Page 11 of Is It Casual Now?

“Exactly.” Jamie shot up out of the tiny chair, unable to feel her butt any longer sitting in the furniture designed for kindergarten kids. “Otherpeople’s lives. Not mine.”

“Then why did you write about it?”

“Because I had to.” Jamie shrugged as though the answer should have been obvious to everyone, especially Jessie. “I can’t just ignore stories when they pull at me.”

“But now you’re scared of the backlash?”

“Yes.” She hissed and shoved her fingers through her hair. “But how was I supposed to know that goddess was SienaFuckingFrazee?”

“Goddess, huh?” Jessie’s voice filled with implied mischief. “She must have been pure magic to have gotten under your skin this much.”

“Hardly.” Jamie scoffed. But of course, Jessie had hit yet another nail right on the head. Jamie turned away from hersister, knowing her face continued to deepen in color. “Where do you want the bookshelf?”

“Nice change of topic.” Jessie laughed behind Jamie.

Jamie turned back and met Jessie’s eyes. Silently, she begged her sister to move on, at least for now.

With a nod, Jessie stood and pulled out some books from one of the bags the two of them had dragged into the room earlier.

“I think under the far corner there. I’ll put a nice rug and cushions, and it can be a quiet-time reading area for those that finish work early.”

“These kids are so lucky to have you.” Jamie grabbed at the opportunity to move the conversation off of her, but she also meant the words. She would make a horrible teacher in any form, but Jessie was brilliant at it.

“Thanks. I hope so. Open house is next week, and I’m looking forward to meeting the kids and their families.”

Jamie let the rest of the afternoon be consumed in rearranging furniture and taking direction about poster placement. But despite enjoying the time with Jessie, her mind kept drifting back to her article that had dropped earlier that day. Which, of course, made her entirely too aware of Siena still being on her mind. Andthatidea was completely stupid in and of itself.

Jamie was in the prime of her life, she wouldn’t be settling down anytime soon, if she chose to settle down at all, ever. And besides, even if Jamie was looking for a relationship, which was the last thing on her mind, Siena wasn’t even near the list of partners. She probably was still married, not that Jamie had managed to figure that one out. There had been a wedding announcement years ago but never an announcement of a divorce, and Jamie had been too chicken to look up the public records.

She hadn’t wanted to spoil her one hope of that yet.

Besides, she and Siena were in the same world but onentirely opposite sides. Siena was all high and mighty about celebrities, expecting the people to throw money and praise their way but never giving any of their true selves back. Everyone has a right to know who exactly they looked up to, who they spent their money on.

No matter how mind-blowing the sex had been, Jamie wouldn’t change her mind about this. No matter how often she had brought herself over the edge again and again as she remembered Siena’s touch. Jamie sighed and shook her head as she drove away from the school. She just never dreamed she would have to deal with being this close to the actual subject matter of any of the drama she wrote about.

That’s what was unnerving her.

Nothing else.

Not. At. Damn. All.

five

“What the hell is this?” Bunny flopped a printout of a blog post onto Siena’s desk loudly.

Siena, however, had already seen it, read it at least three times over, and was hating herself for that one night of weakness even more. She couldn’t believe that she’d made such a stupid rookie mistake.

No matter how good the sex had been.

And it had been damn good.

“That is the latest gossip drama from none other than Jamie Kettlehouse. JK for short.” Siena rolled her eyes. Jamie was an absolute joke. The fact that she continued to put out this shit and try to pass it as actual journalism was the true joke. Or perhaps it was the fact that people actually read it and thought it was all truth.

“This is ridiculous,” Bunny said, again pointing at the printout. As if she couldn’t just email it over to Siena. Siena stopped at that. Bunny would never just email a link over, that wasn’t her style at all. “She should be in jail for writing this horseshit.”

“Well, not quite.” As much as Siena hated to admit it, it wasn’t like JK was crossing the line of libel. Though she had come close to it several times. Running her fingers through her hair, Siena rested back and closed her eyes. “But it doesn’t exactly paintmein a good light, does it?”

“You read it?” Bunny plopped down across from Siena, finally calming down slightly.

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