Page 185 of The Snowball Effect

She groaned, turning back toward her computer. “If I regretanything, it’s when you and Regan managed to exchange numbers.”

Regan had dropped by last week to pick Emma up from work and take her out to dinner – something Emma could never really bring herself to be upset about in any way. She’d tried, really, to tell Regan to at least give her a warning.

But Emma really couldn’t deny that she really enjoyed walking out of the office to see Regan waiting for her, that ridiculously bright, beautiful smile perpetually aimed at her. She hadn’t even disliked it when Regan had done it the very first time, before they’d gotten together, andnow…

Well, now, it made Emma’s stomach flutter.

It was a kind of gentle spontaneity that Emma found she liked.

Last week, though, Brynn had left the office a few minutes ahead of her, and when Emma had walked out, she’d seen Brynn and Regan chatting like they were old friends.

Reganhadasked Emma for explicit permission before she’d mentioned inviting Brynn over to their apartment for dinner, though, which she deeply appreciated. And even as she’d initially wanted to say no because it felt very… personal, having Brynn come over to her place, she’d found herself tentatively agreeing to it.

“Too late now,” Brynn teased, waggling her phone at Emma, before she breathed out a sigh and looked around their shared space. “I’m all packed up; going to go say goodbye to Vicki before I head out.”

Emma nodded in acknowledgement as she started working through Allegra’s final emails for the day. It wasn’t as though Allegra didn’t have Emma stay on top of her emails throughout the weekend or that she drew a hard line between office hours at at-home hours; it was more that she wanted to make it clear to a certain echelon of people that she was a busy woman, and that she wouldn’t be prioritizing their issues just because they’d decided to email her on a Friday afternoon.

“Emma?” Allegra called from inside of her office.

Glancing up, she could see that Allegra was already looking at her through the glass wall, expectantly. She was already standing even before her boss added, “In here, please.”

Emma walked through the open doorway, turning on the tablet she kept notes on for Allegra as she went.

“I couldn’t help but overhear your heartfelt goodbye to Brynn,” Allegra commented, surprising Emma, as she looked up at Emma from over the top of her glasses.

Yes, andtherewas that feeling of exposure. Emma’s stomach squirmed with it, before she forcefully reminded herself that telling Brynn she’d miss her wasn’t wrong or inappropriate. “Like I said: surprising, but true.”

Allegra’s lips twitched into a grin. “Yes, I understand that. I do want to assure you that you won’t be left to train someone brand new; I’ve officially poached Britney from health and fitness.”

Narrowing her eyes, Emma wracked her brain trying to place a face with the name. “She handles their department admin.”

Allegra nodded. “She’s actually been doing much of the communications work thatshouldbe done by Lesley’s assistant,as well as keeping the wellness department completely in check. I think you’ll find that she’ll be a more than adequate replacement.”

“That’s great,” Emma commented, hesitantly. And, itwasgreat; Emma definitely hadn’t wanted to have to take it upon herself to show someone the ropes at Olly, get them familiar with their systems and policies. The fact that all she had to do was get Britney up to speed on Allegra’s schedule sounded amazing.

She couldn’t help but feel a little confused, though, at the fact that Allegra felt the need to call her into her office to discuss it face-to-face at the end of the day on a Friday.

“I thought so.” The look in Allegra’s eyes sharpened, as she pursed her lips. “Now, onto our actual business.”

This made more sense, and Emma hovered her fingers over the screen of the tablet, at the ready.

“Now that Henry’s been let go, I’m casting a wider net for submissions for next month. We have a gap to fill, and I’m not going to race to hire a new full-time staff writer. We’ll obviously be looking at free-lancers we’ve worked with in the past, but what I’m looking for is something new. Ideally, I want a writing voice we haven’t featured, before.”

Emma typed shorthand notes for herself as she nodded. “Makes sense.”

And it should be simple enough; people constantly sent in submissions for human interest pieces. Combing through them to find ones that were actually well-written, that had some real meat to them… well, Emma supposed that was why they were starting now.

“I want you to feel free to submit a piece; you can send it directly to me.”

Emma was in the middle of typing out Allegra’s words before the meaning of them sunk in, and everything inside of her froze.

Gripping the tablet tightly so she didn’t make a fool of herself and drop it, she whipped her head up to stare at Allegra.

Who was staring back at her with a sharply arched eyebrow, clearly waiting for Emma to catch up.

“I’m – sorry. You want me to submit a piece?” More than anything, Emma hated the idea of looking like a moron to Allegra. But she couldn’t help but to press this, feeling a little sure that she must had mis-heard.

“I’m not guaranteeing you’ll be published,” Allegra’s tone was firm as she held Emma’s gaze, as if needing to make sure Emma wasn’t going to walk away from this thinking that she was taking over Henry’s job or something.

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