Page 31 of Is It Casual Now?

Jamie would make it easier on Siena. After all, this was for the sake of her job. A job she didn’t even like.

But I do like having somewhere to sleep and food to eat.She hushed the contentious voice in her head and pushed on.

“Why would you give me an exclusive interview with your top clients?” Jamie’s fingers shook slightly while she asked. Was she looking a gift horse in the mouth? Would Siena take the offer back? She wanted to say yes, but it didn’t make any sense to her.

“Because,” Siena paused as though weighing which words to use. “Despite the shitstorms you’ve created for me when you pose questions about their lives, you’ve never directly said something that you couldn’t prove.”

Jamie’s mouth might have fallen open. She couldn’t be sure. Her entire face felt numb from Siena’s words.

It was true. She would never knowingly publish a lie. Posing theories was one thing. And theories she knew were true on good authority but didn’t have actual proof of was the line she had been determined not to cross.

Jamie wasn’t stupid. She knew people took from her blog what they wanted, knowing that the question wouldn’t be posed if there weren’t some genuine possibility of it being the truth. And it was a thin line at times. But despite whateveryone thought, and her own desire to get her name out in the world, she did have some semblance of integrity.

“Are you interested in the interview?” Siena’s brows were knitted together, concern flashing across those dark pools Jamie would happily get lost in.

Jamie shook her head to get rid of the idea.

“You aren’t interested?” The concern turned quickly into anger.

“Oh yes! No.” Jamie never got this flustered. The Siena effect had her in a world of confusion. “I would love to interview them.”

“Okay?” Weariness crossed Siena’s eyes, and Jamie wondered how anyone could write about the cold businesslike manner of this manager.

“I’m just blown away.”

“There will be conditions about the interview. But you’ll get an exclusive two-on-one with Bunny and Piper once I approve the questions you intend to ask. And those will be theonlyquestions you’re allowed to ask.”

“Approve the questions?” Jamie’s heart sank. “So this’ll be more like a press conference in the form of an interview?”

“No.” Siena’s mask, the one that was all cold and businesslike, had returned, and Jamie’s chest ached with longing to find the real Siena beneath once more.

“But you aren’t going to let me ask anything about their private lives, are you?”

“The focus will be on their music.”

Jamie nodded.

“Do you still want the interview?”

“Yes.”

“Send through the questions, and I’ll be in touch shortly to go through them.” Siena moved her coffee to the corner of the table, the liquid sloshing toward the top rim. Jamie wasentranced for a brief second, her brain working quickly to try and catch up with everything that had just happened.

“Fine.” Jamie wanted to say no. But she didn’t want to lose her job.

No.

She didn’t want to never see this woman again.

Damn it. So much for a no-strings-attached one-night stand.

“Just call me Pinocchio,” she muttered to herself as she watched Siena saunter out of the cafe.

She was in trouble.

And she wasn’t talking about her job.

eleven

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