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He clicked around on her screen. “Your advice last week about the lines being too uniform in that logo for Ivy was so on point.”
His file opened on her oversized monitor, revealing a social media banner for Bartleby & Sacks, the men’s style consulting something or other their firm had recently nabbed. The layout was all blacks and grays and straight lines, summoning a yawn from the creative side of Everly’s brain.
The smoky scent of James’s cologne overwhelmed her senses, and her heart had no idea what a rhythm was, but she tried to focus on thelayout, tried to let herself fall into the logo’s shapes and lines as she studied the screen.
For Everly, art was something she felt as much as saw. And immediately, that itch of wrongness burrowed under her skin.
“Something’s… off,” James mumbled. As he waited for her feedback, he picked up a vinyl figurine of Kermit the Frog off her desk and passed it back and forth between his hands. There were a good two dozen of them, mostly fromThe Muppet Showand Disney films, characters Everly had loved since she was a kid, plus the custom ones of her favorite book boyfriends from romance novels that Becca had been gifting her for her birthday for years. Meticulously organized by categories that made sense only to her, they were arrayed along the front of her desk like a museum display.
Everly pursed her lips. “It’s the lettering. It’s too whimsical,” she concluded.
Setting Kermit down (beside Ursula and Ariel, of all places), James pointed at the monitor. “I thought the ampersand really fit their brand.”
“It’s got too many curves and loops.” Everly reached out and shifted Kermit to his correct spot between Fozzie and Miss Piggy. “I’d use it for a children’s clothing company or maybe the cover of a fantasy novel.” The font was called Woodland; the whimsy was right in the name. “The brand manager said they were looking for something sleek and contemporary. Totally minimalistic.” Because god forbid anything masculine be playful.
She highlighted James’s lettering and replaced Woodland with Cooper Hewitt. The difference was immediate. What had once been a chaos of curves and lines was now starkly linear. Harmonious, even.
For some light contrast, she tinted the letters a stone blue, then sat back, satisfied.
James let out a low whistle. “Damn, you’re good.” He tapped hisknuckle to her desk an inch from her hand, setting her whole body aflame. Imagine if he’d actually touched her? She’d have burst into ash like a molting phoenix.
The sharp ring of the phone made them both jump. Though a call was usually James’s cue to cut their visit short, he took to sorting the chocolate bars by color as Everly pressed her earpiece. “Thank you for calling Matten-Waverly. This is Everly. How can I direct you?”
Dead air hummed against her eardrum, followed by the telltale click of a hang-up. In the age of email and texts, Everly wasn’t sure why the company still had a landline. Ninety percent of the calls were wrong numbers or bots.
James watched her disconnect the call, then cleared his throat. “So… V…”
Her heart stuttered at the hesitation in his voice. “Hmm…?” Even that one syllable failed at sounding cool and collected.
His fingers fiddled with the lid of the candy jar, and from the way he was swaying slightly back and forth, he seemed to be passing his weight between his feet.
He looked nervous. Everly tried to catalog all the possible reasons why, but her brain kept coming back to one.
He was going to ask her out.
No. No. No.Her monitor blurred against her stare.
He couldn’t do that. She wasn’t ready for her daydreams to become reality. She’d only be disappointed. Or worse, get her heart stomped on.
Her fingers frantic, she clicked open theOTPSemail, desperate for her favorite show and its fans to save her from this impending disaster. If James saw her absorbed in something, maybe he’d reconsider whatever he was about to say.
Everly studied the list of thread updates and replies. As the onlylifestyle makeover show catering exclusively to fat people,On the Plus Sidehad cultivated quite the online community, and she spent most of her free time on its forums. It was one of the few places lately where she felt seen. As much as Becca was always sympathetic, she’d been thin her whole life. She didn’t know what it meant to have the world literally be designed to forget you or to make you feel wrong.
But for an hour on Thursday and Sunday nights, the hosts ofOTPS—Jazzy and Stanton—and their guests reminded Everly that she wasn’t alone. And for the rest of the week, the forums were the closest she could get to injecting that feeling into her veins and carrying it with her everywhere.
She scanned the email, searching for her favorite users. After two years of lurking on the forums, they were as familiar to her as her closest friends. Annette’s speculations about the upcoming season had gotten hundreds of likes, and everyone was participating in Bridget’s poll on their favorite episodes to rewatch.
Everly was dying to respond to the poll (the ultimate rewatch episode was obviously the season one finale with the hot plus-size male model), but James was still hovering in her peripheral vision, encouraging her pulse to spike. At this point, he’d moved on from color coding to dividing the candy by ingredient. For some reason, the peanut butter and caramel bars were shoved to the side like he was trying to hide them.
It was criminal. No one put peanut butter or caramel in the corner.
Everly fought the urge to ask how his candy feng shui was going, or why, exactly, he hated delicious things. She tried to avoid being even remotely flirty around him. It was safer that way. No chance of accidentally opening that box.
She was just shifting her attention back to her email when a clamor ofboisterous voices broke out in the hallway. Matten-Waverly was one of the few office spaces currently in use on the second floor, and the emptiness of the surrounding suites amplified the acoustics until it sounded like an entire parade was marching toward them, megaphones and all.
“What the hell?” Everly jumped from her chair and, rounding the reception area, yanked open the door.
The way everyone on the other side yelled her name, it was like she’d stepped into a surprise party.
