Page 31 of The Enemies With Benefits Deal

Life never seems to stop here, which is one of the things I’ve always loved about the city.

I sit on one of the loungers, enjoying the warmth of the sun battling against the cool breeze.

As soon as my coffee is done, I head back inside, pulling out everything I need to make waffles for breakfast. I put some soft music on as I get to work whipping up the ingredients and setting up the waffle maker.

Jade comes out of the bedroom a few minutes after the first waffle is poured. She sniffs the air, tying her hair back into a messy bun, the hem of my shirt hitting a couple inches past the tops of her thighs.

She’s as beautiful as she’s always been.

I grab some of the strawberries out of the fridge and start slicing them into thin pieces. “You didn’t have to get up yet. I was going to come wake you when it was ready.”

Jade rounds the counter and goes to the coffee pot, pouring herself a large mug and drinking it black. “I know. Couldn’t sleep, though. Paloma is coming over later today so we can tweak the website more.”

Nodding, I take the first waffle out, putting it on a cooling rack I found in one of the cupboards.

I pour another, closing the waffle maker. My stomach rumbles as I return to slicing the berries. “I’m meeting Mac at the office in a couple hours.”

“How’s he doing? I know he has his own marketing firm now, but I haven’t seen him in years.” She leans against the counter, clutching the mug in her hands.

“Pretty good. I was going to bring him on to see what kind of ads he thinks we would be able to place online to get more people heading to the website once it’s been redesigned.”

“Good plan.” Jade reaches forward and plucks one of the strawberries from the bowl, popping it into her mouth. “You mind if I go work on a couple things for Write Now while you finish making breakfast?”

“Go for it.”

She heads over to the faux concrete dining table and starts clearing away all the projects we spent the weekend working on.

Then she settles down with her laptop, tucking one foot up on the seat and holding her knee to her chest. Tendrils of hair frame her face as she leans forward to read something on the screen.

For a moment, all I do is stare at her, wondering what the hell we’re doing.

This feels like we’re crossing the line of professionalism and casual sex, but I don’t want to deal with that right now.

I’m going to enjoy the morning with her while I can.

Mac sits across from me, looking through the glass wall at Jade’s office. “Seems like she’s getting pretty comfortable here. Is she going to be in the running for CEO after all?”

“I don’t know what her plan is.” I power on my laptop and open a file to look through the notes he sent me this morning. “She keeps saying that she has no interest in it, but I don’t believe that.”

“Why not?”

I shrug, skimming through the document. “Some of the things she says and does make me think that she’s really just going to angle for the CEO position when the time is right.”

“Like?” Mac pulls his tablet out of his computer bag, pulling out his copy of the document.

“She went behind my back with one of the meetings last week. Arranged it for when she knew I would be busy. Didn’t bother to tell me it was happening either.”

“Well, you do have a history of trying to get in her way. Is it possible she was just trying to prevent that?”

“That’s what she says.” I scowl and nod to him. “Enough about that, though. We have things in the works that I need to deal with. We’ve spent most of the weekend working on the layout for the paper, trying to figure out how we will incorporate the cartoons back into it.”

“Sunday morning cartoons are coming back?” His eyebrows climb. “How did she get the board to agree to that? Last I heard, licensing for that kind of thing was expensive.”

“You’re right about that.” I make a note beside one of the companies he named in the document. “I don’t know if we want to connect with the local news station. Won’t they see an issue with promoting their competition?”

“You’re not really their competition though, are you?” Mac puts his tablet down on the desk. “They only cover the local news, whereas you look at stories all over the world.”

“We’ve had to severely cut back on that over the last few years.” I make a note about sending more reporters overseas again. If we’re supposed to be reporting on the global news, then we have to keep finding ways to send people abroad to get the best stories.

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