Page 96 of Keep Your Friends Close and Your… Work Enemy Closer?

She whirled back to her computer, and I peeked over to see her refreshing her email, once, twice, then yet again.

"Babe," I interrupted her. "You're going to push yourself over the edge if you keep doing that."

"It's none of your business what I do," she muttered, putting her earbuds back in, signaling the end of our conversation.

It was fine. She could be ticked at me. I understood. She needed some time and space to process this madness, and I could certainly give her that. To a point.

The rest of the day, she barely spoke to me. Actually, she barely spoke to anyone, and the refresh button on her email got a massive workout. Too bad I hadn't counted. It would have been fun teasing her. But why not do it anyway?

I couldn't resist sending her a text. "69."

She didn't respond, just glared at me after she read it.

So I texted her again. "That's the number of times you've hit refresh."

"You've been counting?" she huffed at me before turning back and doing it again, giving me the side eye while exaggerating the movement with her mouse. "Now it's 70, dork."

I hadn't been called a dork since seventh grade, and the fact that she said that, even though she now knew I was Max Sterling, weirdly made me smile.

Annalise Stratton didn't give a shit about my money or my name, and it was refreshing as hell. I'd kept myself completelyclosed off most of my adult life, not daring to trust a soul, with the exception of what's-her-name, and look how that turned out.

And here this woman beside me comes into my life, well, re-enters my life, not caring in the least about any of that, while at the same time accepting my family situation in a heartbeat.

We were so meant to be, it was ridiculous. She just needed a little convincing, a little coaxing, to see it.

"Oh, my God," she gasped. "Holy shit."

Her hand grabbed my leg and didn't let go. It kind of hurt, but it didn't matter because she was fucking touching me.

"What? What is it?"

Still clutching me, she began to read out loud in a stunned voice, "'Dear Cordelia and Jared, I can't thank you enough for the painting of my little Freddie!!!'Three exclamation points. Three. 'Max Sterling had it sent over to me, but he mentioned that it was your idea. And he had nothing but praise for you, especially you, Cordelia, saying how intelligent, hardworking, and dedicated you are with every author you work with. Oops, I ended on a preposition. Please tell me you have a ghostwriter I can work with because I have no clue how to write.'"

Annalise let out a giggle, then paused to catch her breath.

"'Anyways, I appreciate it and want to meet with you both this Friday afternoon at four. Sorry for the short notice, but I'm leaving the country this weekend and I'll be gone for a while working on my next film. All my life, I've fantasized about being a proper businesswoman in the Big Apple who dresses up and goes to important meetings. I want a big, fancy presentation with all the bells and whistles, in a big corporate meeting room, with flow charts and pie graphs and slides and all that office-y stuff. So please make my fantasy come true on Friday!'"

We both cracked up laughing, making so much noise we drew the attention of some nearby co-workers. And before we knew it, a crowd of people had gathered around, Annalise ecstatic asshe told them to be prepared for Hollywood royalty to come to Insight Ink on Friday.

Needless to say, everyone flipped out at the big news, the buzz even drawing Veronica out of her office to see what was going on.

She beamed at us, more excited than I'd ever seen her. "I knew you two could handle it. Now you just have to nail this presentation."

Annalise looked at me with wide eyes. "Right. The actual presentation."

"You've got this," Mona said. "Just act like she's any old client, and do the same amazing job you always do."

I watched Annalise take a deep breath and nod. "Thanks for that. Okay. Yeah. We can do this."

That's my girl, I said inside my head. And excuse me, had she just used the wordwe? As in her and me? Or...?

Once the excitement had died down and everyone drifted back to their desks, I smiled at her. "Congrats. I knew you'd make it happen."

"I didn't do anything except write a stupid email toyou."

"Well, it was your idea."

She shrugged. "So? All the credit goes to you. Unfortunately," she added, her voice snarky.

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