Mystery Of You (Pub 5)

11 - Help desk

Ainsley sat in the company cafeteria with Rhys eating lunch together for the first time in weeks. It was sad, because there was a time when they ate together every day and it was Lilli they had to drag away from her desk. It had been fun when the three of them worked and lived together. Maybe not fun for Lilli because she worked for bosszilla.

Rhys groaned. "I had to deal with Lilli's old boss this morning. She hated the mock up cover we came up with for the Gibbons book."

"I want to see it since I'm promoting it."

"You will. For now it's back to the drawing board. So tell me about your date."

She smiled. "He was cute, professional, well spoken."

"Teeth."

Ainsley laughed. "He's not a horse. Straight."

"So are you seeing him again?"

She shook her head slowly. "I kissed him."

"That bad?"

"Let's just say he is already in love and I have no interest in competing. I thought about using him for sex, but the kiss didn't sell me."

"Who is he in love with? His ex?"

She shook her head slowly and smiled. "His mother."

"God no! You don't need that. Let's look for a new candidate."

Ainsley sighed. "Just to let me down again?"

"Don't be so glum. Chin up. Let's scroll."

Reluctantly, she opened the app on her phone. Rhys took it and addressed each profile with a 'no' or a 'maybe' or in one instance a 'hell no'.

"I think I know your problem."

She tilted her head. "Besides all the good men are taken."

"No." He giggled. "You need to be open to younger men."

"Younger men only want sex."

Rhys pointed at her. "And you don't."

She did. It had been too long. "Okay. Fair point."

"Not juveniles, but dip into the late twenties. Here, fix it."

Reluctantly, she changed her search parameters in her settings.

"We're going to see little Lilli and her hotty this weekend."

"Are you boys going to Maine?"

"No, we're meeting them at an Almost Heaven concert. Backstage with all the perks."

"Seriously, you and your country music." Rhys scanned through the new search results. He had more maybes. "Now he's gorg with a familiar look."

Ainsley exploded. "No f-ing way!"

"Why?" Rhys frowned.

"He's the jerk I work with. Let me see his profile and then I'm changing mine, so he can't see me!"

She could admit he was a good-looking guy. She scoffed at the picture of him in front of a rock wall. He had some muscles. Too bad he was a jerk.

"So hot!"

"Stop." She changed her profile to eliminate twenty-eight-year-olds. "He treats me like a beginner when I have three years on him."

"Keep doing your work and let him bury himself."

She smiled because he hadn't been a formidable opponent. In fact, his lack of effort took some steam out of the rivalry. Some steam, not all.

When Ainsley returned to her desk, Henry looked up from his. "I wish I knew the right people so I could have a long lunch too."