as we pushed into the office building that housed World Aid Matters—or WAM as Sam and I liked to call it. Pulling out our security passes, we rushed past the security guys and took the left corridor, following it all the way to the end.

When we reached WAM’s door, Sam stopped and smiled at me. “Thirty seconds to spare.”

“The fact that you’re an expert in rushed time control worries me, Sam,” I said, sliding past her with a grin.

“But I bet you love me right now, though, huh?”

As we made our way through to the conference room, I let out a soft laugh. “Maybe just a little.”

As expected, we were the last to arrive, but no one even so much as gave us a dirty look when we slid into our seats. Mike flicked through a few papers in front of him, looking over his notes before glancing up to start the meeting.

“All right, guys. This is going to be a quick one because I need to get downtown to see about this McLeod’s donation thing. David, I need you to liaise with Peter Simpson and set up a meeting with Ashton. As soon as possible, because I want him in on the next UN meeting. Becca, where are you at with covering the United Care blanket drive?”

Becca paused her scribbling and looked up at Mike. “Cara is meeting with Leroy this afternoon.”

Mike nodded then met my gaze. “Olivia, good work on the blog. I’m impressed. That article was brilliantly written.”

My cheeks warmed. I wasn’t used to receiving such publicized accolades. “Thanks, Boss.”

He gave me a brisk nod before carrying on. “Now, it looks as though the West Coast group are going to head on over to Uganda earlier than planned to give some aid to the Cooper family, so, because of that, they’re bringing the medi-trip forward. That means we’ll need to run the campaign for the drive a month earlier, so Sam, I need you to team up with David to get that off the ground on time.”

Sam nodded, scribbling in her notebook furiously.

Mike look down at me. “Olivia, I’m going to give you the UN meeting.”

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