Page 2 of The Wedding Hoax

LA Now was one of the top magazines in Los Angeles, and this staff writer position could really change things for me.

There was a lot riding on my new job.

I hoped I wouldn’t botch it like I did ordering coffee.

“Simone!”

The voice of my best friend made me look up, snapping me back to reality. Taylor grinned as she walked over to the booth, carrying her latte.

“Taylor! I didn’t see you come in,” I said.

Taylor was my best friend and the reason I’d been able to get a job at LA Now in the first place, since she was one of the best editors on their staff. She was also one of the best people I’d ever met, period, which is why I was already grinning like a maniac at the sight of her.

“Are you ready for your first day?” She took a seat across from me.

“Yes, I’m ready! Kind of. Well, maybe not.” I nervously chuckled again. “What happens if I get fired on my first day? As in, how bad would that look on my resume?”

She laughed. “You’re not going to get fired on your first day.”

“You said the CEO can be moody.” I fidgeted with my napkin.

“Harry might be a bit of an asshole, but he’s not a total asshole. He only fires people on day one if they piss him off beyond belief.”

“What pisses him off beyond belief?”

“Nothing you’d ever do.” She thoughtfully took a sip of her latte. “You’re too nice of a person to piss anyone off.”

“I pissed off Sandy.”

“Sandy? The barista?” Taylor’s mouth fell open. “Really? But she’s so sweet to everyone! What’d you do?”

“Nothing! I just took a little too long to get my coffee order together. Then this guy came in, cut the line and tried to order ahead of me, and I let him know I wasn’t having it. I might have called him a jerk.”

“Shit.” Taylor’s eyes went wide.

“Shit?”

“Was he wearing a really nice suit? Handsome in a suspicious way? Like, almost impossibly handsome?”

“Yeah? How’d you know?”

“That’s Harry. Our boss.” She grimaced. “He has a habit of thinking the world revolves around him. Probably because it does. Anyway, he cut me in line when I first got here, too.”

“And? What’d you do?”

“I let him do it because I knew he was the boss.”

“Right. That’s smart. Much smarter than calling him a jerk.”

“You’ll be fine. Don’t let it get to you.” Taylor shook her head. “When you see him in the office, just pretend it never happened, like you two never met before.”

“Lying to my boss feels worse than not letting him cut in line—”

“And being unemployed feels worse than anything else,” she interrupted. “Just promise me you’ll do what I say. Okay?”

“I promise I’ll think about it.”

“Close enough.”

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