Page 8 of Unraveling the Truth About Love
Claudia pointed to Riley’s computer. “Phil Lancorn. Look him up in your company address book.”
Finally, some real work.It might not be designing, but at least she’d get her hands on fabric. It was a step in the right direction.
“Okay, got it,” she said.
“Good.”
Riley watched Claudia walk away withher nose in the air. She mentally ticked off what was expected of her: Line sheets, trade show prep, sample inventory, and then she got to work.
BY TWO O’CLOCK, when the trunk of clothing showed up, Riley had finished all of the line sheets, confirmed receipt with the corresponding team members, and was famished.No wondereveryone’s so skinny. There’s no time for lunch.
Mia rifled through the trunk. “I need the fuchsia pencil skirt from his spring line.”
“I haven’t inventoried the samples yet,” Riley said, flipping through her checklist of clothing that had gone out to the shoot.
Simone breezed into the room. “We’ve got Carlisle coming over at four. Where’s the scarf that goes with the Bliss jumpsuit?” She flungclothes from the trunk onto the couch in the corner of the room.
“I swear, every time there’s a shoot, something goes missing,” Mia said.
Riley grabbed the garments as they were tossed about and tried to match them up with the inventory as quickly as she could. Claudia walked into the room just as Riley snagged a belt from Simone. “Let me just mark it off. Then you can whisk it away. I promise.”
Claudia snagged the belt from Riley’s hands. “Josh comes first. He needs this stuff now, not later.” She snapped her fingers.
“How can I inventory if I don’t have the items? It will only take a minute to go through these as they take them away.” Riley watched Simone stand with a stack of clothes in her arms and head for the door.
“Wait! Please. Just tell me what you have and I’ll write it down.Rattle it off as fast as you can,” she pleaded, then immediately cringed. Simone and Mia froze.Oh no. Did I step out of line?
“I like her,” Simone said to Claudia.
Thank heavens.She snuck a sideways glance at Claudia and held her breath.
Claudia narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms firmly over her chest.
Shoot, shoot, shoot.
“Okay, here goes.” Simone listed all of the clothes she hadin her arms, and once satisfied that she hadn’t missed an item, Riley followed Mia to Josh’s office, taking copious notes on the pieces she’d taken as well.
“Thanks, Mia. I appreciate your help. We’ll have to figure out a better system for this.” Riley had her nose in her notebook and bumped into Josh’s chest as she turned to leave. His hands caught her forearms. “Oh, sorry. I’m so sorry,” shesaid.
“Not a problem. Slow down. What’s the rush?” Josh didn’t let go of her arms.
“I’ve got to inventory the samples from yesterday’s shoot before everyone takes them away.” She blinked several times, trying to break the energy that ran from his hands through her arms and made her heart beat triple time. When that didn’t work, she shifted her body as if to leave the room, breaking contact withhim altogether.
“Did you have lunch?” he asked.
“No time,” she said, trying to think past her desire to say,No. Let’s go grab something.
“I haven’t given you a proper welcome to New York. Why don’t we have dinner tonight?”
When Josh and Riley were back in Colorado, Josh had a way of looking at her that wasn’t lustful or platonic. Something hard to interpret hung in the darkening of his eyesand the lifting of the right side of his mouth, and every time he had looked at her with that butterfly-inducing gaze, she’d wanted to kiss him and run away at the same time. Now she stood frozen beside him, trying to interpret that exact look as he cast it in her direction. Only this time there were spectators—and she was his employee—and what made her stomach ache and shivers run through herbody was that she couldn’t decide if what she saw was an implication, a stifled desire, or if she was a crazy employee slash friend wanting more than he had to offer.
Dinner? Like a date? No, he doesn’t mean a date. He means a work thing. He’s being polite.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Mia asked.
Claudia entered the room behind Josh. “Riley, the trunk is emptying,” she said in a singsongvoice.
Josh arched a brow at Mia.
