Page 1 of A Conflict of Interest

Chapter 1

Kelcey

Boss Anna smiled at me, spinning her chair away from the window and turning to face me. “You’re a smart woman, Kelce,” she said. “You can figure this out.”

I was not a smart woman. I was a very, very stupid woman. I’d always argued with anyone who said that! I got it a lot—just because I liked makeup and hair and pretty clothes and cute manicures, everyone assumed I was dumb and vapid. Just because my family was pretty well-off, everyone assumed I was some clueless spoiled brat who didn’t know how to get by in the world, and I always bristled.

But then Anna said that, and I was pretty sure I was too dumb to figure this out.

“Um…” was all I managed, swaying from side to side in the chair. “I’ll… try my best!” I said, forcing a smile. I don’t think it was the most convincing smile in the world.

Anna softened, leaning back in her chair, picking up her coffee, kicking one leg up over the other. She was a tall woman with a lean, confident look about her, a razor-sharp businesswoman through and through, even if I knew she was soft for her girlfriend Lucy. She was pretty, with long brown hair she usually kept neatly pulled back into a neat, low bun, brown eyes that stayed bleeding-edge sharp taking in everything in the office, always dressed sleekly in a skirt suit, but honestly,I didn’t think anyone related to Veronica Preston could ever not be pretty, not when—

No, no, no. I wasn’t thinking of Veronica. Not at all. Never. Veronica wasn’t pretty at all. Veronica was terrible and ugly and unbearable.

“Honestly, Kelce,” Anna said, “if you don’t know what to do and you feel like you’re in over your head, that’s a sign you’re growing into the role. Berg asked me and Lucy to do that—to make sure you had a task that would push you to grow a little. I want you to feel perfectly empowered to ask more specific questions around how to do it, but we need you to work and figure out what those questions are.”

I chewed my lip. “Um… okay. I do have a specific question.”

“Good, let’s hear it.”

“What specific question should I ask first?”

She smiled dryly. “That’s a very good try, Kelce. It’s a low-stakes job—onboarding videos are always tacky and a little sloppy around the edges, so this seems like a good place for you to screw around and potentially mess up on your way to learning. So… your first task is to go explore, experiment, see what comes up, and if you have any questions along the way, let me know.”

Seriously? I didn’t know how to make a video. Did I look like James Cameron? I… didn’t know what he looked like, but I doubted he looked like me. “Okay… um… I will. I do have another question.”

“Go ahead.”

I sat up taller. “Are you and Lucy going on a date again tonight? I heard you two giggling to each other all cutely and stuff earlier.”

She closed her eyes, letting out a long sigh, but I saw her little smile. She was so obnoxiously, over-the-top head-over-heels starstruck in love with Boss Lucy that she could never turndown an opportunity to talk about how much she loved her. Even if she got shy about it sometimes and pretended she didn’t want to.

Ugh, I was so jealous. I needed that for me. Not with Veronica, though, not when Veronica Preston was the worst person ever in the universe and I didn’t want to see her anywhere near me, not for as long as I lived.

“Any questions about thework,Kelce?”

“C’mon, you two have been working all the time lately. You’ve gotta have a cute little date.”

“We just went back to my family’s house…”

Her family’s house. Where Veronica would have been.

No. No, no, no. I wasn’t thinking about Veronica Preston. Not for a million dollars would I spend one second thinking about Veronica Preston’s chocolate-brown eyes and full, soft lips. I wouldn’t!

“I’m not talking aboutfamilytime, I’m talking about date time,” I said, leaning forward in my seat. “C’mon, we’re friends. You can tell me. You’re my favorite couple in the world.”

She sighed, downing the rest of her coffee and setting the mug down slowly. “We’re going to an art gallery tonight. Sounds fun, but unfortunately, it’s sort of… mandated. Double date with one of Gould’s daughters and her wife, since he figured we’ll have so much to talk about… which means I have to spend after-hours private time with my girlfriend figuring out how to make friends with our client’s daughter or else shake Gould’s entire worldview.”

“Oh.” That didn’t sound as nice, judging by her dry tone. “So what were you two giggling about?”

“Nothing in particular, Kelce. Just me talking to my partner without realizing we were being eavesdropped on. Can we focus?”

The tips of her ears turned a little pink. I think I knew what she and Lucy were talking about. They’d always had… a healthy level of excitement for each other, ever since I found them getting together for the first time in the office, Lucy in Anna’s chair while Anna was grinding on her lap.

I guess it was a Preston thing. Veronica was—

Not someone I was thinking about.That’s what Veronica was. Also mean and horrible and not at all pretty.

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