Page 78 of Love and Cherish

“Yes.” Well, that wasn’t a lie. She had. Now she just had to hope that Allegra didn’t ask what Febe’s response had been. “I’ve spoken with Ms. Aarts several times on the matter.”

“You’ll have to fill me in on what her thoughts are.”

Right. Haylee would get right on that, but at least Allegra was giving her a week to figure out what exactly to say and how to weave her way around that landmine.

“I’m looking forward to meeting with you, Haylee. And potentially working with you. See you Thursday.” Allegra hung up before Haylee could say anything else.

That had been painless. Shockingly so. Allegra must have been busy with something because she wasn’t someone who normally seemed to cut off calls like that. Haylee would know, she’d talked to her several times on the phone for Febe’s sake. Haylee wanted to stand up and pump her fist in victory, but this was only one step.

Cherish had told her that she needed to have passion that was visible about this project, and she wasn’t going to fuck that up with Allegra like she had with Febe. All her chances with Febe had been spent, but she had to make this work. Rubbing her palms together in a pitiful attempt to tame the energy running through her, Haylee blew out a breath.

She had to call Jackson.

Then at least she wouldn’t be lying to Cherish about why she’d insisted on taking her lunch break alone that day.

Jackson, thankfully, picked up on the second ring.

“You know I hate keeping secrets,” Haylee started.

“So don’t.” Jackson’s flippant response wasn’t what she needed.

Haylee snorted. “Don’t exactly have a choice in this one.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You got time? Or do you have to run off to something?” Haylee chewed on her thumbnail, a nervous habit that she thought she’d broken. It had been a while since she’d done it at least. Hadn’t it? Cherish would scold her for it if she saw Haylee doing it no doubt. Just like Haylee would scold her for taking so much medication to help her never-ending trail of headaches.

“Haylee.” Jackson’s voice was firm.

“What?”

“You went quiet.”

“Did I?” Haylee looked around the lobby, people still coming and going, though the numbers were slimmer now. She probably only had twenty minutes max before Cherish came down for her lunch. She bit her thumbnail again. “Do you have time?”

“I said I did. Jesus, you weren’t paying any attention, were you? What’s going on? You’ve got me worried now.” The noise on the other end of the phone stopped, which meant she had Jackson’s full attention.

Haylee wasn’t sure that she wanted that. Having his full attention meant it would be harder to avoid his prying questions. Why had she called him again? Oh, right, so she wasn’t a liar.

“Don’t worry,” Haylee answered in her best calm voice that she could manage. “Everything is fine.”

“You’re calling me in the middle of the workday to ask if I have time to talk. That’s not fine.”

Haylee wrinkled her nose and leaned back, stretching the muscles. “I’ve just got some drama at work.”

“What drama?”

“I set up a meeting with the executive director of that foundation we had the gala for the other week. I’m going to talk to her about my idea to help veteran families.” Haylee nervously ran her thumb over her fingertips. The sensation centered her. Thankfully.

“I thought you were going to work with Cherish on that.”

“I was, but she’s not as helpful as I thought she would be. And, well, I won the bet, and she hasn’t followed through on it.”

“Wait. What bet?”

Haylee shouldn’t have said that. Now she was going to have to explain everything to him. “Ugh. Okay, so this gala was a big deal, I didn’t know why, but it was. It was stressing everyone out, so Cherish and I made a deal that if we could get to the gala and through it without incident, which we did, that she would help me pitch my idea to Febe.”

“And she hasn’t done that?”

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