Page 30 of Is It Casual Now?

“Thank you.” Siena smiled and gave the waitress a nod. The waitress looked startled for a moment before returning the smile.

“Look.” Jamie sat forward again as she added sugar to her coffee. “I don’t even like this job, but I need it. Thanks to you and your friends staging a harassment tag team on my boss, I’m going to lose it if I don’t get this interview with you.”

“You don’t like your job?” Siena looked so startled by the confession that Jamie burst out laughing before she could stop herself.

“You look like this is a strange thing.”

“It is.”

“Maybe for you.” Jamie stirred her coffee, unable to completely process the idea that someone could love the job they were actually getting paid to do. “But most people in my world get paid to do jobs they don’t like because bills have to be paid and passions don’t pay the rent.”

“And writing a trashy celeb column is your passion?” Siena sneered.

“It’s not.” The heat rose up Jamie’s neck and covered her face. She would look like a beet, but she no longer cared. How dare this woman sneer at her? Just because she’d given her mind-blowing sex didn’t mean she knew Jamie. Not at all. That comment made that perfectly clear.

“Then what’s your passion?”

“My blog isn’t a trashy celeb column.” Jamie’s words were hard, and she threw them out like javelins. She noted Siena’s sharp jerk back in her seat, but she didn’t care.

Okay, she cared.She cared more than she wanted to and that was an entirely different problem all together. One that was pissing her off even as she refused to examine it.

“Have you even bothered to read any of my blogs all the way through? Or did you just read the parts that affected you?” Damn it, why did she have to get all defensive now?

Siena’s stern face fell away, and for a split second, Jamie saw the woman she had picked up at the tapas bar. But just as quickly, she vanished again. The same feeling of abandonment washed over Jamie as it had when she had stepped out of the shower.

Jamie didn’t wait for Siena to verbally respond. The look was enough for her to go off of. “Maybe if you did, you wouldn’t be so quick to call it trash.”

The silence spoke volumes as Jamie slumped in her chair, sipping her coffee.

“What is it you’re actually passionate about then?” Siena ever-so-slowly lifted her coffee mug to her lips, those perfectly shaped lips that could—nope. Jamie had to focus.

“About the power of role models. About having someone who’s like you, someone who’s brave and in the spotlight when the rest of the world makes you feel so very alone.”

Siena nodded, a small sad smile on her face. She set her mug down, and the silence between them was deafening. Jamie just needed her to speak with that fire and rage she’d witnessed in the classroom. Not this calm, cool, and aloof professional that she was already despising. “I think you’ll like my alternative plan to interviewing me.”

Jamie looked up, eyes narrowed, but didn’t say anything. She wouldn’t beg. She wouldn’t ask. If Siena wanted to tell her, she would have to do it on her own.

“What if I let you have an exclusive interview with Bunny and Piper?”

Jamie instantly regretted taking the mouthful of coffee as it sprayed out of her mouth, and she choked on the dislodged liquid. As the coughing fit ended, she opened her mouth to apologize until the sound of soft laughter reached her ears. She looked up and saw Siena,her Siena, smiling back.

When Siena caught her gaze, she quickly covered her mouth with those long slender fingers.

“Oh God, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

“But it felt a little good after my blog post about managers?” Jamie smiled, letting Siena know that it wasn’t out of anger or defense that she brought this up. Jamie couldn’t deny her own surprise at bringing up the elephant in the room.

“Maybe a little bit.” Siena looked sheepish, and Jamie wanted to kiss those lips.

No, she did not. She did. But she couldn’t.

This was business, and Siena had made that more than clear the moment she’d stepped through the door. She didn’trealize she had a smile on her face while Siena helped her clean up the mess from her coughing fit, enjoying the comfortable silence of the act until she sat back down and noticed Siena examining her with an expression she hadn’t seen before.

“What?” She asked as her smile turned into something more self-conscious.

“Nothing.” Siena shook her head and flicked her eyes away.

But there was no denying the coloring that brushed her cheeks.

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