Burning Desire

Chapter 5

Selena and I had walked down the street to McCrystal's, a small Italian restaurant, for lunch after I finished the second paragraph of the article I was working on. Joseph had slowed down my progress, asking me to edit a piece for him while he took a break and went to get a sandwich.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get into Joseph's writing. Usually, I didn't have an ounce of trouble, but today I couldn't keep my focus and Selena kept teasing me that it was because I was daydreaming about Jesse and Alex. I told her she was crazy. I had more than enough reason to daydream about Jesse, but not Alex. I'd just seen him for the first time a few hours prior. I didn't know the man. Of course, he was extremely attractive, but I had no business imagining date nights with him. He probably had a girlfriend, for all I knew.

As the afternoon dragged on, the swarm of Now You Know writers gradually lessened until finally there were just a handful of people left.

"Staying late again?" Nicole's voice came from my doorway.

It was like hearing nails on a chalkboard.

I looked up from my work, immediately annoyed with her presence. "I'm about to leave. Just wrapping things up."

Why did she care?

"Oh," she said, fluffing her curly bleached hair. "Well, did you hear about the new hires?"

I hadn't heard anything yet about the writers Mandy had decided to hire. Selena had said Mandy would send out a mass email informing us of who our new coworkers were and what their positions were going to be once she finished interviewing everyone. Initially, we'd expected the interviewing process to take several days, but it appeared she'd be done by the end of the day. Next came the probationary period where Mandy would give the new writers a little while to prove themselves, and decide if she was going to fire anyone she'd extended a chance to. I silently hoped Alex had gotten a job.

I started to regret having not gotten his number or given him mine, since it was more likely than not that I wouldn't see him again. Maybe Selena was right. Maybe I should explore my options. There was no guarantee of anything with Jesse, not that I intended to give up on that idea anytime soon, but there was no reason why I couldn't shop around while I was still single.

"I expect Mandy will let everyone know tonight or tomorrow," I said, trying to be nice to avoid confrontation.

It seemed like Nicole was searching for any opportunity to take a jab at me. I really didn't understand why she had a problem with me to begin with, but I didn't want to make it worse by bitching at her, though it was taking a lot of willpower not to.

Nicole crossed her arms over her obvious boob job and stepped further into my office.

"Looks like we've got more competition," she said, glaring at my framed journalism degree on the wall.

"Well, you're competitive," I mocked her, repeating what she'd said to me a few days before.

I assumed that pissed her off since her only response was to do her famous dramatic heel turn and leave.

Finishing up my work, I shut down my desktop, gathering my things and heading out to my SUV. On my way out, I noticed Mandy was still in her office. Selena and Joseph had already left for the day and most of the vehicles that had occupied our parking garage had disappeared.

My heels clicked on the pavement, echoing loudly through the garage as I made my way to my dark red Mazda, lugging my computer bag on my right shoulder.

"Kate?"

I heard a man call my name behind me and I turned to see Alex standing beside a white Ram pickup. He'd taken off the Budweiser ball cap and he looked even better.