Page 102 of Is It Casual Now?

Bunny narrowed her gaze. “I’ll hold you to that. All right, Jamie, what’s the question?”

“What made you choose Siena as your manager all those years ago?” Jamie kept her pen to her paper, but she didn’t look at it. Instead, she looked directly at Siena. She wantedthatreaction. No one else in this room mattered.

“That’s an… odd question for an interview about us,” Piper said, smiling as she leaned forward slightly.

Jamie smiled, seeing the same shock across Siena’s face that she was hearing in Piper’s voice. “It is. But it’s the only question that I’ve wanted to ask you for months now.”

“Months, huh?” Bunny guffawed. “I would have texted you that answer in one word.”

“Really?” Siena snapped her attention to Bunny.

Jamie also turned to face down the rockstars on the couch. “What word?”

“Perfect.”

Jamie couldn’t have agreed more. Siena was perfect for this job in more ways than she could count. And she was perfect in more ways beyond just the job. Jamie wrote the word down on her notepad.

“She really is perfect for us, isn’t she?” Piper added, her foot bouncing the entire time. Jamie had noticed in the past that she did that during her interviews. But she didn’t get the sense that it was a nervous habit, just a way of restraining the immense amount of energy she had.

Jamie waited. She knew that there was more to come, that Bunny and Piper weren’t done yet. Because this was the way that they were going to talk without stopping. They were going to get so engrossed with talking about Siena that she would learn all of their secrets.

“We first met Siena when she was new to the business and so were we.” Bunny put her hand on Piper’s knee and squeezed before releasing it. “It was a risk for us and a risk for her, and we all knew that going in, but Siena knows how to negotiate a contract.”

“So does Bunny!” Siena chimed in.

Jamie sent her a scolding look, telling her silently that this interview wasn’t about her.

“We knew we needed a new manager because our last one was…”

“Homophobic,” Piper said loudly. “Sexist. Condescending.”

“All those and more,” Bunny added, rolling her eyes. “And we’d been doing without a manager for quite some time because we just didn’t have the desire to go through that experience again.”

Jamie waited patiently, learning more information about the three people in this room than from any other question she’d asked that day. This was one that would open them up and get them talking for hours.

“Siena was down to earth, calm, and had a million and one ideas.”

“Oh my God, the ideas!” Piper laughed. “She wanted to take on the world.”

Bunny laughed right along with her. “She did. And she had plans and backup plans and backup to the backup plans.”

“She even had them colorized and listed out in phases that they were going to happen in,” Piper added.

Jamie shook her head. Siena was so much like Jessie in that respect. Jamie was the complete opposite. She had no plan when it came to her business or her blogs or trying to get her name out there. She just knew what she wanted, and she worked her tail off to get it—as chaotically as it came.

“Bunny and Siena can talk business, and Siena and I can talk creatively.” Piper smiled over at Siena. “She really is the perfect blend for both of us. And that’s worked to all of our advantages.”

“It helps that she’s hot!” Bunny said, grinning broadly. “And she’s not afraid to use her looks to her advantage or to put down the jerks.”

Jamie laughed at that. She loved listening to these two talk. It was like they were their own little family together, all of them supporting each other no matter what came their way. Jamie turned to Siena and couldn’t stop looking at her. She lovedthese two so deeply. That’s what she’d been protecting. Not their careers, not their lives—she’d been protecting them, and her love of them was what pushed that through.

“I think that’s plenty for Jamie,” Siena said, but she wasn’t looking at Bunny and Piper. She was looking directly at Jamie, their eyes completely locked together. Jamie couldn’t look away. She was entranced, completely captivated, and she wasn’t sure she ever wanted to look away.

Bunny and Piper eventually left after giving Jamie a pleasant goodbye. She couldn’t help but think that Bunny was eyeing her over for an entirely different reason, trying to judge why Jamie had gotten the privilege of being the one to interview them and write up this article, especially when she hadn’t shown up the last time she’d had the chance. Jamie had held her own in that conversation though, and she’d gotten looks of praise from Siena for it.

This was more than a client relationship for Siena. This was a deep friendship, perhaps even family. And Jamie was getting to witness a piece of that. She’d definitely add that into her story somehow. It needed to be in there.

That was what would humanize all of them. Friendship and love. Jamie smiled at herself when she had that thought. It certainly had done wonders for her, hadn’t it? Even Jessie had commented on how calm and content she seemed to be lately. It wasn’t that falling in love with Siena had dampened any of her passions. In fact, it had intensified them. But it had also shown her that with support and hope, she could get whatever it was she wanted in life.

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