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Prior girlfriends had asked before, but I had always opted to play it aloof, making vague answers about where I went to school and who some of my friends were growing up, most of whom were now household names in some way or another. Then I would let them assume whatever they wanted to.
But with Nell? Having her know the truth had been much more important than I had ever thought it would be.
When I’d walked into the office that morning, I’d caught sight of my face, alongside Nell’s, plastered on the front pages of tabloids, just like we’d assumed they would be.
I had grinned at them and even bought one to stuff in my desk as a memento.
I pulled it out now, looking at it.
It was definitely taken on someone’s cell phone, the image a bit grainy from where they had zoomed in. But it’s very clearly the two of us.
We were gazing at each other, smiles lighting up both of our faces, and there looked to be so much emotion flowing between the two of us.
It looked so genuine that my heart gave a fierce, violent tug.
A knock sounded at my door, bringing me out of my reverie.
I hurriedly placed the magazine back in my drawer before calling out for whoever it was to come in and glancing toward the door.
My assistant, Raquel, appeared in the doorway a moment later.
Her black, blunt bob glinted under the harsh office lights, and she paused to push her oversized glasses further up her nose as she stepped into my office.
“I have the printout of the instructions for tomorrow morning,” she said by way of greeting.
Raquel had a harsh demeanor that I’m sure some would call blunt and likely find off-putting.
But it was one of my favorite things about her. She was no-nonsense, all business, and she was efficient as hell.
Which was something I was incredibly grateful for now because I genuinely had no idea what she was talking about.
“What do you mean for tomorrow?” I asked, reaching out to take the file folder she was extending to me.
“The interview?” She looked at me like I was an idiot, and as recognition watched over me, I had to agree.
“Shit,” I breathed, and Raquel shook her head.
“You forgot?”
“I forgot,” I confirmed, opening up the folder and beginning to rifle through it.
I was set to go on a local news station the next morning. With as many development projects as I had coming down the pipeline in the next few months, my PR team thought it would be a good idea for me to start endearing myself to the public now.
“Well, good thing for you. I also sent all of the electronic copies of everything to both your email and Jeffers',” Raquel began speaking a mile a minute, the words falling from her lips so fast it was hard to keep up. “As for questions, I sent them a list of approved topics and topics that are off-limits. The final versions of the questions will be given tomorrow. And hopefully, they don’t try to slip anything in that isn’t on the list.”
My eyes flicked over the paper in my hand, roving over the bullet-pointed topics and nodding in agreement.
“Perfect,” I said before putting everything back in the folder and placing it on my desk.
I glanced at the clock, noticing it was getting well into the evening. My segment with the news was going live at eight in the morning, which meant I should likely get home and get to bed soon, so I had plenty of sleep.
I told Raquel as much, telling her to go ahead and head out for the evening as well before grabbing my messenger bag and laptop and heading out the door myself.
Jeffers was idling at the curb by the time I got downstairs, and I assumed Raquel must have alerted him that it was time to pull around.
As we drove through the city toward the penthouse, I rested my head against the cool glass of the window. There had been one topic missing from the list that I wasn’t sure how to broach with Raquel, and that was the topic of Nell.
We’d been written about twice now, so I fully expected the new station to bring it up.
