Page 99 of Keep Your Friends Close and Your… Work Enemy Closer?

He was joking, right?

Laughing, he unpacked the food—pasta, bread, meatballs, salad, the works. "We need to carb up," he said. "Who knows how long we'll be here tonight."

God, I lov— scratch that. I had zero feelings for this man. Zero. It was simply a relief to have someone here with me tonight, and I was incredibly hungry. So of course, he was like the hero in a romance novel right now. Larger than life, caring, and thoughtful.

Biting into the steaming hot gnocchi covered in sauce and cheese, I couldn't help moaning, Max's eyes intent on my face.

"Baby, don't make that noise," he said.

Oh, fuck. In an instant, my mind wentthere. "Sorry."

The tension in the room ratcheted up in the space of a heartbeat, and it suddenly felt very warm.

"Uh, thanks for the food," I said, watching as he bit into a meatball.

"No problem. Can't work on an empty stomach."

"No, you really can't." I glanced at the bag on his desk, noticing the restaurant's name in silver letters on the side, one of the finest places in the city. "So I suppose you paid for this with a gift card?"

He threw his head back and laughed. "You really fell for that bullshit, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I guess I did, you jerk. And the rumpled, ill-fitting suit, the fucking mustache, the bad haircut." How could I have been so stupid? So easily fooled? "Is the mustache even real?"

He stroked the side of it. "It was at one point, and it was spectacular. But it got a bit complicated going back and forth between Max and Jared, so I had to shave it then wear this ridiculous fake one. I never planned on staying here this long."

"Then why did you?"

"Duh. Because I kind of started crushing on this cute co-worker. And she made me want to stay."

Fuck me. But that was so damn cute and made my chest squeeze. We exchanged a long look, the invisible thread that had been pulling us together stretched taut. For a beat, I wondered what it'd be like to actually be together as Max and Annalise. How would that work exactly?

Max broke the spell first, putting his plate down on his desk. "We should get to work," he said.

"Right. Right. Of course."

What was I thinking? I was forgetting my own stated desires about being alone and independent, that this thing between us could never be, that I needed to be all about work and proving myself.

"We have so much to do," I said, determined to focus on the task at hand, "it's unbelievable."

"Don't worry. We'll get it done. Even if we have to pull an all-nighter. Which we won't need. You've done a ton of work already, more than you probably think."

"I'm not so sure about that. We need to finalize cover mock-ups and chapter proposals, plus ghost writer suggestions, roll-out and press tour ideas, not to mention plan the whole presentation, write it up and lay it all out, and of course walkthrough it multiple times, iron out any kinks, plan for food, beverages, vibe, utensils, napk—"

Max held up a hand, interrupting my panicked stream of thought. "Wait, Annalise. Stop. Slow down. Let's take a breath. We'll get through this together. Make a list for what needs to get done tonight, and what can wait until tomorrow and early Friday. Okay?"

"Right." I nodded. "Okay."

I took that breath he suggested, and then another, and then the two of us put our heads together and got busy.

For a long time, we worked in sync, pausing only to inhale more food, and I found that Max was indeed correct. I really had already done most of the actual work. It was just a matter of putting it all together into one cohesive presentation and polishing it to the best of my ability, making it shine for Venus.

The biggest thing was the cover, or five covers rather, that we'd mocked up. We decided that tomorrow would be spent in design finalizing everything, because people truly did judge books by their covers, and that was probably the flashiest thing to show Venus, with the most potential for a truly wow moment.

And the other huge thing was the vibe, of which food was probably the most important. "I know," I said out of the blue. "I'll call my sister and see what miracles she can work with catering."

"Catering?" Max said. "You think we need catering?"

"Yes, Max. We need catering. You think we can serve Venus La Fleur little bags of chips and cookies from the breakroom?"

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