I burst out laughing.
“What?” she demands. “Kitty, one of us has to care about your career.”
“Which implies I don’t care. You’re a piece of work.”
Maggie sniffs like she’s offended. “At any rate, who is this person? Have you learned anything about him? Is he even straight? This would all be a terrible waste of time if he wasn’t.”
I roll my eyes and mime putting a gun to my head. I’m alone in the apartment, so there’s no one to see me do it, but still. I have to vent my frustration somehow, and something tells me that verbally unloading on my editor isn’t the way to do it. “I don’t think Hayley would be so dead set on me hooking up with him if there was doubt on that.”
“Just the same, you’d do well to find out.”
“What am I supposed to do? Flash him and see if he has a reaction? Or flat-out ask if he prefers men or women? For Pete’s sake, you act like I grew up in a cave and just ventured out into the world yesterday.”
“Fine. Take my advice as criticism.”
Gee, here comes a headache. Why am I not surprised?
Maggie has a lot of terrific qualities, and I know she’s fought for me more than once. I probably wouldn’t have a career anymore if it wasn’t for her going to bat for me against the company’s executives when sales for my sweet romances started tanking.
But, I mean, how much am I supposed to take?
“I have everything under control,” I assure her in a much more docile tone. “There’s a bonus too. His family has a summer home in the Hamptons, where he always spends the season and commutes in and out of the city for work. So, if we hit it off, I’ll have lots of atmosphere to work into the book. And I’ll take plenty of pictures at the resort and post them all over social media too,” I add as an afterthought.
“What a great idea.”
I knew she’d like that.
“Get people talking about your next release before you’ve even started it. Of course, you’ll start it soon. Right?”
“I’m packing my laptop,” I promise with a sigh.
“Don’t forget to have fun out there though. You need a little fun, and you deserve it. I’m not a complete ogre. I’m well aware of how hard you’ve been working.”
How hard she’s been working me, more like, but I’m not so frustrated with the packing process and her nitpicking to stir up another argument. No, I haven’t enjoyed the pace at which I’m now working, and I sure didn’t love it when she first told me I needed to spice things up and write “to trend.”
But it’s paying off. I can’t deny that.
“And be safe, for heaven’s sake,” she adds before we get off the phone. “I don’t want to read in the paper that a successful romance novelist was found dead on the beach or something.”
“Oh my God.”
“Well? It happens. Beautiful, young girls fall victim to wicked men all the time. There are men who prey upon tourists especially. It doesn’t matter the exclusivity of the resort, Kitty. If anything, you’re in more danger because of all the money surrounding you.”
“Why don’t I take a bath with my toaster right now and get it over with?”
“Take care and have fun!”
I swear, the woman swings from one mood to another quicker than I do. One second, I’m being murdered, and the next, I’m having fun.
There’s a knock on the door around one in the afternoon while I’m still in the process of deciding what to cull from my suitcase if I’m ever going to get the darn thing shut without the zipper breaking and all my underwear exploding out.
“It’s open!” I call out.
Yeah, I know. Not the safest thing to do, leaving my apartment unlocked. But I was expecting this.
“Where are you?” Matt’s voice rings out from just inside before he closes the door.
Phoebe’s quicker than he is. She finds me in my room and circles my legs.
“Smart girl.” I give her lots of pets and belly scratches before looking up to find my neighbor with a bag full of what’s sure to be delectable food in one hand.
“She smelled you, you realize that, right?” Always with the charm, this one.
“She’s a smart girl anyway. It’s not her fault she has you for an owner. I can’t hold that one against her.” Phoebe licks my hand. “See? She agrees with me.”
“Woof. You’re in a mood today. Are we eating lunch or what?” Only he doesn’t follow when I brush past him to grab something to drink from the kitchen. “Still trying to pack?”
“Trying to unpack, actually. I don’t have enough room in that big bag.”
“The big bag.” He snorts. “Along with the three smaller bags.”
“What? We’re going to be there for an entire week. A week full of activities, mind you. Hiking and boating and sightseeing. I’ll need daytime outfits, nighttime outfits, bathing suits, something to wear to the rehearsal dinner, something for the wedding itself …”
“I get it; I get it. It sounds like a chore, this wedding.” Matt goes to the living room and unpacks the bag, setting things on the coffee table like we usually do.
“Honestly, it sort of is, but I know Hayley would go nuts, being down there for an entire week with her family alone.”
“She doesn’t get along with them?”
“It’s not that. They’re all great people, but she’s the least impressive of all three kids.”
“I find that hard to believe!”
I sit across from him, cross-legged on the floor. Phoebe rests her chin on my knee, and I scratch her behind the ears. I’m going to be away for a week, so I need to get my pets and scratches in while I have the time.
“Kylie graduated college when she was nineteen and made COO of her firm by the time she was twenty-seven. Brandon is wicked smart and studying to be some sort of astrophysicist. She used to tease him about being a frat boy, but he’s twenty-two now and anything but. ”
“Holy hell. No wonder Hayley is so driven.”
“Can you imagine being as amazing as her and still only coming in third place? So, she gets the inevitable questions from extended family members who tease her about being the family slacker.”
“That’s the worst. Poor girl. No wonder she wants somebody there to keep her from drowning herself.”
“Or drowning well-meaning family members.”
“Though you do realize people are going to think you two are a couple because she brought you with her, right?”
“Please. Like I could land a smoke show like Hayley in my wildest dreams.”
He chuckles, nodding. “You have a point.”
“Oh, shut up. You weren’t supposed to agree with me.”
“You think I don’t know that?”
“Anyway,” I continue, raising my voice to speak over him, “all is not lost. Yes, this is going to be a grueling week if we’re expected to go on all these tours and hikes and whatnot, but there’s a silver lining.”
“The fact that you’ll be at a five-star resort? For free?”
“Okay. Two silver linings.”