“It seems like a big deal now, but in a few days you’ll put this behind you and it’ll be like it never happened.”
Gracie opened her front door and slipped inside, turning back to Klarov, she kept the door open only ajar so they could finish their conversation.
“You think?” Gracie asked, surprised that Klarov would make any assumptions about Chesney’s personality. He was usually a cautious judge of character.
“Absolutely!” Klarov said with an easy grin. “I've got another case that you can get stuck into. By this time next week, you won't even remember the name Andrew Chesney!”
Gracie’s face fell. She didn’t want to forget Chesney! She’d been so sure that he already knew that she was working undercover, it simply hadn’t occurred to her that he’d take the news so badly that it would destroy the trust between them. Despite the flare of electricity that seemed to exist between them, despite the tension that burned in Gracie’s gut whenever she thought of him, it hadn’t been enough.
“Right. Thanks, Klarov. Night,” Gracie said bitterly, shutting the door and almost missing the pitying look on Klarov’s face.
She showered and got ready for bed trying to make herself comfortable. But her mind kept on going back to Chesney and the evening they’d shared.
“How do you expect me to react?”
She could still see the way his soulful eyes had seemed to look straight through her as he’d asked her that. And then her mind wandered back to even earlier that evening - when she’d been lying on his sofa, his mouth worshipping at her. How had things gone so wrong, so fast?
Gracie wasn’t going to let things end here. She wasn’t going to turn her back on Chesney like Klarov seemed to expect her to.
She turned off her bedside light, settling down into her bed. As always, she was by herself, but for once the bed felt too big like there was something, someone, missing and Gracie felt alone.
No-one paidGracie much attention as she walked through the magazine office. Certainly no more than they normally did. Betty nodded to her, the young receptionist already too busy talking on the phone to speak to Gracie.
None of the journalists and magazine staff looked up from their desks as Gracie walked past them, making her way to her desk.
Their lack of interest in her was evidence that Chesney hadn’t told anyone that she was a PI, working here undercover. The thought warmed her. Why hadn’t he told anyone?
She smiled to herself, ducking her head as she sat down.
“All smiles for the boss, huh?” a man’s voice called out sarcastically. Standing in front of her desk was one of the journalists, August. He’d taken a dislike to her the moment she’d started working here and right now he was scowling down at her.
Gracie’s smile vanished. “What does that mean?”
“Oh,” August scoffed, “Like we don’t all know.”
“I don’t know.”
“What I mean is,” August said, leaning down to put his hands on Gracie’s desk. “Being the boss’s hook-up makes it easy to get hired.”
Gracie blinked, taking a second to consider August’s rude behavior. It was an astonishing thing for him to say. Sure, it was rude, but Gracie expected nothing else from August. No, what surprised her, what made her smile slowly in realization, was that she knew that she’d never given any sign of her attraction to Chesney in this office.
August snorted, unhappy that his barb hadn’t got the angry reaction that he’d been hoping for. Without another word, he stalked away.
August had just made himself Gracie’s next person of interest in her investigation.
Chesney opened his office door and peered out at her. She gave him a weak smile that he didn’t reciprocate.
“Greta,” he said, pronouncing her name with heavy sarcasm. “I did not expect to see you here this morning!”
Gracie peered around the office quickly and then jumped up, hurrying into Chesney’s office before he could say anything else to blow her cover in front of everyone.
Chesney went to sit behind his desk and Gracie followed after him, leaning back against his desk right next to him. They were so close that she could have reached out and touched him, but she didn’t, and neither did he.
“Getting comfortable?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Trying to. Did you ever say anything about us to August?”
Chesney gave her a profoundly confused look. Had he been expecting her to continue their conversation from last night?