Page 16 of Love Out Loud

Chapter Seven

“How did your appointment go with your referral from Claire Anderson—the acceptance speech?” Charise swept her long, dark hair over her shoulder and leaned a hip against Jake’s office doorframe. “I saw on the books that she joined your group yesterday and you had an appointment again this morning.”

“It went fine.” He closed his laptop, welcoming the distraction from his unfinished article forToday’s Psychology. While happy for the break, he wasn’t thrilled with her choice of topic. Ordinarily, he enjoyed talking and sharing opinions about clients with Charise and the other Upward Media coaches. It was company practice to brainstorm in order to maximize success—hence the progress board in the conference room. The only time feedback wasn’t shared was when it was a client who specifically requested confidentiality, which was a rare politician or someone working on a private project.

“It went fine,” Charise repeated. “Elaine said she was…different.”

Elaine would. Always perfect, with-every-hair-in-place Elaine would certainly have looked forward to briefing Charise. Hell, she’d probably been waiting by the door when Charise arrived. He pictured Fiona as Elaine ushered her into the group session forty-five minutes late in her funny shirt, wet hair, and flip-flops, and couldn’t help but smile. “Sheisdifferent.”

“And?”

The look on her face appeared simply curious. It was normal behavior for her to ask about a new client, just like he did with her. This time, though, he didn’t really want to share. “And she arrived too late to participate last night, and this morning was just a brief getting-to-know-you session. No progress yet. We’ll be reviewing her speech outline when we meet next.”

She stared at him a moment, and he held his breath, willing her to move on. Finally, she nodded. “The Johnston sportscaster audition went well…at least that’s what he told me. You can’t tell with that guy, though. He’s not super self-aware and could’ve totally blown it. His agent should hear back sometime today as to whether or not he got the job.”

Charise had been working with Alan Johnston for over a month to prepare him for his audition with a local news station. He’d evidently been difficult to work with, but Charise was great with egos. She should be, since hers was a thing of wonder.

“If he gets the job, that puts me two up on you.” She brushed her hair over her shoulder in a practiced move he’d seen a hundred times. Jake thought of Fiona’s sillyLove Stinksshirt she had worn today and how, to him, her natural sensuality was much more appealing than Charise’s calculated sexuality. Not that Charise’s approach didn’t work. It had worked really well on him, in fact.

What had drawn him to Charise the most was that she knew herself and how she came across to others. It was why she was so good at what she did. Like Jake, she was good at promoting her strong points. She was smart, driven, and she dressed to enhance her attractiveness with calculation and accuracy. Her work clothes were custom made, and she took great care with her makeup and appearance, which, when they had been together, had been a pain in the ass. She hogged the bathroom and made them late to everything. Still, he supposed, the end result was worth it to her and boosted her confidence. Though Jake wasn’t sure her confidence needed any boosting whatsoever—as opposed to his new client, who needed all the confidence she could find—at least with regard to the speech. Outside of that, she seemed surprisingly secure in herself. He nearly shook his head to clear the image of her from his brain. He needed to quit thinking about her.

Marcus teasing him about not dating came to mind, which was irritating. He could do something about that, though. Fire up that online dating site and give it another go.

Just thinking about keeping up his image for a date with a stranger was exhausting. At least with Charise, they’d both been in the same game and could drop the speech-coach routine when they weren’t out in public. That had been one of the only things they had in common, though. He’d thought they were on the same page, but it was hard for Charise to be there for someone else when her own goals always took priority.

Once she’d determined Jake wasn’t essential to forwarding those goals, she turned their relationship off like a faucet. She went on vacation and didn’t let him know where she was or when she’d be back. She’d ghosted him completely, not returning calls or texts for two solid weeks. He’d have called in a missing person report after the first day if it weren’t for Elaine telling him Charise was fine and he needed to move on with his life.

Charise hadn’t even done her own dirty work, and Jake had let her know exactly how he’d felt about that when she finally rolled into the monthly progress meeting sporting a huge smile and a new tan. Regrettably, he’d lost his shit in front of every single coworker in the conference room. TheJake’s a Jackass Rulewas aptly named and had become an ongoing joke around the office.

At least he and Charise had remained friends. When he looked back on it, that’s all she’d ever considered him in the first place: a friend with benefits. Being dumped so publicly had sucked. So, he’d taken a page out of her book and decided only lighthearted fun and casual sex for him from now on. You can’t get hurt if you don’t invest emotionally.

Charise cleared her throat and pulled him back to the moment.

He smiled at her. “Yeah, looks like I’m going to have to step up my game if I’m going to beat you this quarter,” Jake said. “Or take on some easy clients likesomepeople.”

As expected, she didn’t take offense and laughed. “Luck of the draw, I suppose. I take it that means your new one is not going to be easy.”

Not in any way imaginable. “Probably not.”

“Why?”

Charise was relentless. Another trait that made her top in her field but got on his nerves. “I don’t know enough about her to accurately discuss it yet.”

She nodded. “Got it.” She pushed away from the doorframe with her hip in a single, graceful move. A real feat in her high heels, he supposed. She brushed some invisible speck off of her sleeve. Her long, French-manicured nails caught the light and sparkled, like her new engagement ring from the advertising executive she’d dated for the last four months. Obviously, she had found someone who could advance her goals—whatever those were.

She smiled. “Let me know if you want some input once you get going. If Alan Johnston doesn’t get this job, I may need an evaluation and opinion from you before he auditions again. I should have the tape of his live screen test soon. I’ll keep you posted.”

As usual, she didn’t say goodbye or close the conversation. She simply walked off, something else she was really good at, especially during an argument. When she was done, she wasdone.

He stared at the empty doorway for a moment and grinned as he remembered Fiona’s awkward goodbyes before finally walking away this morning. He looked forward to their next appointment. He glanced at his schedule, picked up his phone, and texted her.

Jake:Does an appointment at 7:00pm today work?

He opened his laptop to work on his article but couldn’t focus. He should never have agreed to write the damned thing. They’d asked him for an article that explored the biggest obstacles he encountered when coaching someone for a prepared speech—his specialty. Right now, though, his specialty seemed to be staring at a blank screen and a blinking cursor, trying like hell to not think about Fiona Nichol.

“Stop it!” He snapped the laptop closed, along with the mental image of her in that silly T-shirt. “Focus.”

He opened the laptop again, and, forcing himself to follow his own advice to his clients, he made a list of what he wanted the article to accomplish. When, after twenty minutes of half-assed list making, he hadn’t heard back from Fiona, he shut his computer and wandered to the window. What was wrong with him?

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