Chapter 53
Chapter Fifty-Three
Audrey
Lu was waiting for me on our usual park bench the next day. She was grinning ear to ear, practically bouncing in her seat. I rolled my eyes as I sat down next to her. “Did you get the book you’ve been raving about for weeks now?”
“You got it!” She let out a squeal and a group of people looked at us with strange expressions. I wanted to flip them off, it was such the New Yorker way but I kept my hands down at my sides.
“What?” I wasn’t quite sure I heard her right.
“You got the book.”
“Which book?” I hadn’t been trying to preorder one, had I?
She grabbed my hands in her much smaller ones. “You got the Keeper’s Eye!”
The book I’d been working on. The one I’d given back to her just a few days ago. “What do you mean I got it?”
She let go of me and grabbed one of her curls to twist around her finger. “It was risky but I knew you were worth the risk. We hadn’t secured the title yet. The author wanted to see one of our editor’s styles, so I took a chance on you. She accepted you as her editor like two hours later.”
My eyes bugged out of my head. “What do you mean? Wait, I’m her editor?! Wait!!”
She jumped from the bench and pulled me into a hug. “My dad is super pissed and told me I have to shadow you the entire time, but we are doing it and you have the job!”
“Lu, I didn’t realize I was going for the job.” I blinked and frowned. “Your dad? Which company?”
Her lips formed a perfect O shape. “James & Evers.”
“Lu…”
Little publishing house my ass. That was one of the biggest publishing houses in the world. “Your dad owns James & Evers?”
She rolled her lips. “Surprise?”
I didn’t know if I was thrilled with her or absolutely pissed. “Look, I just didn’t want you to think of me differently. I wanted to be known for how good I am as an editor, not how good my dad is in corporate America.”
“I can understand that.”
I nodded my head and stared at the busy streets of the city. “James & Evers? Really? I’m working at James & Evers?”
“If this book goes off without a hitch, you have a great paying job waiting for you on the other side.” She smacked a folder against my chest. “Get to work, co-worker!”
I walked through Ace and Carina’s front door as if I was on a cloud. It still wasn’t real.
Carina was sitting on the couch, scrolling on her phone when she looked up and saw my face. “How is Lu?”
“I got a job.” The words sounded far away. I didn’t know how else to ease her into this. Everything that the job entailed was sitting inside the folder tucked under my arm. After I saw the six-figure number, at the top of the first page, I almost blacked-out on the sidewalk. Only the best and highest number for one of the top-selling authors in the world.
Lu had given me a fake title and a fake author’s name with the manuscript. I didn’t know I was practically reading something that would create riches. No wonder her dad was so pissed. Her dad wanted to meet me in the morning and I was a mess.
“A job?” She tilted her head. “You were looking for a job?”
“No,” I blinked. “Apparently, Lu was feeling me out. She sent me home with a book last week and I just thought it was for her eyes only.”
Carina nodded for me to continue when I realized her mom wasn’t anywhere to be found. “Wait, where’s your mom?”
She rolled her eyes. “Who cares! Tell me what happened!”
My best friend was practically on the edge of her seat waiting for me to fill in the lines. “So I sent back the papers to her and they were for one of the world’s biggest authors right now!”
She flew off of the couch and wrapped her arms around my waist. “You did it!!”
I shrugged in her grasp thinking about what Ace did for me back at home. This was too good to be true, right? “But did I?”
I was thrilled, ecstatic even, but there was something not sitting right in my gut. I was surrounded by people who did things dirty, with money and with violence. How could I trust that I actually did this on my own? That by sheer luck I accomplished my dreams?
It just didn’t seem believable. Not entirely impossible but just not realistic at this moment in my life.
Her brows pulled together in the middle of her forehead. “What do you mean?”
I crossed my arms over my chest as I watched her. “Like Ace with my superintendent. How do I know there wasn’t some rich Cristof brother pulling the strings?”
“Ask them.” I wished it were that simple. I wasn’t going to ask Alexei. I was going to tell him my news and watch his reaction. I was going to wait until we were face-to-face.
A text message from Lu came through a few minutes later.
Lu
Do you want to go out to celebrate?
On a Tuesday?
Lu
Duh. None of the weirdos will be out tonight.
I didn’t know where the logic came from for that one, but I would let her have it. Even though I was skeptical about the job situation, it didn’t mean I wasn’t excited. All I could do was hope that I’d done this on my own.
I gazed down at the folder I’d thrown onto the bed in my room. It was practically screaming at me but I couldn’t bring myself to open it again, not yet at least. The number on the front page was scary enough. It was a number that could—that would— change my life. A fat percentage of it was going to Lu, but I didn’t really mind it, considering this was what I could be making if I stayed on with this author for years to come. Lu was the insurance policy. She would help me and train me in everything editing and hopefully, my next projects I could do on my own. But it still begged the question, if Ace or Alexei got me this job, could I still accept it?
After I buckled my strappy heels, I opened the folder again. I’d done most of the work already, just half-assing it, thinking that it was just for fun.
I’d need to report to the office next Monday and meet the team, especially my employer. There were so many things to do, to think about. Of course I was thrilled, but also terrified. I didn’t think my life would start this soon. I thought I had at least until after the wedding.
Speaking of the wedding…
I yanked my bedroom door open and rushed up the stairs two at a time, almost breaking my neck in the process with how high my heels were. I knocked on Carina’s bedroom door. She swung it open, a mascara tube in one hand and only one of her eyes finished. “You okay?”
“Did you push back the wedding for your dress?”
We hadn’t talked about it again. I hadn’t really thought about it again, stuck in my orgasmic bliss.
“We did,” She grinned and I followed her to her massive bathroom that was the size of my bedroom. The shower was something dreams were made of. It spanned across the back wall with a huge glass wall. There was a sunken tub in the middle of it and the shower heads were in the ceiling on either side. There were two long benches on opposite walls of each other and I wondered if shower sex was actually enjoyable in something like that. She sat down on her plush stool in front of her light-up vanity that took up, again, entirely too much space. Who in their right mind had that much makeup?
I certainly didn’t and Carina didn’t even need it. She crossed one knee over the other as she applied her mascara to her naked eye. “We really talked about it this past weekend. As much as we would love to let his mother take control of our special day,” She deadpanned in the mirror. “We are excited to make this day about us.”
I let out an amused sound. “Okay, that’s good.”
Her eyes met mine in the mirror. “Are you ready to go?”
I probably shouldn’t have invited Carina to the celebration that I was invited to, but she was my best friend and at the end of the day, that was all that mattered. If I lost a friend or a job because I couldn’t bring my chosen sister along, I didn’t want it. Plus, I wanted them to finally meet. They’d both heard so much about each other, it was about time.
“Yes,” I looked down at my clothes with more confidence than I’d felt in a long time. The red dress was tight on my curves and showed just enough cleavage. It was tasteful, yet sexy. “Should I tell Alexei I’m going out?”
Carina’s brows lifted slightly. “The thing you need to know and understand about the Cristof brothers is that you don’t have to tell them anything but they will find you if they want to.”