“Ms. Bishop wants to see you.”
Ugh.
Grace had a pretty good idea what Camille wanted to talk to her about—the very topic that Grace was trying so hard not to think about.
Stifling a sigh, she followed Mandy to her boss’s office, fixing a smile on her face when Camille enthusiastically waved her in.
“Grace, how are things?”
“Good,” she said cautiously.
Camille was a good boss when she wasn’t acting all crazy, but Grace and Camille had never had the easy rapport that Julie and Camille had, or even the butting-heads familiarity of Riley and Camille. Then again, Grace had never really given Camille a reason to seek her out. Grace’s articles had always been the most tame of the Love and Relationships department, and she’d always turned them in on time.
Until now.
Because Grace’s story was late.
“So, I know I owe you a draft,” Grace said, lowering herself into the chair across from Camille’s messy desk.
Her boss ignored this. “Jake Malone’s a doll, isn’t he?”
A doll? No. He was more like … sex. Jake Malone was sex.
“He was nice,” Grace said casually.
Camille studied her closely before letting out a little groan. “Oh no.”
“Oh no what?”
Camille held up a small pile of papers. “Cassidy sent down Jake’s first article for your joint series.”
Grace was pretty sure she deserved a gold medal just then, because somehow she managed not to lunge across the table and make a grab for the papers.
“He’s written it already? Our first date was a week ago.” And why wasn’t he struggling to write it the way she was?
“Perhaps you made an impression on him,” Camille said.
“Oh?”
Camille waggled a finger. “Uh-uh. No hints. Not until you write your own article. The purpose of all this is to see how good a read you have on this guy. And how good a read he has on you. A sneak peek would give you an unfair advantage.”
Grace le
aned back in her chair and resisted the urge to beg.
“Okay … so you brought me in here to …?”
Her boss leaned forward, shaking Jake’s article a little. “This guy is good, Grace. I wasn’t on the date, obviously, but … it’s like he knows you.” Camille lowered her voice to a frantic whisper. “He thinks you have a thing for him. Says he played you perfectly.”
Grace’s eyes narrowed. Did he now? “I thought you weren’t going to tell me what the article said.”
Camille hedged. “Well, I just thought you deserved fair warning. Just in case he’s … that you do have a thing for him.”
“I don’t,” Grace said.
She was pretty sure about that.
Then she remembered the way he’d held her wrist at the end. The way that their date had been better than other dates.