Page 608 of Manhattan Bossholes

“And you’re going?”

“Well…yeah.” Her back straightened a little, and she nodded as if she’d reached a conclusion. “I really like him, and I want to see where it could lead. He’s different from anyone I’ve ever met, Lis. He’s got vision. He feels deeply, and he’s not afraid to show it. He calls himself a songwriter, but he’s got the soul of a poet.”

Her eyes lit up as she talked about him, and I knew she was already halfway gone. I’d never seen her so excited about someone. It made me nervous—but at the same time, part of me couldn’t help being happy for her. Was it really so bad to take a chance on love? Nina wasn’t the type to make uninformed decisions, so maybe their talks had convinced her that Tyler was in a better place. Still, I had to make sure she was going into this with her eyes open.

“You know you can’t fix him,” I said simply.

“Well, that’s fine, because there’s nothing to fix!” Nina shot back at me. She started angrily gathering the ingredients.

“He’s a former addict,” I said in a quiet voice. “And based on how he acted at the tavern, I’m not so sure about the ‘former’ part. I don’t know how often he uses drugs, but from what Cameron says, he drinks. A lot.”

Nina dropped her head. “Yeah, I know. But he says he’s working on getting to a better place now.” Her cheeks went pink. “He says it’s because he feels a new creative spark thanks to our conversations.”

If Tyler was trying to charm Nina, he sure picked the right approach. She’d always talked about how she wished she could be as creative as the authors she loved, even though she didn’t have an artistic bone in her body. The fact that he was nurturing that ability was probably fast-tracking him straight into her heart.

“Hey,” I said, waiting for Nina to look at me.

“What?”

“Just be careful, okay? I can tell he seems like a special guy, but he’s lived a different life than you have. He ran with a crazy crowd. That changes people.”

“Cameron likes him,” she fired back at me, stirring the waffle mix and eggs with more vigor than necessary.

“You’re right,” I admitted. “And that means something, but a romance is a whole different equation from a friendship.” I paused. “I’m only saying all this because I love you and I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I know.” Her whole body softened, and she gave me a warm look. “Thank you. Now, enough about me. Tell me everything about bossman.”

“I don’t know where to start,” I hugged myself and grinned at her. “It’s good!”

She scoffed. “Details please. Campaign first. How is the ‘in the wild’ stuff going?”

“Way better than expected. But it’s a little freaky because the campaign is set up like people are hunting us, so we never know if we’re being watched or not. Sometimes it’s obvious, but there are some photos from last night that people took in moments when I had no idea people were onto us.”

Nina poured batter in the waffle iron. “Show me.”

I scrolled through the joint Veritique file where everyone was sharing images and flipped to one of the pictures of us outside the theater, before the big kiss when we were just chatting.

“Like this one. It’s not a big ‘look at us’ moment—we’re literally just walking down the sidewalk.”

I held my phone out to Nina, and she squinted at the photo, then looked at me. “Oh, he’s a goner.”

“Excuse me? How in the world can you read that from this dumb photo?” And could it really be true? I felt a surge of hope, even as I tried to swallow it down.

“Look at his body. He’s totally angled toward you, like you fascinate him and all he wants to do is watch you. And his eyes. There’s something…sappy about them. And that little smile he’s wearing. He thinks you are the cat’s pajamas.”

I giggled at her old-fashioned phrasing and tried to ignore that she was sort of right about the way Cameron looked in the photo.

“You’re no better,” Nina continued. “You’re beaming at him. You look like you want to swallow him whole.”

“I was in my feelings from Hadestown. I think I was quizzing him on Greek mythology.” I scrolled through the images to get to the kiss. “Check out this one.”

Nina leaned closer to examine it. “Holy moly, baby! That is hot! You belong on the cover of a romance novel.” She fanned herself.

I grinned at the image. Yeah, we looked really freaking good in it.

“So that’s the public stuff,” Nina said as she opened the iron and put the cooked waffle on my plate. “How’s the behind-closed-doors action?”

My face got hot as I took it from her. “Um, yeah, that’s uh…that’s pretty incredible, too.”