Page 14 of The Road Trip Romance

“Is this how you live your life, every day?” she asks as she puts her elbows on the desk and rests her chin in her hands.

“I suppose so,” I answer.Is this a bad thing? Does she hate it? Shit, am I going to ruin her whole life if we make this book into a movie?

“I can’t even imagine…” She trails off as she looks me in the eye. “What should I tell them?”

“Who?” I ask, frowning in confusion.

“The Beatles,” she says sarcastically before motioning toward her door. “My office colleagues,” she clarifies with an eye roll.

“Oh, right. Do they know you write romance novels?” I ask as I sit down in one of the chairs in front of her desk.

She nods. “Yep.”

“Then tell them I’m a fan and am secretly in town for something and wanted to meet you,” I offer with a shrug.

She gives me a pointed look. “You seriously think they are going to believe that? And you don’t have to worry. There are only six of us in the office. And if we say don’t tell anyone, they won’t. They will however gossip like hell amongst themselves,” she explains. I feel the tension leave my shoulders a little. I hope she’s right.

I shrug. “Let them gossip, then.”

She rolls her eyes again and groans. “You are seriously no help here.”

I wave her off with my hand. “Come on, let’s go meet these colleagues. They’ll love me. I’mverycharming,” I say with my best movie-star smile.

She throws a squishy stress ball at me. And I laugh as I chuck it back at her. Sophia Walsh is adorable when she’s frustrated.

“Fine, best of luck to you,” she declares as if I’m being thrown to the wolves. She stands and I follow her down the hall. I hope she’s right about her colleagues keeping my presence here under wraps. I really do need to stay off the radar for now, at least until I figure out what the hell I’m going to do about the mess I made back home, and for that matter, what the hell I’m going to do with my entire life.

We enter a larger room and I see several people. Lex, a man in his twenties, a woman in her twenties, and two other women who look to be in their thirties or forties all sit at a conference table.

“I’d like to introduce you all to Mr. Anders,” Sophia says, motioning to me. The eyes of the three women widen. Lex gives them a knowing look. The man seems nonplussed by my presence. Immediately everyone’s heads turn toward Sophia with questioning eyes.

“I know, I know,” she says, raising her hands. “He’s an actor. We all know who he is. He wants to spend some time at our office for a few days.” She glances at me as if trying to relay something and continues. “He’s working on a film project that looks at grant work and he wants to understand it better. My agent knows this and mentioned my work to his agent. I’ve had him sign a confidentiality agreement this morning, so he will keep all that goes on here to himself. In return, I hope you will keep his presence here to yourselves.”

One of the younger women raises her hand.

“Holly, you don’t have to raise your hand,” Sophia admonishes. Holly looks young, maybe just out of college. I look at her and she shyly smiles.

“Uh, yeah. Sorry. I was wondering if Mr. Anders will be following all of us around, or just you?” she asks.

“Just me for now,” Sophia explains. “I’m not sure how long he’ll be able to stay with us here to observe, so for now I’ll be trying to show him the ropes.”

“Oh,” Holly mutters, looking like a competitive child who has just lost a game.

“Any other questions?” Sophia asks.

The rest of the group shakes their heads in unison. “Alright, then, back to…” She trails off as a delivery boy carrying a bag of what looks like donuts and a carton of coffee shows up at the conference room door.

“Delivery for Sophia Walsh,” the young man says smiling and looking around the room. “Sorry, no one was at the front desk, and I heard voices back here.”

“I…uh…” Sophia splutters.

“I ordered everyone breakfast,” I say with a sly smile. When Sophia said she wanted to introduce me, I figured I could get something delivered quickly and the app I used did not disappoint. That was here in less than twenty minutes.

The room bursts into a barrage of discussion. “Thank you” and “Isn’t that nice” and “He’s so sweet” all ring out in unison as they surround a side table where the delivery man has set the food. Sophia looks at me and mouths “Thank you.” I nod with a smile as I walk over to join her co-workers. I am introduced to each one and learn what they all do for the charity. I’ll have to remember to tell Paul to send a donation here. Their work is impressive.

After some normal chitchat, I becomeTateto everyone, and everything seems to return to normal as best as I can tell. I see Sophia eating a donut at the conference table and watching me, but when I look at her, she quickly glances over at Lex and says something about some files she needs.

“So, like, how long are you here?” Holly asks, breaking my train of thought.

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