He laughed. “Am I being dismissed?”
“Time and business wait for no man. Back to the salt mines.”
I paid the check and headed back to the office, my mind still churning.
The elevator opened onto my floor, and I immediately noticed that Ina’s desk was empty. Her computer was on, her coat was draped over her chair, but she wasn’t there.
Probably chatting with someone. She was a very friendly, outgoing person. I noticed people in the office loved her. She had quickly made her mark on the place. She was hard not to like with her bubbly personality. And you wouldn’t miss her with her colorful outfits.
I headed into my office and stopped short. There was a gift on my desk.
Another one of those beautifully wrapped boxes. This one was covered in what looked like hand-painted gold stars on deep blue paper, with a ribbon tied in an elaborate bow that seemed like it would require some skill.
My mystery Secret Cupid had struck again.
I sat down and carefully unwrapped the box. Inside, nestled in more pink tissue paper, was a black baseball cap.
I pulled it out and read the embroidered text on the front:I HATE EVERYTHING
I stared at it for a solid ten seconds.
Then I started laughing.
It was perfect. Absolutely perfect. The kind of gift that was simultaneously a joke and deeply, weirdly accurate. Ididhate everything, or at least I was happy to give that impression. And whoever my Secret Cupid was, they’d leaned into it.
Just like the joke book.
I turned the hat over in my hands. It wasn’t some cheap novelty item ordered off Amazon. It was custom. My Secret Cupid had to have it made for me.
I set it on the corner of my desk where I could see it.
Through my open door, I had a perfect view of Ina’s desk. There was a box on her desk. It was wrapped. Kind of. It was a step above the brochure, but it was still a shitty wrap job.
I was pretty sure Ina was smart enough to know what kind of guy Keith was. But she did say she was looking for a husband. Maybe she liked him. Maybe they were right for each other.
I wouldn’t tell Ina not to date him but I was sure as hell not going to help him get in her pants. Unfortunately, I knew Keith just a little too well.
I didn’t want him to break my assistant’s heart. She was damn good at her job. I didn’t want to lose her.
Yeah, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
CHAPTER 11
INA
Iwalked into our tiny kitchen with a sheet mask plastered to my face. The fifty-dollar gift card sat on my kitchen counter where I left it. It was better than the stapler, but it was still pretty impersonal.
My mom always told me not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but Mom didn’t realize that fifty bucks to Orpheus wasn’t going to get me very far. It wouldn’t buy me a side salad. So unless they would let me buy a half portion of something, this gift would require me to spend a ton of money to use it.
So it wasn’t a gift at all.
Amazingly, the card felt worse than the stapler I was certain had been snatched from the supply room or from a coworker’s desk. Not to mention gift cards were the ultimate low-effort gift. And the fact it was to a restaurant in the building told me my Cupid probably grabbed it at the last minute.
Abby was at work, finally healthy enough to return to the restaurant after her bout with the devil bronchitis. The apartment felt too quiet without her, just me and the hum of the radiator and the sounds of the city filtering through the single pane windows.
It was Tuesday night. I should have been relaxing, maybe watching something mindless on Netflix, definitely not thinking about work or Secret Cupid gifts or the fact that I had agreed to be Dane Kavanagh’s fake girlfriend for a Valentine’s Day marketing campaign.
Actually, I hadn’t heard anything about that since Monday’s meeting. No follow-up from Heidi. Nothing from Dane except the usual terse Slack messages about his schedule. He wasn’t being a very attentive fake boyfriend.
