Chapter 25
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FIVE
ANNIE
“Oh!” I clap my hands together excitedly. “We should check out the local authors' section. How cool is that?” I’ve never met a local author before.
Miles grunts. “That section is garbage.”
I freeze in place. All of my enthusiasm fades away as I realize Miles’ sudden quiet moodiness in the car is not going to be as fleeting as I hoped. He’s the one that suggested this place and yet now he’s dragging his feet like he wishes we were anywhere else.
“Okay. What would you recommend?” I hate how dejected my voice sounds, revealing too much about how affected I am by him.
“Look at whatever you want. I’ll find you.”
Miles walks off before I can protest. So much for book shopping together. Apparently, the only part of this we were doing together was the drive here. Oh well. I can certainly manage to entertain myself in a bookstore, of all places.
Despite Miles’ opinion, I decide to check out the local author section first. I love writing and I dream of finding a way to turn that into a career… if I manage to survive Professor Parks’ class.
Otherwise, I might need to start considering different career options. I squeeze my eyes shut and try to force my mind elsewhere.
When I open them again, I land on a familiar name. M. Duffy. I remember the name from Luca’s bookshelf. I pick up one of the books to skim the blurb on the back. The blurb reads like a typical cozy mystery but with a surprisingly funny tone to the writing.
I should ask Lainey who in her family is a writer. As much as she loves books herself, I’m surprised she never mentioned an author relative.
“Annie?” Eloise smiles as I turn slowly to look at her. She’s changed her clear frame glasses for chunky rainbow-striped frames. She also has bangs now.
“Hey!” I squeak out. Seeing her here is like being an elementary school kid seeing their teacher at the grocery store. She shouldn’t exist in the normal world like this. I didn’t expect to see her ever again after quitting Drizzle.
Eloise shocks me again by leaning in and hugging me before I can get my bearings. I don’t even manage to react in time to hug her back but that doesn’t seem to faze her.
“This place is great, isn’t it?” Eloise pushes her glasses further up her nose. “I’m thinking about doing a feature on trendy secondhand bookstores for Drizzle! Speaking of which… I can’t believe you disappeared on us with no notice.”
Oh, awesome. I love an unexpected confrontation.
“Aaron thought a clean break made the most sense considering the circumstances of my employment.” I sound like an HR robot.
Eloise laughs lightly. “You mean because Kurt made up a position for you? Oh, who cares?” She waves her hand dismissively. “Nepotism rules the Drizzle office. My aunt is the head of Advertising. We all get our foot in the door however we can. That still doesn’t explain why you’re leaving us prematurely. Did you get hired on somewhere else?”
This is so awkward. I think I have to just rip the bandage off and go with some level of truth. I’m already pulling off one big lie about my relationship with Miles, I don’t need to add any more lies to my plate.
“I broke up with Cameron.”
“So?” Eloise looks genuinely confused.
“So… Kurt only hired me because Cameron asked him to. After the breakup, staying on at Drizzle didn’t seem appropriate. I wasn’t even a regular employee anyway.”
Eloise coughs up a sound of disgust. “Cameron is an ass and Kurt is an even bigger ass. I can’t believe I lost you because of them . Kurt barely even comes into the office!”
She’s right, but that also doesn’t change the fact that I wasn’t comfortable working there anymore after hearing the way Kurt talked about me. Breaking up with Cameron was just the final nail in the coffin.
I shrug because I genuinely don’t know what else to say.
“Well, losing you is a big loss for the team. Your research is more thorough than most of the veteran writers on staff. Your concept pitches are usually better and more thought out too. I’m going to miss working on posts with you, but I’ll keep an eye out for what you do next. I have a feeling there are big things ahead for you, Annie.”
“Oh, thanks.”
I wasn’t expecting Eloise to be so kind. I sort of thought she only saw me as a gopher to boss around at work. The fact that she thinks I’m talented is almost unfathomable, especially after how I heard Kurt talk about me.
My heart misses a beat as I catch a glimpse of Miles passing the other side of the aisle. Almost immediately, he backtracks to study me talking with Eloise.
As Miles starts toward us, Eloise continues, “When you decide what you want to do next, let me know. I’ll be happy to write a glowing recommendation for you. Any writing team would be lucky to bring you on board.”
She pauses to rifle through her purse until she withdraws a pen and a business card. Taking the book from my hand to use as a writing surface, she scrawls an email address quickly across the blank side of the card.
“That’s my personal email. For obvious reasons, you probably should reach out to me there.” Eloise smiles as she hands back the book and the business card.
I nod numbly. “Okay, yeah.”
Realizing we’ve gained an audience, Eloise glances over to find Miles hovering right behind her. “Oh, hi?”
“Miles, this is Eloise. I worked on some of her projects at Drizzle.” I can’t remember if Miles even knows I worked at Drizzle. I’m a little embarrassed to be associated with the pop culture site but there’s no hope of hiding it now.
“Right. Eloise, nice to meet you.” Miles offers her his hand.
I feel weirdly defensive when Eloise turns to face him more fully, smiling widely as she clutches his hand in both of hers. “Lovely to meet you, Miles. Actually, I think I might know your father.” Is Eloise batting her eyelashes or am I imagining that? “Are you related to?—”
“Miles is my new boyfriend!” I blurt out much louder than necessary. Loud enough that I’m pretty sure the whole bookstore has heard my blunt announcement. My cheeks heat up to a nearly unbearable temperature of mortification.
As their handshake ends, Miles and Eloise both turn to look at me questioningly. Which is fair. I just acted like a lunatic. A jealous lunatic.
Eloise breaks the tension by laughing. “Glad to see you upgrading, Annie. Let’s talk soon.”
“Definitely,” I call out lightly as she walks away, disappearing around the corner.
“What was that?” Miles asks, bemused.
I shake my head. I don’t want to even begin to try to explain my overreaction to seeing them simply shaking hands. Eloise is an attractive woman who’s not that much older than us. So what if I felt a little insecure for a second?
Forgetting for a moment that our arrangement is fake doesn’t seem that outrageous after what we did last night.
Miles shakes his head as he steps closer and puts a hand on my hip. He tugs me forward and surprises me by chastely kissing the side of my head. “Relax, Blue. That woman has probably met my dad before and been charmed by him. She’s exactly his type. She probably recognized me and thought she might have a shot at being his next wife.”
“Oh.”
That would explain her mentioning she thinks she knows his father.
“I wasn’t jealous,” I tell him. I sound way too defensive to be believable.
Miles chuckles. “Good.” He pulls away with a wink.
Since he returned to me seemingly in a better mood, I chance holding up the book in my hands. “So, who’s the author in your family?”
“What? I don’t know who that is.” His expression shutters immediately, his lips forming a flat line as his eyebrows dip down and forehead wrinkles with annoyance.
“Oh, okay.” I cannot understand this man’s mood swings. “Your uncle said the author was related. I know you have a different last name so maybe it’s someone on the other side of your family.” I shrug the topic off and shelve the book.
I might be interested in reading the mystery series later, but I’m not looking to poke the hornet’s nest with Miles. He seems too defensive to not know who the author is. Luca didn’t seem to want to talk about the relationship either. Something is up with the family author, that’s for sure.
Miles is scowling now. “I changed my surname when I turned eighteen to honor my late mother. I was born a Duffy and I’m close with that side of the family. This isn’t something I want to talk about with you.”
“Noted.”
I have a new developing theory about the touchy subject but I don’t get time to ponder.
Miles takes my hand and tugs me along with him away from the local authors' section. “There’s some great stuff on clearance. Let me do my due diligence as boyfriend and buy you some new books.”
“I can’t argue with that.” I smile over at him and am relieved to see the tension in his shoulders relax. We both have our secrets. I don’t mind letting him hold onto his.