I can makeanysituation worse.
Bex
I go straight from the airportto Emil’s offices on West Fifty-sixth, where a receptionist politely ignores the coffee I’ve spilled on my blouse as she leads me to a conference room. Theo is already here—broad shoulders straining the seams of his charcoal suit, perfect nose flared as he sets his phone face down on the table to meet my gaze. He’s even more handsome than I gave him credit for the first time, too fuckable to say no to if he offered, though you’d be mad at yourself later because he’d be such a dick afterward.
I look less fuckable, thanks to the six-hour flight from LA—in a middle seat between two men hogging the armrests—and the coffee I’ve spilled.
I wish I could forget that I kissed him. It’s humiliating, and he’s already so arrogant that he hardly needed the ego boost.
“I didn’t know if you were coming,” I say as I sink into a seat and reach for a bottle of water from the center of the table.
He tips back in his chair and raises a brow. “I still don’t entirely believe you got us this meeting. I’m assuming you called up the first Emil you found online and asked if he wanted to shoot up. I’m here to thwart a kidnapping.”
Theo, like everyone else, assumes I’m too incompetent to ever do anything significant on my own. I won’t bother to correct him because that’s fairly accurate.
I wet a napkin and attempt to blot the stain off my blouse. When I glance up, his eyes are on my chest and the now damp shirt before they jerk away. “So what kind of outrageous liesdidyou tell in order to make this happen?” he asks.
Yes, I lied my ass off toreachEmil Harris—I claimed to be his daughter, Steven Spielberg’s wife, a senior VP at Sony. But I lost my entire family because a fucking reality show made them late. I lost my entire family in a train crash that did not kill a thousand other passengers. The fates did not worry about what was fair or right, so why the fuck shouldI?
“No lies,” I reply. “But if it comes up, you were Prince Harry’s bunkmate in Afghanistan and are currently dating Angelina Jolie.”
“Rebecca,” he sighs. “Seriously?”
“You can just call the thing with Angelina ‘complicated’ if that helps.”
He doesn’t laugh, so I give up with a tired exhale. “I just told him what dicks Baby Makes Three have been and how they’re trying to steal our show idea.”
“Unless he comes in here with a plan tomurderthe owners of Baby Makes Three, I don’t know how he can help.”
“Let’s hear your big idea, then. Since you’re British, I assume it involves recruiting a few cash-poor wizards from Slytherin.”
“I’m beginning to fear you think Hogwarts is a real school,” he says just as the door opens and Emil Harris enters the room with his team.
Introductions are made: there is Lars, middle-aged and handsome, with an accent I can’t place; Paula, who I immediately deem the Competent One because she’s officious and older than everyone else; Katrina, who is all smiles and appearsto worship Lars; and finally there’s some douchey kid named Caden, unbearably smug as he tells each of us, in turn, that he’s studying film at NYU.
It’s not as impressive as he thinks, but I should let someone else inform him since I myself never got around to graduating.
Emil drops into a rolling chair and spins toward us. “We’ve spent a good part of the day going over the situation. And you are well and truly fucked, as Bex charmingly informed me last night.”
He grins when he says it, but my stomach tenses. If I’ve dragged Theo into the city for no reason at all, I’ll never hear the end ofit.
Well, Iwillhear the end, because I’ll block his number at some point, but the next few days will be rough.
I glance at Theo. “I guess we’ll need to murder Kylie and Jasper. I wish I’d had some time to practice murdering first.”
“Rebecca,” Theo says wearily, pushing a hand through his hair, “you’d blurt out what you’d done to at least five people while leaving the crime scene.”
Lars smiles at Emil, then us. “I do have an idea that isn’t murder, though you may find it nearly as unpalatable.”
I hold my breath as Lars leans back in his seat, tapping a pen against his mouth.
“First of all, you’reveryattractive,” he says tome.
It’s less unpleasant than I’d expected…but Katrina’s mouth gapes open and Theo doesn’t seem to love the compliment either. He leans forward, his jaw locked tight, his eyes narrowed. “I don’t know what—”
“Both of you are,” Lars continues as if Theo wasn’t speaking. “We couldn’t hire models more attractive than the two of you, and Theo is fairly well-known because of his last company. So I think we can sell this show.”
Theo looks as if he’s in the path of a speeding car as I clap myhands together. “I knewTwoWhorish Singles Take On the Worldwas a good idea.”
