He left the room without another word, and everyone looked at me. I put on a solid smile, even though his dismissal stung after all the effort I’d made to include him. “He must be a Mets fan. They’re famous for getting butthurt.”
The men laughed. “Actually, it’s worse,” Garth said. “He’s fromBoston.”
Boston?Shit. No wonder we’d been butting heads. I should’ve known, but I’d let his dazzling good looks and spotty reputation blunt my normally keen enemy radar. If Sebastian rooted for the Red Sox over the Yankees—and if he was from Boston, then he did—that made us natural rivals. For some reason, going up against Sebastian made my nerves flare more than the usual stumbling blocks I encountered at a new job. Was it just because my confidence had taken a hit after my breakup with Neal—or was it that Sebastian had witnessed me in a vulnerable moment before he’d even learned myname?
The thought that he’d already gotten under my skin on the first day bothered me more than anything. He was as much the boss as I was, and in order for this arrangement to work, I needed hissupport.
Vance leaned over. “He’ll cool down. You can smooth it out after themeeting.”
As I buttoned up my blazer, one of the men rose to give me his spot. I thanked him as I took the chair. I was on track to earning the respect I’d need for a smooth working environment. Well, mostlysmooth.
For now, I just had to focus on making it through the week—or at least to happyhour.
4
Sebastian
I’d stormedout of the morning meetingprematurely.
I returned to my office and sat heavily at my desk. I enjoyed almost everything about my job, even Mondays. Often times,Ireigned from the front of the room—Mufasa, King of the Pride Lands. I sat up straighter in my seat. If I were an animal, I’d be a lion, commanding the rest of the jungle, watching from a rocky overhang as my kingdom sangshowtunes.
I hummed “The Circle of Life” as I opened my yellow legal pad and wroteQuiz idea: Which alpha male cartoon character areyou?
Next, I took my black leather agenda from a drawer and scribbled a reminder for my assistant: “The Lion KingBroadwaytickets.”
I rubbed my temples. This time last week, I’d had no idea what was to come. Within days, Vance would bring in an outsider to do my job. And not just anyone—a woman. For amen’smagazine. And Vance actually bought into her shtick. I hadn’t been worried about the exposé’s call to fire me, but Vance had never made a comment to me like the earlier one about restructuring. For years, I’d been revered for taking this magazine from near failure to hit success. I’d thought that was enough to overshadow a few bad quarters, but maybe I’d beenwrong.
If Vance needed to try this to prove I was as good as it got, then so be it. It was only eight weeks. Eight weeks of dealing with the brash, rude, Yankees-loving Georgina Keller. Clearly my judgment had been cloudy this morning if I’d mistaken her forshy.
Having her around wouldn’t be pleasant, and I’d promised myself I was done with women like her, but this time, it wasn’t really up tome.
At ten-thirty on the dot, a knock at my door was almost definitely Justin with a fresh round of donuts and coffee. He didn’t do well on Monday mornings, when he was still in weekend mode—or Friday afternoons, for that matter. Or basically any weekday after threeo’clock.
My stomach grumbled. “Comein.”
The door opened, but chestnut-haired, pint-sized George stepped in. Justin was nowhere to be seen. I automatically dropped my gaze to her blazer, looking for the thin tank top beneath it, for a flash of Yankees blue. She complemented a cheap jersey with Christian Louboutin pumps. I’d noticed those at the coffee shop as I’d snuck a peek at her legs—all my girlfriends had owned a pair of Louboutins or two. Or five. How could I have missed that glaring clue about the type of woman shewas?
Ah—this was why. Because at this very moment, Georgina looked the opposite of how she had in the conference room. She wrung her hands in front of herself and worried her bottom lip between her teeth in a way that made me want tobethatlip.
Fuck. I needed to get my head on straight. Fantasizing about the enemy wasn’t a good way to kick thingsoff.
“Um, about this morning,” she said. “I wanted toapologize.”
“For calling me an entitled asshole? Or implying that I thought I was better than others when I was the only one to stand up for your ‘friend’? Or for the way you tried to embarrass me just now in the conferenceroom?”
“To be fair, you embarrassed yourself,” she said, the corner of her mouth ticking up. “Storming out like a child—is that how you earn respect aroundhere?”
“I saidtryingto embarrass me.You’ll have to work a little harder to pull itoff.”
“Noted,” she said with a slight jerk of herhead.
“Is that it?” I asked. “Did you come in here just tonotapologize?”
“Oh—uh, no.” She looked thoughtful a moment. “Since Vance hadn’t planned on my services, and my position is temporary, there’s no office forme.”
“That’s a shame,” I said, leaning back in my seat. She really did have a nice figure. The old me would’ve fixated on that. The old me, I figured, might’ve even found her sharp tongue a turn on. Yes, she possessed characteristics I’d sworn off of, but in some small almost imperceptible ways—the tremor in her voice, the softness in her eyes—she also seemed like what I was looking for: the antithesis of my usual type. But myusualtype wore Louboutins, spoke down to the help, and had no problem throwing the wordassholearound.
“. . . and I know it isn’t ideal,” she said, “but I think it’ll be good for both ofus.”
