Page 63 of My Book Boyfriend
He grins like he’s amused I’m acting all territorial. “Hope you’re worthy of our Lily here. Iris is definitely not someone to mess with.” He smiles fondly. “I can’t believe she has to work late again. Well, I’ll leave you to your date. Need to go and help pack up.” He merges back into the crowd but stops to talk to quite a few female fans along the way.
We head back to the bar. As we order our drinks, an attractive, dark-haired woman joins us. She was at the book club.
Lily introduces us. Maddie is a reporter. My eyebrows raise. Reporters are generally not my best friends.
And indeed, her demeanor is frosty.
Without looking at me, Maddie loops her arm through Lily’s. “I need to talk to you. In private?”
And I watch as she practically drags my date away.
Chapter eighteen
Lily
“He’sattractive,right?”Iask Maddie as she pulls me outside. A few smokers stand off to the side, huddled in their oversize coats. A group of young guys pass by us, arguing over which bar to go to next.
“He also told thePage Sixreporter he was dating you for business,” Maddie says.
I step back. “No.” My stomach clenches.
No soft preliminaries, my Maddie. Right for the jugular.
No.It’s all fake. Heisjust trying to woo me so I give up.
But when he kissed me … How can you fake that kind of passion?
That way he looks at me.
The way he got all possessive when Patrick hugged me …
That’s all fake?
I bite my lip.
“Oh, shit. You really like him,” Maddie says. “I’m sorry. But I wanted you to know.”
“How did you find out?”
“I was in the newsroom, and one of the other women said, ‘I can’t believe Rupert Evans is off the market.’ And Jenna, thePage Sixreporter, said, ‘I’m not sure he’s off the market. He said it was for business.’”
“I’m such an idiot,” I say.
It’s not just business.
“No. You’re not,” Maddie says. “He is very attractive, and it would be a challenge for anybody to resist a full-court press from him. And he looks at you as if he likes you. If I hadn’t overheard this, I would have thought he really liked you too.” She hugs me. “But I have even worse news. Or what I thought was worse. The reporter who covered the protests said he was staking out the Strive Developers’ building to see if he could catch the CEO and get a quote.”
I stare at Maddie. “I should stake out the building to catch the CEO so I can make my pitch to save the garden directly to him.”
Maddie shakes her head. “It didn’t work. My friend thinks the CEO leaves via a car service that picks him up from a restricted, mid-block driveway. But he said he saw Percy Anderson leaving the building.”
“Who’s Percy Anderson?” I ask.
“He’s the CEO of a very successful similar company in Chicago. Very well-respected. It seems Rupert has a competitor for CEO.”
“He told me he had a competitor, but he didn’t tell me the name or any details.”
“I researched him, and he’s very much a by-the-numbers guy. He’s even quoted as saying that business is all about the numbers and doesn’t leave any room for emotion. He doesn’t seem like the type to save the garden.”
