Page 67 of A Break in Communications

Anna shot me a look of disbelief, eyes flicking between me and the reading corner, and she said, “Lucy Masters. You’re falling apart at the seams, and you’restillgoing around stealing gossip from my family behind my back to try one-upping me?”

“And the snickerdoodles, well,” I said, gesturing casually to the table, “those just fell into my hands as I was walking out of the store. Could have happened to anybody.”

“Unbelievable,” she laughed. “Will you letanyonelook after you?”

I shrugged, playing it cool. “If I have the chance to catch up any extra energy, darling, of course I’m spending it to spoil you. Now, are we starting with some reading or are we starting with working together on that press release? You haven’t been able to focus on it as well without some competition, have you?”

Anna sighed, rolling her eyes, looking away. “It’s not that.”

“Oh, is it not?” I said, leaning against the wall with the most smug, satisfied little smile anyone had ever smiled, until Anna stopped me completely in my tracks with a muttered,

“It’s not that it’s easier to focus with competition around, it’s that it’s easier to focus withyouaround.”

I blinked, slowly, trying to get my head around the words. “What?” Judging by my response, I didn’t make it.

“Seems your hearing’s going. Maybe get it checked while you’re in the eldercare ward,” she said, striding past me and sitting down with her laptop bag in the space I’d set up. “Let’s start with the press release work. You can give me your opinion on the format, if you think I truly must hear your opinion.”

Anna Preston wanted my opinion. And couldn’t focus without me around. Was I high? On what? Because I needed more of whatever it was. “You know, dearest,” I said, sitting down next to her, “you can just sayI value your opinion and want to hear it.”

“Hm. I guess I could say that, if I wanted to. Time will tell.”

I nudged her, sitting up as close to her side as I dared. “Try not to flirt with me too much.”

She opened her laptop, not looking at me. “I’ll flirt as much as I damn well please, Masters.”

That meant Anna Preston was flirting with me. Jesus Christ. “Just keep in mind I’m going to take it as a challenge and try to one-up you…”

A small smirk tugged at her lips, and she tamped it down as best she could. “Try all you like. I always win, and you know it.”

She really did. She’d won everything we’d ever done since the moment I first saw her and knew I was done for, two years and one hundred ten days ago.

We fell into an easy rhythm, working together off our computers, side by side, and the exhaustion of the past few days slipped out of me as if it had never been there. Guess it had just been the lack of Anna Preston that was taking it out of me. Snow piled up outside the windowsill, and we shot designs and concepts back and forth, worked through correspondence together, got the lists put together for the different departments for their parts in the event, and scheduled some relevant communications blasts to important partners, and when Anna stifled a yawn, sinking against my side, I shut my laptop, setting it aside.

“I’m all right,” she protested weakly. “Just need another cup of coffee…”

“Darling, it’s ten o’clock. And you’ve been running around with your hair on fire all day. You can take a break.”

She shot me a look. “Like you’re one to talk?”

I beamed. “Do as I say, not as I do, sweetheart.”

“Ugh, you’re just like your grandmother.”

I slipped my phone out, navigating to my audiobooks app and passing it to her. “So, pick what we’re listening to.”

“Oh, god,” she laughed awkwardly, putting a hand over her face, as she shut the laptop and took the phone. “Pratchett and everything? Veronica really gave you the whole dossier…”

“She did, but still I could mostly just focus on how she tried to share erotic fanfiction with you. Dealer’s choice, Preston. Ifyou might be able to forgive me, I’ll admit I haven’t read any Pratchett before.”

“Guards! Guards!It’s the eighth, technically, but it’s the place to start. It’s a standalone, you don’t need to know anything from the others to understand, and it’s… well, it’s the City Watch.” She laughed, covering her face, a little flush at the corners of her cheeks. “Oh, god, this is embarrassing. I can’t believe you’ve gotten this out of me.”

“Haven’t read for pleasure a lot lately?”

“Not a ton, yeah, no. It’s been a minute. But I guess we can go ahead and introduce you to Discworld. We can’t listen to too much, though, you know. We’ve got a lot on our plates.”

I nudged her shoulder, and somehow, incredulously, against all odds, I’d slipped and fallen through the timestream and into a world where I got to rest my head against Anna Preston’s. So, well, I did. “A little break will make us more productive in the long run, darling. Or maybe it’s just me being from the Hallmark Channel, trying to remind you of the importance of letting go of all that work for a minute…”

“Uh-huh,” she said drily, rolling her eyes, smiling as she started the book. “Our very own Hallmark Christmas romance.”

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