Page 31 of Keep Your Friends Close and Your… Work Enemy Closer?

"No. What do they say?"

"Come on. I'm sure you know it. That when you assume, you make an ass out of you and me."

He laughed. "I know it. I just wanted to hear you say it."

Deciding to ignore his obnoxious response, I asked, "Why didn't you at least text me that you would be late?"

He paused a beat, watching me carefully. "Man, you must have really missed me to be this put out, Dee."

"I didn't miss you," I argued. "Besides, you're the one who can't stop talking about me."

"What?" He slurped on his iced coffee, his eyes studying my face. "Oh, that thing my grandma said. I wouldn't exactly take anything she says as gospel. She, um, she's known for exaggerating things, and she's always trying to set me up with any and every nearby female."

Having enough of this conversation, if one could call it that, I grunted and turned back to my computer, checking my email for the fiftieth time this morning. Still no response from Venus' people. Which wasn't surprising. It sometimes took a very long time to hear back from busy agents and publicists. Or sometimes we didn't hear anything at all and had to be persistent to the point of annoying.

I received a notification and looked at my interoffice messages... to find one from Jared. "I'm going to be late this morning."

"Thanks for telling me after the fact."

"No problem. Did I miss anything? Did you hear from Venus yet?"

"No."

"So let's make a deal," he wrote. "If we don't hear from her or her peeps by Friday, we go to the Furever Friends event."

Oh, God. My fingers didn't know what to type, so I just sat there thinking.

"Come on, Dee. You know I'm right."

"You're not right. It's too soon to push like that."

"I'll make you a bet."

"What are you talking about?"

"If I win, we go to the gala. If you win, we don't."

I whirled around to face him, done with typing messages to a person who was literally sitting right next to me. "Are you joking?"

Judging by his face, he wasn't joking. "How else are we going to settle this?"

I huffed, blowing some hair out of my eyes. "By being mature adults and discussing it, making a pros and cons list, talking through all the possibilities and potential outcomes."

"Nah. Where's the fun in that?"

"Not everything has to be fun," I said.

"I agree. But there's no reason this can't be. What? Are you scared you're going to lose?"

"No. I'd never lose to you."

The only word to describe his expression was beaming. "See? So why not?"

Swallowing hard, I bit back all the sarcastic responses I wanted to throw at him.

"Are you chicken?" he went on, now making clucking noises, other people in the office turning to look at us.

"Are you fucking serious? You're causing a scene. And you're going to get us in trouble with Veronica."

---