Five
Annalise
Walking into work on Monday, a sense of dread hit me. Despite having an okay time with Jared on Friday night, once I'd sobered up, reality had come barreling back, and I'd spent all my free time stewing with job worries.
Now that Jared had finished the storage room, he'd be back to sitting next to me, my slush pile the only thing I could think of to trust him with.
Over the weekend, I'd gone through what I now realized was the five stages of grief... albeit without the final one. I'd bounced around between anger, depression, denial, and bargaining, knowing I'd never get to acceptance. Never.
I was currently in mourning for my old life that I didn't even know was going to die. That old cliché was right... you don't know what you've got till it's gone. But the strange thing was, I did know what I had, and I'd truly appreciated it every second. But it'd still been taken away from me in a cruel twist of fate.
Before I could even turn my computer on, Jared already slurping on his iced coffee, Veronica approached us, her steps brisk and purposeful, her eyes gleaming with anticipation.
I heard Jared say something under his breath, something I couldn't figure out.
"Good morning," she said once she reached us, both of us whirling our chairs around to face her. "I trust you both had good weekends."
Not able to see Jared's reaction behind me, I nodded, even though I hadn't really due to my Jared stress. But this was obviously not the kind of thing to say to my boss.
"Great." She took a breath, and I braced myself for whatever was coming. "So I have a project for you."
Projects were good. I liked projects.
"For both of you to work on together. As a team. As partners."
Oh, my fucking God. Was she kidding me? As fucking partners? As a team? The anger part of the five stages of grief thundered back.
"Awesome," Jared said, scooting his chair up next to me.
His eyes burned into the side of my face, but I refused to look at him, instead focusing all of my attention on trying to force my lips into a smile. I must have succeeded somewhat because Veronica gave a tight nod, then pulled up an empty chair to sit down in front of us.
"I'm assuming you've both heard of Venus La Fleur," she said, crossing her pants-clad legs like she was settling in for a long meeting.
"Yes," I answered hesitantly, not sure where she was going with this.
"Well, I was watching an old interview of hers this weekend, just something I stumbled upon by accident, and she mentioned briefly that she wanted to write a book, an inspirational book surrounding her life story."
It all started to click into place, and normally, I wouldn't have minded this in the slightest. In fact, I would have been thrilled at the challenge and that Veronica had thought of me. But working on it with Jared? Just shoot me now.
"But if you know anything about Venus La Fleur, it's that she's a little... well..." Veronica glanced around the room as she tried to come up with the right phrase.
"Flaky?" Jared said.
She pounced on the word, her eyes alight. "Yes. That's it exactly. And I thought if anyone could convince her of actually doing this sort of thing, putting in the hard work, gently nudging her along if needed, it'd be you, Cordelia. And I think it'd be the perfect project for you to work on together, to show me that you're the A team."
"The A team," Jared butted in. "I like it."
He would like that.
"Excellent," Veronica said. "And Cordelia? I'm sure you're agreeable?"
"Of course," I lied. Because what the hell else could I say?
All the work, the hours, the late nights, the sweat and tears, the phone calls, the emails, the networking ahead flashed before my eyes, Jared beside me through it all, making me sick, making me regret the extra muffin I'd had at breakfast.
"I'm not going to micromanage you with this one. I know you do great work, Cordelia, and I'll be waiting to see what magic you can work with someone like Venus La Fleur."
"Thank you. I'll do my best of course." No pressure. No pressure at all.
And with that, she stood up briskly and walked away, leaving me alone with Jared, whose eyes still bore into me, the excitement coming off him palpable.
"Venus La Fleur..." he said out loud. "She's so—"
"Don't even say it." I finally turned to glare at him.
"Say what?" he asked innocently.
My eyes narrowed even more. "She's so hot. Or whatever misogynistic thing you were about to say."
"What I was going to say," he countered in a snarky voice, "is she's so popular and in demand right now."
"Mm-hmm."
"And I'm thrilled to be on this project with you... as equals."
My mouth fell open. "Excuse me? As equals?"
"Yes, as equals. That's what Veronica said."
"She never said that."
"She didn't not say it."
"Are you goading me on purpose?"
" Goading you? No, I'm not goading you. If I was goading you, you'd know it."
"Why do you keep emphasizing goading?" I asked. "Despite what you may think, it's not a dirty word."
"Please. I know what goading means."
"Stop it."
"Stop what? Saying goading? Goading, goading, goad—"
"Oh, my God. Could you be any more immature?"
I stalked away before I said something worse, fully submerged in that anger phase, the steam coming out of my ears probably visible to the entire room. Ending up in the phone booth, my new home away from home, I couldn't believe this new twist in the plot of my life.
This had the potential to be the biggest project of my career, a humongous bestseller in the making if we could get Venus on board. She was a huge star. Huge.
But it could all be ruined by Jared. Or worse, if it was successful, he could totally be a man about it and claim all the credit, which I could absolutely see happening. It was clear as day, the image in my head of Jared grinning ear to ear at our book launch party, surrounded by literary elites and Hollywood types, as he accepted all the accolades for our New York Times bestseller.
The image only made me fume more as I furiously texted back and forth with Mona, the fact that Jared had said we were now equals ringing in my head, a death knell for my future career.
I knew the logical thing would be to go to Veronica and ask her, but it seemed like such a weak, insecure move.The bigger person would find a way to handle it all on their own without running off and crying to the boss.
Mona thought the same, suggesting I do my best, and if any problems truly arose, then I could go to Veronica. She also said to document everything, which was brilliant advice.
But her next words chilled me. "You two seemed to get along great at karaoke night," she wrote. "I don't think it'll be as bad as you're anticipating. And maybe you like Jared more than you think you do."
Was she serious? I typed out a few different replies, deleting them all before I pressed send, Mona's response to my indecision a bunch of laughing emojis. A few seconds later, she knocked on the glass side of the phone booth, holding a big cup in her hands.
I opened the door for her. "What's this?" I asked as she handed it to me.
"I made your favorite. Iced passionfruit tea with lots of sugar. And I put a donut on your desk."
"With pink frosting and sprinkles?"
"But of course."
I gave her a hug, grateful for her as always, apologizing in her ear for being so unhinged lately.
"That's what friends are for," she said. "You were there for me during my big breakup."
The thought made me smile, even though at the time it'd kind of been hell. But what it had done was draw Mona and me closer together when I'd first started working here and found her crying in the bathroom, and now we had this amazing bond.
"You better hurry because Jared was eyeing your donut."
If the man ate my donut, he'd find out what true rage was.
Thanking Mona again, I rushed to my desk, and sure enough, Jared was staring at my donut.
"Don't even think about it," I warned.
"Or what?"
"I will fucking stab you with my pencil if you even think about touching my donut."
"All I can think about is touching your donut. I'm obsessed with your donut," he said, licking his lips.
I stood between Jared and my donut, eyes once again narrowed at the most annoying man in the world. "I will never, and I mean never , let you touch my donut. I will die before letting you touch my donut."
"Damn, Dee. Fine. I'll only touch your donut if you beg me to touch your donut."
"I will never beg you to touch my donut."
We were at a standoff, the two of us staring at each other, the tension palpable, a silent war over something much bigger than a simple donut.
Without breaking eye contact, I reached behind me to grab my donut, then took a big bite. "Mine," I said through a mouthful of sugary goodness. "All mine."
Jared burst out laughing. "For now," he said, still chuckling.
Once I had a little sugar rush going, I felt more ready to tackle the bullshit ahead of me. And a few minutes later, I turned to Jared. "Should we start?"
"Absolutely," he said.
At least he was enthusiastic. Hopefully, that was a positive.
I began by going over the methods I'd used in the past with great success, including beginning with research, learning everything there was to know about Venus, and then using that information to create a compelling book proposal. We'd try pitching to her agent and manager via emails and phone calls, and if that didn't work, we'd have to get more creative, like that time I'd sent an author a personalized cake to woo them.
"Why don't we just talk to her ourselves?" a yawning Jared asked once I was done with my monologue.
This guy never ceased to amaze me. "Talk to her ourselves? Are you joking?"
His brows creased. "No, I'm not joking. I'm dead serious."
"So we just stalk her and find her on the street and dart past her security and walk right up to her and introduce ourselves? Oh, and ignore the fact that she's a very protective mom with a young child plus a husband who could kick our asses?"
"No. Duh. Just go to some event she's at and talk to her there."
Oh, I hadn't thought of that. But never in a million years would I tell Jared that was actually a pretty decent idea. "Let's maybe try the more traditional methods first, and then if we have to, we can try that."
"It's a fantastic idea. You've got to admit," he said in a cocky tone.
"I'd rather chew rusty nails."
He burst out laughing again. "You're hilarious. You know that, Dee?"
"So glad I can amuse you. Now could we please get back to work? I have a million other things to do in addition to this."
"I can help, you know."
"Oh, yeah?" Not in a million fucking years. "Why don't you start by reading everything you can find on Venus La Fleur. We need to scour the internet, learn every little tidbit about her past, about her background, her career, her personal life, what makes her tick, her likes and dislikes, how we can possibly win her over enough to partner with us. And you get to write it all up for me in one cohesive report."
"So I can put the slush pile on hold?"
"For now. Yes. But one wrong word and you're back to it."
He frowned at me while I turned to my computer, intent on ignoring him and finally digging into my pile of work. But only a few minutes later, I heard him whistle, and I turned to him with a sigh, fully expecting to see a risqué picture of Venus on his computer. I knew the woman had an exaggerated hourglass figure and liked to flaunt it in numerous photo shoots, her cleavage spilling out of whatever tight thing she was wearing.
Expecting to see an image search of Venus' boobs, I was surprised to see instead a wall of text, like Jared was actually reading an article. But knowing men in general, it was probably someone's porno fantasy fanfic regarding the famous/infamous actress and what they wanted to do to her.
"What? What is it?" I asked, annoyed that he was so engrossed he hadn't even noticed me.
"What's what?" he finally replied, completely clueless.
"Why did you whistle?"
"Oh. Well, I just happened to find out that Venus' favorite charity, Furever Friends, is having a big event next weekend, and guess who's expected to be there?"
"I'm guessing Venus."
"Bingo. She's the guest of honor." He beamed at me, obviously very proud of himself. "And the best part is it's right here in the city."
"It is?" That surprised me. It just seemed too good to be true.
"So I'll get us tickets and we can go hang out with Venus."
"Go hang out with Venus. You think it'll be that easy to just walk right up to her and, in the short amount of time we have, convince her to work with us and write a book?"
"Yup," he said, popping the p sound. "It's all about connections, baby."
"And you think you have connections to Venus La Fleur."
"I know I do."
I rolled my eyes at him. "Sure you do. Whatever you say. Well, you work those connections , and later, when I'm done with this shit-ton of work I have, I'm going to do it the old-fashioned way, work my ass off and do what's always worked for me in the past."
He had the nerve to scoff at me. "You do that."
"I will. Oh, and Jared?"
"Yeah?"
"Don't fucking call me baby."