“Are you actually anxious about the meeting?” Toni asked gently. “Greta’s great, and Em has your back. That’s what agents do. They are your buffer, confidante, partner in facing any chaos. The publicist I had was pretty fabulous, even though I hate dealing with that sort of stuff. They’re all good people. And you know I couldn’t come to the actual meeting anyhow.”
“I know. They’d be all aflutter over theirstarand forget I was there,” Kaelee teased.
Toni shook a finger at her. “Keep mocking me, and when your book explodes into awards and sales and bestseller lists, I’ll just prop up my feet and laugh at your karma.”
“Oh no, the karma of succeeding…” Kaelee rolled her eyes. “You’re ridiculous, you know? Thanks for the pep talk.”
There really wasn’t anyone like Toni. Finding a mentor who understood both academia and the publishing industry was akin to locating a copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio.
“I know you’re being weird about this, but I’m not sure why,” Toni bluntly pointed out. “What’s the real issue? If I thought it was about the meeting, I might have tried harder. Is that it?”
Kaelee felt her face flush. “I met this woman on the app I use.”
“Your sex app?”
“Can we not call it that where people might overhear? It makes me sound like a perv.” Kaelee moved into the office. “But yes,thatapp.”
“Hey, if I wasn’t about to be happily married, I’d be happy to know that app exists.” Toni shrugged. “Trying to meet anyone when my book made me end up on television interviews and all that, plus trying to be sure I didn’t accidentally hit on a student. Ugh. The single life is hard.”
“How do you accidentally hit on your student?”
“Not mine. Any student.” Toni scowled. “You can’t do that and expect to be taken seriously as a professor.”
“Well, this woman isn’t a student.” Kaelee thought about Marie’s forceful personality. “I think she’s in business or something. Very adept at negotiating.”
“You don’t know?”
“Sex. App,” Kaelee said with a shrug. “I wasn’t dating her. We met. We fucked. She’s on my mind. She was in DC, but she lives in New York.”
“And this has what to do with me?” Toni gave her a perplexed look.
“I thought if I was hanging out with you, I might have the self-control to…notsee her.” Kaelee felt stupid saying it aloud, but there it was.
“Because great sex is a thing you suddenly want to avoid?” Toni folded her arms and gave Kaelee a stern look. “I like you, but sometimes you’re weird as hell.”
Kaelee laughed. “I like you, too, but you’re being downgraded. Once I find someone to replace you, you’re going to be my backup wing woman.”
“To help you avoid sex?” Toni shook her head. “I don’t get it, but I guess we all have our priorities. My priority is Addie. She’s coming home, and I… missed her.” Toni still looked vaguely constipated when she admitted to missing her soon-to-be wife, but Kaelee wasn’t cruel enough to comment. The queen of cynicism had changed into the queen of domesticity since she got engaged.
In a last-ditch attempt at creating a way to have the self-control she lacked with Marie, Kaelee suggested, “Invite her, too. I like Addie.We can take the train on Sunday, grab dinner, and head to the bar. Then you can go back to DC.”
“Nope.” Toni flashed a wolfish smile. “She’s been on set more often for the extra episodes they added, so I’m not going anywhere this weekend. Watching people fawn over my woman isn’t my idea of a good time. Next week, you and me. Bar. Dinner. Whatever.”
“Iput up with people fawning overbothof you, you realize?” Kaelee grumbled. “I manage.”
“It’s different when you have to tolerate everyone in the room looking at your future wife covetously.” Toni scowled to herself.
“Overreaction much?”
“Tell me that when you find the right wom—”
“Whoa there!” Kaelee held her hand up as if to stop that damning statement, even as her thoughts drifted to Marie. She was rare in that she was still intriguing, but that didn’t mean Kaelee was going to start thinking domestic thoughts. “Not now. Not ever. Why would you say that? We’ve discussed this.”
“Says the person who needed to find excuses not to see the woman she seems to desperately want to see.” Toni laughed.
“That’s different,” Kaelee objected. “I don’t usually drink at the same pond twice.”
“Uh-huh.That’sthe issue.” Toni shook her head. “She lives in New York, right?”
