Just Friends

40

⊱𝙻𝚎𝚟𝚒⊰

"Cassidy—"

"Oh my god, Levi!"

I grimace and hold my phone away from my ear. "Cassidy, how many times have you gotten a book published—"

"Yes!"

I snort and shake my head, leaning forward to rest my elbow on my desk and punching my nose bridge. "So, I've been told July is our lucky month." I continue with what I'd been telling her. "We're going to hear more about exact dates shortly, but all I have for you is July."

"Amazing." Cassidy giggles in response, still excited even though we've done this together more than once.

I smile more to myself. "Congratulations, Cassidy." I sincerely offer. "As always, it's been a pleasure working with you."

"You're not done working with me." Cassidy's smile is clear in her voice. "Are you?"

I smile wider. "No." I hum. "What's this next book, anyway?" I curiously ask, fully aware she's been working on something.

"Mm. Emailed it to you already." Cassidy casually tells me. She sounds more distracted now, doing something else.

I straighten in my seat and reach for my laptop. "When?" I question, tempted to laugh as I bring up her email.

"As soon as we got on the phone."

I shake my head with a smile as I open the doc she sent. "All right, what is this?"

"First draft of the first ten chapters." Cassidy proudly declares. My eyebrows raise at that. She's serious about this one. "Don't read it now." She quickly adds.

I frown. "Why?"

"I want you to read it with her."

"Tessa?"

"Yes, Tessa." Cassidy giggles. "She read the plot, right? I wanna know what she thinks."

I squint at the ceiling. "I don't know how ethical this is." I admit.

I'll be honest, I haven't exactly read all of the rules. I don't even know if it was right to share my text messages with Tess even though Cassidy told me to.

"It's a separate job." Cassidy quickly points out. "Remember? I pay you for the editing." She reminds. "Or—I try to pay you. You don't ever take it." She bitterly grumbles, annoyed with me still.

"I've told you, I don't want or need it." I dismiss her like I always do. I enjoy working with Cassidy. I might not help edit the other books I work with, but I think I will always help with Cassidy's.

"Offer Tessa it for me then." Cassidy orders. "I at least want to try to pay one of you for this."

I shrug even though she can't see me. "Fine." I agree carelessly. "I'll ask her this weekend for you, how's that?"

"Perfect. Let me know." Cassidy agrees with ease. "Are you doing something with her this weekend?" She curiously asks, completely turning our work conversation personal.