Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 135847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
But this wasn’t just friends having dinner.
You didn’t hold hands with friends.
And this wasn’t the first time I’d seen those two together. I’d seen the same, with my own eyes, at Mika Stowe’s book launch event.
Hale Wheeler.
Total.
Goddamn.
Player.
“Buy them,” I decided, my voice sounding tight. “I’ll write copy now so we can post them within the hour. Hale looks good. It’ll be a nice follow-up to the interview announcement.”
“You got it,” Zoey said, swiping up her laptop and heading out.
I texted Hale about the announcement going out, and I knew it wasn’t only because the words were terse and informative that I got no reply. The man was busy, he made that clear in his interview. Too busy for women in his life.
I was stewing (while reminding myself I had no right to stew, it had been one date, and it started out fake, it was just that I was unaware it had ended the same way) while writing copy around Jamie and Nora, and what might be happening with them.
I was going to give Hale holding Blake Sharp’s hand a pass. It wasn’t the right thing to do in my line of business. But it was the right thing to do for my peace of mind.
I was also trying to decide if I should use the morsel I’d received from a ferret as the obvious segue it seemed to be.
It was about Gordon Fuller, an ex-co-star of Imogen Swan’s, going into rehab (again). Zoey had since obtained two sources to confirm, so it was good to release.
However, even if it was content, it wasn’t where I wanted to go with my brand.
I was distancing myself from this kind of thing. It was gossip, not news. There was no meat to it.
The real story was that Gordon Fuller had been handsome and talented when he was cast in a compelling storyline as the younger love interest of the middle-aged titular character in the beloved show Rita’s Way. But the idea of an appealing, vital, older woman attracting the attention of a younger man so repelled viewers, they wrote him off the show.
For reasons only the fates of Hollywood understood, this derailed his entire career, which more than likely played a part in Fuller’s ongoing problems with addiction.
And now, Teddy Mankowitz, the showrunner for Rita’s Way, had a new program, starring Imogen Swan, which was dedicated to exploring the full, including sexual, lives of mature women.
He’d caved in Rita’s Way, then capitalized on that same thing in The Next Life.
Now, that was a story.
And I was going to run with it.
I made this decision just as the door to the suite opened.
I looked up and watched Hale stroll in.
His eyes found me behind the desk, and he smiled like he hadn’t told me he wanted to see me again, and three days had elapsed since he said that, and I not only hadn’t seen him, but he had been out with another woman in between.
He jerked up his chin to Zoey then walked right into my office, and yes, it was a temporary office, but it was mine.
Though he was paying for it.
“Hale,” I greeted.
“Babe,” he replied.
Babe?
Oh my God.
I wanted to kill him.
He came around the desk (yes, right around the desk), bent down and kissed my cheek (yes! kissed my cheek!).
He then rested his ass against the edge, still on my side, examined my face, and asked, “Christ, what did I do now?”
“Not a thing,” I lied breezily. “Did you get my text?”
He nodded. “Checked out your website and socials. Looks like people are excited.”
I hadn’t looked yet. I found you could descend into comments in unhealthy ways. My need for attention craved that kind of thing, and it could get obsessive (and had). So I let Zoey deal with reading and engaging, and I allowed myself minimal scanning after a post had plenty of time to run its course.
“Unsurprising,” I replied.
“I have news,” he announced.
“That would be?” I asked when he didn’t immediately share.
“In poking around, my people discovered the warehouse isn’t up to code. It’s not just the heat, it’s the electric. They’re also worried about asbestos. It’s going to need a full going over, and they say the electric and HVAC alone are going to take a minimum of six weeks, and we can’t put in the security until the electric is done. I signed on for three more months here, but it might take longer. So you can settle in.”
I had no issue with that. I loved it here. And if this interview put me where I hoped to be, I’d already decided to overhaul my budget and ascertain if we could stay here.
“You could have texted me that,” I shared.
He shook his head. “We’re scheduled to take off in a couple of hours, and since I don’t have plans to be back in the city for a few weeks, I thought I’d take this opportunity to have some time with you before I go. Can you nip out with me to grab a coffee?”