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“Story? Good Lord, Ava, do you think I’d roll around half-dressed in front of the Board of Directors and your uncle just for a boost in my search engine optimization? How slutty and cynical do you think I am?”
“Not at all.” Ava’s voice was tight and colorless. “So you and Drew are...a thing now?”
Her friend sounded both incredulous and worried. Both reactions bugged the hell out of her. “It’s so improbable to you?”
Ava didn’t bother responding to that. “Since when has this been going on?”
“We’ve been circling around it since the very beginning,” Jenna admitted. “But last night is the first time that we, uh...”
“Did the deed,” Ava finished.
An appalled silence spread between them. The concerned look in Ava’s eyes was driving Jenna nuts. “Don’t look like that! Cripes, is it such a terrible development?”
Ava shook her head. “That’s not it. I think you’re wonderful. You know that. I just...it’s just...” Ava’s voice trailed off. She was uncharacteristically lost for words.
Icy clarity settled in, along with an ache of dread that threatened to completely dampen her buzz of excitement.
“You don’t think I can hold his interest,” she said flatly. “You don’t think I can measure up to all his movie stars and models.”
Ava dismissed the movie stars and models with a flap of her hand. “Not at all,” she said impatiently. “They were a bunch of airheads, mostly. He was with them because they were cute and right there in front of him, so why not. Besides, he never wants to risk actually caring about somebody with substance, so I never thought that he would actually...”
“So you don’t think we’re believable as a couple,” Jenna said. “Believable for the Maddox Hill Board of Directors, and your uncle, maybe, because playacting is fine. But not for real.”
“Don’t be mad,” Ava pleaded. “When I proposed this to him, I never in a million years thought that—”
“That he could actually be interested in someone like me,” Jenna finished.
“Don’t put words in my mouth,” Ava snapped. “It never occurred to me that this could have, you know, consequences. That I could set you up for disappointment, or hurt. You’ve had enough already. I didn’t think it through, that’s all. And that...scares me.”
Well, great. That made two of them.
Jenna got up and grabbed her coffee. “Thanks for the vote of confidence. If you’ll excuse me, I have a busy day ahead, so have a good one.”
“Don’t forget that tomorrow morning, you and Drew have that interview with the—”
“No,” Jenna broke in. “Cancel the interview. Cancel everything. Say I’m sick. Say anything you want. I can’t handle any more PR events. I’m done playacting, I’m sick of being photographed. I appreciate your hard work and I think you’re a genius, but the price is too high. As of today, Project Billionaire’s Plaything is on indefinite hiatus.”
“Jenn. Please.” The tone in Ava’s voice stopped her in her tracks. Her friend never sounded like that. Dead serious. Subdued.
“What?” she snapped.
“Just please. Be careful,” Ava said.
That made her even more miserable. She’d spent weeks convinced that Drew could never be interested in her for real, and now look at her—all bent out of shape because Ava thought the exact same thing.
It was hypocritical and unfair.
She hurried toward her car. The text alert chirped as she got in. Then another. Two messages from Drew, responding to a picture she’d sent him of Smudge, glaring up at her over his chicken chunks.
Your cat fits my color scheme. He would look good in my living room.
Or I maybe I should say, my living room would look good on your cat.
Oh, man. Tears welled into her eyes.
All the feels. Floodgates open. His offhand remark unleashed wild fantasies of domestic bliss with Drew. Feeding chicken chunks to her kitty in his kitchen. Smudge curled up on his couch.
When he said things like that, how the hell was she supposed to stay careful?
