Page 48 of Face Off

17

Holly

I poured out my fears to Mikey last night, and he didn’t run. He didn’t laugh or tell me I was crazy. He listened. And a little piece of my heart fell for him.

That couldn’t continue. I needed to stop thinking about him in a romantic way. He wouldn’t be interested in me. He was a bachelor. He partied and went to clubs and had a different woman on his arm each week.

At least, that’s what I thought. That’s who he appeared to be until I got here.

No. I wasn’t the cause of anything in his life. He had that awful meeting the same day I started here. That was the catalyst for his change. He was facing a difficult fork in the road and was probably told by his agent or manager to behave.

I wasn’t even sure he was interested in me as anything more than a friend anyway.

How did people know that? Was there a sign or something I should be looking for? I’d been out of the dating game for far too long. And I didn’t want back in.

Sure, it made my heart swell in my chest when I saw him with Sadie, but what woman wouldn’t swoon over a big, tough guy being a mushy teddy bear, with zero ego, for their child? I needed to get the difference between kindness and flirting straight in my head.

It felt good being honest with him though. His anger on behalf of me and Sadie was unexpected but meant so much. I thought I would be more upset about finally giving into Peter’s termination request, but I only felt relief. If he didn’t want to be in Sadie’s life, then he was missing out. She had plenty of love and happiness without his toxic presence.

“Holly?” Chloe stood in front of my desk with a worried look. “Are you okay?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“So I should get used to saying your name three times before you respond?” The corners of her lips twitched, giving away her smile.

“Sorry. I guess I was lost in my head.”

“I can’t imagine what you could possibly be thinking about.” She wagged her brows. “Perhaps a certain walrus?”

Cam rolled his chair over to us. “A walrus?”

Matt stopped typing and stared at us.

I couldn’t think of an excuse that would take the attention off of me.

“She means Mikey,” Taylor said from her desk, grinning widely. “He pretended to be a walrus to make poor Sadie stop crying.”

Matt shook his head and went back to work, but Cam looked between all of us. “Mikey? Dank?”

“No one calls him that.” Chloe gave him an exasperated look.

“I didn’t know you two were close,” Cam said to me.

“We’re not.” I needed to get out of here. My resolve was hanging by a thread, and if any of them pressed me even the tiniest bit, I’d have a nervous breakdown in the middle of the office.

“Yet,” Taylor said quietly, her eyes on her computer.

“Yeah, we’ll see how long that lasts.” Chloe tapped my desk. “Speaking of Fury players, we need some quotes for tonight’s posts. Would you mind going down?” She checked her watch. “They should be winding down practice now.”

“I can go,” Cam offered, but Chloe shot him a look.

“Nope, I think the guys need to get more used to having Holly around.” She smiled sweetly and stood, not giving me the chance to come up with an excuse.

I sighed, and Cam shrugged before rolling back to his desk. I stood, and Taylor handed me a stick of gum as I passed. “Have fun, but not too much.”

I wanted to slap it out of her hands but refrained and took it, peeling it and shoving the mint-flavored stick into my mouth.

“Oh, and I couldn’t help but notice a certain player’s following has gone up by ten thousand recently.” She raised an eyebrow. “Looks like people are really responding to the behind-the-scenes posts.”