Love the One You're With(24)

Pretty much every New Yorker’s Monday.

“Hey, Emma, you got a sec?”

Emma turned around, her eyes registering surprise for a split second before she gave a polite smile. “Sure, what’s up?”

Oliver gave an annoyed huff before flouncing back to his desk.

“I believe this is yours?” Grace said, plopping the candy bag awkwardly onto Emma’s desk.

“Ha, yeah. Sorry about that. I have so many of these, I don’t even know when one’s missing.”

“Yeah, I do the same with Hershey’s Kisses. Or at least I used to before all of this set up residence.” She patted her increasingly pear-shaped hips.

Emma gave a polite smile. One that Grace recognized, because she had the same May I help you? expression in her own repertoire.

“Look,” Grace said nervously. “I saw the lineup for the next articles, and it looks like you’re doing one on the resurgence of singles events?”

“Yup. Camille’s idea, but I think it’s a good one.”

Grace gave her friendliest smile, which felt a little bit stiff, but hey … she was trying. “Well, seems to me that fits under the Love and Relationships section.”

“Yeah …”

“So? Why aren’t you sitting with us?”

“Sorry?”

“There are four desks in our office,” Grace forged on. “It’ll be a little crowded, but if you don’t mind the fact that Riley is always eating, and Julie reads through her articles out loud when she’s writing her first draft … but of course, you know all that from when I was gone … Which is cool. I mean, thanks for covering for me …”

Uh-oh. Wimpy 1.0 was doing the talking.

Grace 2.0 stomped on babbling Grace 1.0’s toe. Shut up.

“I’d like that,” Emma said, putting an end to Grace’s rambling. “If you’re sure you don’t mind. I know you three have a pretty tight dynamic.”

It was true. The three of them had been, well … just the three of them forever. But she supposed even the best things could use a change once in a while.

“Of course I don’t mind.” Much.

“Well … great. I’ll start moving my stuff over later,” Emma said.

Loud, irritated clacking noises resumed from the other side of the cubicle wall, and Emma and Grace made eye contact as they both carefully avoided laughing. As usual, Oliver was showing his irritation in the most passive-aggressive way possible.

There was a reason nobody sat by him for long.

Grace was almost back to her office, feeling rather self-congratulatory about her maturity, when Camille’s assistant flagged her down.

“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 leaned back in her chair and resisted the urge to beg.