Page 30 of Just a Distraction

Callum totters along with me across the lobby again, holding my hand, and I relish in his slow pace. I’ve got nowhere to be,besides our little one-bedroom apartment in town. My landlady, who lives in the building, lets our golden retriever, Thorin, out in the middle of the day for us, so there’s no rush.

We reach the rows of slatted boxes. I locate the one with my name and see there’s an ivory envelope, with “Rose” handwritten on the front inside my mail slot. An actual wax seal dots the back of it, with the letters “MKT” stamped in the wax.

I have no idea what MKT stands for, but geez. I guess I wasn’t kidding when I told Claudia and Janet that this was a cushy job. Apparently, they send out fancy cards to their employees sometimes? Maybe it’s an invite to the company summer party, something my boss mentioned when I got hired, but as it’s only April, I hadn’t paid much attention.

I revel in the bumpy surface of the wax seal, then slide my finger under the thick paper envelope. The popping sound as I break the seal gives me a satisfying tingle in my gut.

The card is plain on the front and on a thick, variegated off-white-and-tan paper. I open it.

Dear Rose,

It was great to see you here today. I wish we’d had a chance to say hello. I hope you don’t mind me asking around to find out that you do actually work here. Consider this your official welcome to Tate International!

Milo

P.S. Are you ever going to tell me why you don’t finish your ice cream cones? It’s been eating me up for the past six months!

Wait. Miloworkshere? I remember him saying he was trying to decide between two jobs, both within his own family. Apparently, he chose the one at Tate International? He’s aTate?

Yes, he’s a Tate. I remember seeing his driver’s license that night, but it never occurred to me that he was one ofthoseTates. He seemed far too normal for that.

Because the Tates are sort of famous around these parts. The rich, charitable family with six handsome sons back in Colorado to continue building their empire here? Of course I know of them.

And he wasn’t kidding about their breakroom. It looks like a spa in there.

Should I respond? I need to stay away from any and all men. Besides, I don’t have any idea where his mailbox is—if he even has a mailbox.

But thoughts of the most intoxicating, perfect kiss of my life render me nearly useless the rest of the evening.

Oh boy. My last few months before nursing school just got complicated.

Chapter 11

Milo

I woke up to thoughts of Rose.

And now, my brothers’ incessant talking in the room next door is barely a blip on my radar. I got up early, got some words in my latest work in progress, my serial story,Zehma of the Night Loch, then worked out at the resort gym. I was even showered, ready, and at my desk early.

I got stuff done. And now that Sebastian and Oliver are next door, talking with some other corporate executives about this, that, and the other, I’m not too bothered by it.

Because I saw Rose yesterday. And I don’t know what I did to deserve this bit of luck smiling down on me in my life right now, but there’s been a spring in my step since we locked eyes yesterday.

There’s been a spring in my step since I met her. It was after that first night with her that I decided to work for Sebastian, since this position gives me more flexibility to write. I independently published my first book,The Dowager Magician, and began selling paperbacks and e-books off my Thaddeus Blackthorn website. That’s my pen name—Thaddeus Blackthorn. Reaching out to agents has been discouraging, but I’m not going to stop trying, or lowering my standards on who I’d like to represent me and my books. It’s go big or go home, right?

I think it was Rose’s drive to create her own life that got me going. She wanted to become a nurse, so she was doing everything it takes to become one. It’s inspiring.

I get why she didn’t talk to me yesterday. She’d expected to never see me again. And she was working. She’d said she can’t be in a relationship—that things are complicated for her. I respect that. That doesn’t mean I couldn’t give her a little welcome letter from Tate, right? And maybe her circumstances have changed—that whatever was holding her back from going on a real date with me isn’t an issue anymore.

A guy can hope.

Thanks to Maggie in HR, I was able to find out that she does indeed work in housekeeping. I also found out that her last name is Hawkins.

And about the letter. I’m a nerd, okay? I have a wax sealing kit that was made especially for me by the English department head at Columbia before I left. She had them made for all her students who’d won an award that year for their creative writing.

It’s still exciting to think that I won first place in a contest sponsored by Brandon Sanderson forThe Dowager Magician.

Please don’t say anything to my family. They have no idea that I write at all, let alone in the fantasy genre. I think if they foundout, they’d insist I take a genetic test to make sure I’m actually a Tate and there wasn’t some mix-up at the hospital.

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