“Us?” Chesney looked down at his hands, before shaking his head. “Us? No, I prefer to keep things professional.”
Neither of them had kept things professional last night, but Gracie only nodded gently.
“Yeah, but things slip out, a little comment maybe…”
“No,” Chesney shook his head more firmly this time, “That guy hates me. Huang made me hire him, even after his interview was a trainwreck. I'm not about to have a cozy chat about my personal life with Gussie."
Gracie nodded to herself. That confirmed what she’d already thought. For August to believe that Chesney and she had hooked up, he must have seen them together outside of the office. There was only one person who knew that Gracie had been at Chesney’s house last night.
“Listen,” Gracie said with forced cheerfulness. “I’ve been thinking about what you said. That the spiked articles aren’t important.”
“Oh, yeah…” Chesney said, his voice guarded. Gracie wished that she could reach out to him. As she looked at his lips she remembered the feel of that mouth. It hurt that he seemed so distant now. But she had a plan: they would work out what was going on around here and solving the case together would prove to Chesney that they were good together.
Quickly she told him what Klarov had told her last night: that Clive Huang was not the real owner of Attitude magazine, that he was only holding it in trust until the real owner was old enough to inherit it. As she spoke, Gracie hopped up onto Chesney’s empty desk, perching carefully.
“I’ve never heard anything about that,” Chesney said when she’d finished. “Are you sure that’s true? I know Huang has a niece and she does take a vague interest in what we do here...but I always assumed that she was simply a fan. I’d be in here every single day if I was going to inherit this place.”
“Apparently it was her father that started the magazine.”
Chesney leaned back, still frowning but clearly his thoughts had moved on to other things. “Do you think I could get her to OK the website?”
Gracie smirked. Chesney’s top priority was keeping Attitude afloat as long as possible and that was far more interesting to him than all these other intrigues.
“I think it’s worth telling her that her uncle is stopping you from putting the magazine online.”
“And,” Chesney said bitterly, “That he hired a Private Detective agency to spy on the magazine’s editor.”
Gracie shrugged.
Chesney continued, his voice getting softer as he started to plan what he was going to say to this woman. A chance at a different owner meant someone who might listen to his ideas to keep Attitude relevant and financially viable. “Maybe, I could find out her address. She must be a subscriber.”
“I’ll go with you. We can go tonight and talk to her.”
Chesney sighed heavily, her words snapping him out of whatever plans he was making. “Gracie…”
“Andy, I was hired to investigate you and I took the case because I thought you were doing something wrong and I wanted to help. I understand that you don’t trust me right now but...see things from my point of view. The more I learned about you the more I saw you were one of the good guys.”
Chesney smiled, his eyes softening as he listened to her. He reached out and put his hand on her knee. It looked like an almost subconscious gesture, as if he simply couldn’t bear to be this close to her and not reach out.
“It’s weird,” he said gently, “I keep on having to correct myself every time I go to say your name.”
“Weird doesn’t mean bad,” she said, copying his gentle tone as she put her hand over his, and then sliding her hand along his arm, she bent forward until their faces were level. She could feel his hot breath against her cheek.
She leaned just a little further and then he was leaning toward her too, answering her wordless question. Their lips brushed together, it was barely a kiss but it was enough to let her know that he still wanted her, that he still felt this same need that she did, boiling inside her.
She felt lightheaded with the rush of it, the thrill of just that tantalizing touch. They kissed again, deeper this time, neither holding back the passion that they both felt.
Chesney's hand was suddenly on her waist, pulling at her, urging her forward and she was about to tumble onto his lap. Damn the consequences. Both of them were so wrapped up in this kiss that nothing else mattered
There was a noise in the background. A steady, insistent noise that Gracie was only distantly aware of as she realized that it had been going on for some time. She'd been too busy to notice it.
Someone was knocking on Chesney’s office door.
Gracie shot up quickly, jumping away from him quickly. The door wasn’t locked. They could be discovered if the person on the other side decided to simply walk in. As she leapt away from Chesney, she saw what their kiss had done to him, the hardness in his pants that was just for her.
“Go away!” Chesney yelled
The person took that as a sign that it was alright to come in and opened up the door. Laura, the journalist who worked Features and Letters took a few brisk paces into the office.