Page 131 of His Secret Gift

“Yes, you,” she says in a funny, mockingly tone. “It isn’t that hard. Just bite him a little and maybe tie him up.”

I look away and tuck some hair behind my ear. “I don’t know about all of that.”

“Anyway,” she goes back to the subject matter at hand “What happened after sex?”

“I fell asleep in his arms for an hour.”

“Then what?”

That’s when it got a little less sexy. “We talked about business.”

Callie rolls her eyes. “Boring.” Then, she pats my leg as if to indicate that she’s getting up.

“I don’t think so.” Not as sexual, sure. But not boring. “His eyes have a way of lighting up when he talks about it. I can tell he has a real passion for what he does.”

Her face falls flat. “Publishing books?”

“Yes. More narrowly put, I think he likes representing people who shape culture with their words, ideas, and stories. Like Yannis Drakos. There are some people who devote a lot of their time into living in the worlds he’s created.”

She blows raspberries. “He’s no J.R.R. Tolkien or even George R.R. Martin, for that matter. I bet he doesn’t even have an ‘R.R’ in his name.”

“Well, I don’t know about that, the initials, I mean. But as to your other points, he isn’t yet. But I think he has the potential to grow to similar popularity. I really do.”

“If you’re right, we better get juicy, fat raises.”

I chuckle. “Yeah, that would be nice.”

“Nah-uh.” She’s holding her finger in my face. “None for you. It’s already enough you get to fuck our hot boss.”

“Callie!” The “f” word makes it seem gross.

“Oh, I’m sorry. You get to ‘make love’ with him.”

I don’t like that either because it insinuates that I love him, which I don’t.Right? No, that’d be crazy. I don’t know much about the guy.

She does finally get up, but she comes back with a piece of paper in her hands.

“What’s that?”

“I just found it by the door. But it has your name on it. Here.”

When I open it, I read:

Dinner tonight? I don’t know about you, but I worked up quite the appetite.

~J

“Who is it from? Your lover?” She exaggerates the last word.

“It’s from Jack. He wants to have dinner tonight.” This really surprised me because I thought he’d be all up in his head about the meeting. That was one of the reasons I called it quits earlier at the beach… believe me, I could’ve stayed there for hours and hours just lying in his arms.

“Are you going to go?”

“Of course.”

She grins and pats me on the back. “Thatta girl.”

But I also enlist her help in picking out an outfit.

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