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“What the hell do you mean, is he cute?”
Bailey shrugs like she didn’t just try to lobotomize me with that question. Honestly. I mean, if you want to be objective, he’s marginally attractive. For an asshole. If you like the dark, lean, lightly muscled, tattooed, pierced hipster type.
Which I absolutely do not.
“He’s not my type,” I say, ignoring her raised eyebrows. “And anyway, you could meet him yourself, if you’re dead set on it.” I take a deep breath and brace myself to broach the question I called her here to ask. “I need a favor.”
“Anything,” she says, shrugging easily.
“Maybe not this,” I warn. “I need a date. Specifically, I need a date to the competition kickoff gala this Friday.”
Bailey rolls her eyes and sips her drink. “So get a date. Never known you to have trouble finding one.”
“That’s the thing,” I say, rubbing the back of my neck. “I kind of need a girlfriend type of date for this.”
Bailey lowers her coffee cup and looks me in the eye.
“What’s going on?”
“There’s this woman at work,” I say. “She’s been a little… overenthusiastic about trying to get me to go out with her again.”
“You can’t just tell her no?” Bailey asks, raising an eyebrow.
“I have,” I say. “Repeatedly. But she keeps coming up with other ways to ask me out, or other events to ask me to.”
“You said ‘again,’” says Bailey. I nod.
“We went for a drink after work once.” At her arched brow, I put my hands up. “Just a drink. One drink. And it was just that one time a couple of months ago.” Mila’s attractive enough and we’ve never had a problem working together, but I didn’t feel any sparks. At the time I assumed she felt the same. I was wrong.
“Have you reported her?” Bailey asks. “Because that sounds an awful lot like harassment to me.”
“I don’t think it’s quite that bad,” I say. “Mila’s just really... persistent.”
“So you, what? Told her you’ve already got a girlfriend?”
I nod again.
“And now she’ll be at this big party for Sizzle and if you show up without a plus-one—”
“She’ll know I lied,” I finish. “Right. What do you say, Bailey? Be my fake girlfriend for a night?”
Bailey purses her lips, skeptical as all hell.
“You get to wear a fancy dress,” I say, singsonging it because Bailey loves dressing up. But I saved the kicker for last. “And you know the food is going to be spectacular.”
“Will I get to meet the kitchen disaster guy?” she asks, and I know I’ve got her.
“If you insist on meeting yet another jerk, yeah,” I say. “I’ll introduce you to him.”
“Hell yeah, I insist,” she says. “Anybody who gets under the skin of the unflappable Drew Hicks that bad deserves at least an introduction. All right. Count me in.”
3
Cooper
“Cat got your tongue, cutie?”
The brunette standing at the bar is not getting the hint. If she got an invite to this self-important shindig, that means she works for the network, or she’s with somebody who does. I’m going with current employee. Meaning, somebody I cannot afford to piss off.
