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Chapter One
Olivia
“What sign are you again?” My boss Naomi asks absently, making me cringe.
I’ve never liked the association between me and a big barnyard animal.
“Taurus,” I murmur, trying to ignore her and get on with my work.
“Oooh, that’s right!” she exclaims knowingly.
“With Mercury rising and your moon moving into Venus, love interests are not just on the horizon, they’ll literally be dropping into your lap…” She reads before breaking off and making a face. Not finishing the rest.
Looking me up and down the way she does all the time.
“Maybe all the other Taurus’s in the yard,” she decides quietly to herself.
Reminding me that she’s a Gemini, I have to sit through her reading out the whole horoscope for her star sign and then hear her listing off what makes her, apart from being a Gemini just that much better than me let alone most people.
“It’s why I’m the boss and you’re the intern,” she explains as if I’m a child; raising her hands and her heavily made up lashes to the heavens.
It’s as if even talking to the help is a chore, even though I’m the only one who actually does any workaround here. Real work that is.
Naomi spends half the day looking at herself in a compact mirror and the other half trying to make everyone else who’s female miserable.
I always wanted to be a journalist though, and the only way in for me after college was a low to seemingly no pay internship with what I thought was the entertainment section in a national newspaper.
Even though it’s one I’d never heard of, to be honest, might seem odd for a journalist but I don’t read the papers.
Turns out it’s nothing but a muckraking rag that sees the paper in the courts more often than not, but its trashy stories about celebrities sure do sell.
Not that I see any of the profits.
I do get a free sentence from my horoscope this morning though. Yay me.
“I think it’s a load of bull,” I remark to myself, surprised Naomi even hears me.
“Taurus? Yeah, that’s the bull. Or maybe cow in your case,” she adds with a sarcastic little smile before tottering out of the office.
“Don’t forget, I need my column by eleven a.m.,” her nasally voice reminds me as it trails off into the corridor.
The sound of her five inch heels clicking loudly on the hard floor.
Who knew anyone would or even could wear heels that high. But who knew anyone would try to look like Malibu Barbie ever, let alone in the fall either?
That’s Naomi all over though, and as much as she grinds my gears, it’s mostly the men in the office and the whole wider state area who actually encourage her.
Next to her, even though she’s older than me, I do feel like that Taurus cow.
Nobody gives the thick, young college graduate a second glance on a good day, let alone whenever Malibu Barbie Naomi’s around.
I’ve got a big chest, blue eyes and blond hair too.
Just in different proportions to miss freaking perfect over there.
With her out of the way, at least I can get her article written and proofed in no time, ready for the editors. Having her out of the office also gives me a chance to peek at her emails.
A bad habit I got into early.
I should be ashamed, but technically I sometimes have to go over a project she’s given me that she’s supposed to do herself. Okay, like every single project she gives me.
I need a refresher sometimes and well, it’s just more interesting scanning her emails than my own.
I never get emails.
The only rule I made is to never open mail she hasn’t seen already, that would be an invasion of privacy.
Today when I see the heading though, I’m prepared to break that rule.
Win a day with Hollywood heartthrob Jack Mercury.
My heart stops when I see the name and I tell myself it couldn’t be true.
It couldn’t be that such an opportunity would even exist let alone fall into my lap.
My eyes dart to the door and I chew my lip for a nanosecond before helplessly opening the email.
It’s from his agent, a standard media press release inviting magazines, tabloids, and websites to promote the snap contest in their issues or over social media.
The rules are simple, enter by calling a toll number, and the winner is announced in twenty-four hours from the start time. 9 a.m. this morning.
The prize? A full day, one on one with nobody else except the man himself.
Jack Mercury.
I swallow hard, feeling how dry my mouth is suddenly and I have to sit on the edge of Naomi’s seat. My hands and my knees are shaking so badly.
The thought of meeting Jack Mercury, let alone spending a whole day alone with him is too much.
I have to say, and I know he’s probably heard it from every girl he meets but I truly am his biggest fan.
