Page 17 of My Grumpy Sweetheart
“Yeah. I work in NYC.”
He nodded, furrowing his brows. “But you don’t live there?”
Shaking my head, I smiled. “Nah. The city’s great and everything, but it’s also super expensive. Like… I just got a promotion which doubled my salary, but I still wouldn’t be able to afford more than a shoebox sized apartment if I want to live anywhere close to work. And I like Stamports, you know?”
“Promotion?”
I nodded, clearing my throat to answer, but the server came with the second course — a light radish soup with croutons, bacon, but without apples — and I waited until he was gone.
“Yeah. Actually, the promotion is why I’m here.” I laughed. “I got promoted to Head of Social Media Marketing in the publishing house I work for, and I wanted to treat myself, you know? So, the charity auction was like the perfect timing.”
Dakota grabbed the spoon and tried the soup. Either it wasn’t to his liking, or he was thinking really hard about something because his forehead was creased into a deep frown. I didn’t care. I was counting his one-worded questions as progress. And the first time he’d showed any interest in me at all.
So…yay!
A bubbly feeling spread through my body, warming me to my core while I smiled to myself. Maybe it wouldn’t take him that much time to warm up to me after all.
CHAPTERSIX
DAKOTA
Iwas over apples already. I got it; they were an apple orchard. They had a theme going on, and everything apples was probably a really cheap ingredient for them, so it was only logical that they wanted to stuff their menu with as many apples as they could, but… I wanted something else, too.
Bailey didn’t seem to mind. But then again, he didn’t seem to mind anything. Not the fact that we were sharing a room — and a fucking bed, too — not the fact that every single drink this dinner had been made out of apples, nor the fact that four courses out of our five-course meal had apples in them, too.
No. He’d smiled, and laughed, and giggled, and… god! I turned in bed, doing my damnedest to stay on my side and as far away from Bailey and his fresh, sweet scent as I could because I needed to clear my head. I couldn’t do that if I was constantly reminded of his presence and of him in general.
Much to my dismay, I had to admit I’d been wrong. I’d thought he was fresh out of college or even still in college, but it appeared he already had a management position. If he hadn’t exaggerated by, like… a lot. Maybe the publishing house he worked for was really small. It was very well possible for him to be the head of anything if that meant managing one or two other people.
I pulled my pillow over my head, letting out a loud groan that was fortunately muffled by the stuffing of the pillow. The last thing I wanted was to wake up Bailey and have him ask any more annoying questions. On the other hand… I could ask him about his job.
Not that I wanted to know more about him, personally. I just wanted to know more about what kind of company would give someone like him so much responsibility.
Before I could stop myself, I’d grabbed my phone and opened Google. Finding him shouldn’t be complicated, right?
I typed inBaileyandHead of… what had he said? Right.Social Media marketing.
Instantly, my display was filled with his face, grinning widely at me. There were pictures, video links, and… oh, there was a website, too.
I hesitated, my thumb looming over the display. Was I invading his privacy googling him like this? I mean, I could’ve asked, and I was pretty sure he’d have told me all about his job — much more than I wanted to know — but I hadn’t.
Fuck. If I were on speaking terms with my friends, I’d text them right this second to get their opinion. And a part of me wanted to. The other part reminded me that they were the sole reason I was here in the first place, so I’d have to figure this out on my own.
After a couple of seconds, I opened the website, barely able to suppress a gasp when I realized which publishing house he worked for. Because it wasn’t a small indie press. He wasn’t just the boss of one or two people. I actually knew the publishing house. Hell, I had books they’d published in my living room.
I read through the short text announcing that Bailey Sullivan was taking over the Social Media Marketing department, and blah, blah, blah… I wasn’t interested in the rest. Instead, I went back and clicked on the different links. Instagram, TikTok… there were a lot of videos. A lot of book trailers, but a lot of videos of Bailey in the office, too. Grabbing a pair of headphones, I plugged them into my ears and connected them to my phone, then started the first video, turning up the volume until my head was filled with Bailey’s cheery voice.
Twenty minutes later, I was well into the fifth video clip of him talking to his coworkers, authors, or answering viewer questions during a live video.
I could feel the smile tugging at my lips at Bailey’s exuberantly happy and energetic antics that I would’ve said were only for show had I just watched the videos of him, but… he was the same with me. Happy, bubbly, and so damn energetic.
Only that it wasn’t rubbing me the wrong way on screen. Not at all. It looked… passionate. The way he talked about books and covers and…anything. It didn’t matter what he talked about; he was so damn earnest the whole time.
Blinking slowly, I forced myself to pause the video.
What was I doing? I was forced to spend the next day and a half with this guy against my will. The only time I’d get a reprieve from him was at night. Sleeping.
Why was I wasting that precious time for myself watching videos about him?
