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It's so hard not to laugh. “Okay, fine. You’re not starting your dream career. You’re absolutely not spending a bunch of time with a guy you ran into unexpectedly. And you definitely don’t struggle to convince yourself to have some fun instead of working constantly.”
She glares at me. “I am not Angela,” she grumbles and turns in her seat again so she’s facing forward.
“You’re not an ex, and we aren’t dating,” she says after a few moments have passed.
“I agree. I didn’t say you were Angela. She is a part of you, though. Like any talented author, you’re taking your own dreams and putting them into another world where maybe things go a little differently.”
She just shakes her head, her jaw clamped shut, and I shrug. I may have plans to woo her, but I’m going to be honest.
Finally, Addison’s jaw loosens, and she says, “Maybe you’re right. I am starting my dream career, and it’s freaking hard. I do feel a little lonely in New York.” She turns to look at me, and she smiles. “And maybe I enjoy spending time with a certain guy I ran into unexpectedly.”
Well, that was faster than I expected.
She sighs then. “But Phillip, no matter how much I enjoy spending time with you, you’re still my boss. And that’s not going to change. I am not writing a book based on us.”
“Actually…” I say, completely ignoring that last comment, and she pauses. “I’m not your boss. Just a fellow junior editor at Loughton House. I mean, your boss wouldn’t be caught dead wearing a shirt with a saffron stain on it.”
She can’t help but laugh. “Or God forbid he wore something that had touched another human being’s skin.”
“I’m pretty sure he’d be a lot more concerned about that saffron stain.” It’s nice to hear Addison laugh. I don’t understand why it makes me feel so light, but it does. Everything else in the world may be confusing and stressful, but sitting on a disgusting city bus hearing her laugh makes it all seem unimportant.
The laughter trails off, and she looks alive, but the lightness fades away quickly enough. “That’s just temporary, and you know it. In three weeks, you’ll be the boss again. Either things will be terrible which affects our work, or things are great which means I’m sleeping with the Prince of Publishing. That obviously affects work.”
And for the first time, I become serious. “I already promised that anything that happens between us will not affect what happens at work. Addison, I haveneverbroken a promise since I was eight years old.”
I know how much fury and frustration I’m showing. How could she know how much a promise means to me? It doesn’t matter though. I can’t keep my emotions out of my body language when I feel like someone is calling me a liar.
“Okay,” she whispers.
I nod to her, and for a moment, tension builds. “Do you have any family?” I ask.
She frowns. “Starting another interrogation?”
“You’ve had coffee, so it’s fair game.” I give her a smile to help her get past the seriousness of the previous moment.
“Just my mom. I was an only child, and my sperm donor was nameless. What about you?”
My life is on the record for anyone to read about. Somehow, it’s still strange to describe. “There’s my father that you’ve probably heard plenty about. Then there’s Andrew who’s running the new London branch of Loughton House.” I hesitate to even mention Mason.
“What’s wrong?” Addison asks.
“There’s my other brother, Mason. But we don’t talk about him. My father disowned him as soon as he turned eighteen. I haven’t heard from him in over ten years, though I suspect Andrew has been in contact with him through the years.”
Addison looks shocked. “Your father disowned him? Why? What the hell could he have done that was so bad?”
I chuckle, thinking about the day. “He hit him in the nose.”
“Oh.”
I shake my head. “Actually, it’s not because he hit him. It’s because Mason told my father he wasn’t going to college. He was leaving, and he wasn’t coming back.
“Well, my father has a way of ignoring what you want and forcing you to do what he’s decided is best. He’s just never been very good at it with Mason. He tried to tell him he was going to cut him off if he didn’t go to college and get the degree Father had picked out for him.”
I can’t help but chuckle again as the memory washes over me. “So Mason told him he could shove his money up his ass. My father said that he was an ungrateful little shit, and he turned around and hit him square in the nose. Dropped him to the ground. I’ve never seen my father so pissed and so humiliated in my entire life.”
Addison’s eyes are wide as she listens. It sounds like some kind of secret family drama, but it really isn’t. My brother told plenty of people about it, but truthfully, nobody cares what the owner of a publishing house does.
“Why don’t you keep in contact with him?” she asks. “It doesn’t seem like you’re mad about what he did.”
