Page 35 of The Enemies With Benefits Deal

Grayson walks into the room, stuffing half a bagel into his mouth as he shuts the door and sits down in one of the other chairs. “Nice to meet you.”

Paloma raises her eyebrows. “We’ve met before. I went to the same college as you. We used to go to the same parties.”

His cheeks flush a bright pink as he finishes off his bagel. “Sorry. I’m not always the best with faces.”

She eyes him before opening her laptop and turning it on. “So, this is what we’ve spent weeks working on.”

Fingers fly over the keys as she brings up the website, showing off the creamy pale brown background and the black text. The icon shapes she sent me have already been incorporated into the design.

Paloma hands the laptop to Grayson so he can get a better look. “Let me know if there’s anything you think needs to be changed. I have another week or so that I can dedicate to this project.”

Grayson hums, looking through the website. He clicks around, not saying a word as he peruses through the different pages.

When he finally hands the laptop back to her, there’s a look of approval on his face. “This is impressive. I really like that the icon looks like ink blobs, as if someone wrote the paper by hand and their fountain pen was dripping.”

Paloma beams. “I didn’t know if either of you were going to put that together.”

“I certainly didn’t.” I smile and lean closer to get a better look at the website design on the laptop. “Now that Grayson has said it, I feel like it should be obvious. I definitely missed that the last twenty times I’ve looked at them.”

“So.” Paloma leans forward and sets the laptop on the desk. “Are we good with this design, or do either of you think that there’s something still to be tweaked?”

“I’m good with it.” I nod my head, glancing at the homepage on the screen. “It’s the perfect mix of everything we’re trying to accomplish with the rebrand.”

Grayson nods and stands up. “I agree. If there are any tweaks you decide on while testing the site this afternoon, go ahead and make them. Based on this, I’m sure that the two of you know exactly what you’re doing.”

It’s high praise coming from him, and I can’t help but beam as I look up at him.

The corner of his mouth twitches. “I have a meeting with Mac, so the two of you have fun.”

He leaves the office, the door swinging shut behind him.

Paloma turns to me, one eyebrow raised. “What was that little exchange right now between the two of you?”

“It wasn’t anything.” My cheeks warm as I get up and sit in one of the chairs at the desk.

She joins me, spinning around once before pulling closer to the laptop. “Seems like it was something.”

I bite my lip. “Well, I’m sleeping with him again.”

The flat look she gives me sends my stomach twisting. “Because that worked out so well for the two of you the first time.”

I groan, leaning back and closing my eyes as my head tilts back. “I know I shouldn’t have gone there with him, but do you haveany idea how long it’s been since I slept with someone who actually knows how to make a woman come?”

Paloma shakes her head, her grin stretching from ear to ear. “You really should find better men.”

“I should, but I don’t have the time to do that. Especially not right now.”

She clicks one of the icons at the bottom of the website that looks like it’s just a decorative element. A pop-up opens, asking her to log in. “This is how you’re going to get into the backend of the website.”

Leaning closer to her, I try to take in everything she’s showing me. She designed both of my other sites and most of the mechanics behind this one and mine are the same.

She goes through how to post a story and how to archive it, showing me where the drafts are before giving me the list with all the staff login information.

“All right, so, now that that’s done, you want to tell me why you decided to start sleeping with Grayson?”

“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” I say, though it sounds more like a question than a statement.

“No, it wasn’t. There is no way you looked at that man after all these years and after what happened and thought that getting involved with him again would be a good idea. I know you didn’t.”

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