Chapter 57
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Audrey
It wasn’t a requirement to attend work every day but I did regardless. In the folder I’d been given, I could do whatever I wanted within reason. I could work from anywhere as long as all of my deadlines were met but I also didn’t mind going in. I loved the structure of having somewhere to go to spend my working hours. It also meant that I didn’t have to police myself to get work done. My office wasn’t anything special. It was a tiny closet with a desk and I had to bring my own laptop. I tried to spruce it up with a plant but it felt too cramped after I stuck it on my little desk. It wasn’t much, but I knew I would work up to where Lu was. Her office looked over the city and her desk spanned across the impressive windows. Her hippie self didn’t seem to fit in the space and it made sense why she went to Central Park for most of her work day.
Even though I didn’t care for my office very much, I absolutely loved my co-workers and James—Lu’s dad and my boss— was really kind even if he was pissed off about Lu giving me a job the way she did.
When we first met he’d sighed like this wasn’t the first time Lu had done something like this. But he was still kind to me and told me all he could offer was a small broom closet converted into an office space at the moment as he hadn’t planned to hire anyone anytime soon. My bag clunked onto the ground beside my desk chair and I smiled. It wasn’t much but it was better than taking up space in either Alexei or Ace’s penthouse. I enjoyed being in both places, but I felt like I needed a purpose, and being a bump on a log around their homes wasn’t ideal for my mental health.
I opened my laptop and immediately got to work. An hour flashed by as I typed away on my computer. I answered a few emails from the author I was working with and sent a few to Lu. By the time it was lunch my eyes were burning and my head was starting to ache but I’d gotten through a huge chunk of the manuscript and was satisfied with the amount of work I’d done in the day. I rolled my shoulders back, closed my laptop, and rubbed my eyes.
“Are you going to Central Park with Lu?” Tavon poked his head into my office and one of the earrings in his ears twinkled in the low lighting of my broom closet. Even though I was considered a newbie, no one treated me any differently. He wrinkled his nose. “I can’t believe they’re treating you like the red-headed stepchild in here.”
I shrugged. “I’m just thrilled to have the job.”
Tavon rolled his eyes. “You’re going to be one of the top paid editors around here when this book is finished and they couldn’t have upgraded you?”
I pushed my laptop into my shoulder bag and shook my head. “I really don’t mind. James told me I didn’t have to come in to work anyway. I could stay home.”
He waggled his thick, dark brows. “Which penthouse?”
Uh oh.
“What do you mean?”
He pulled his phone out of his back pocket and pushed it almost to my nose. “Don’t pretend like you don’t know about the tabloids snapping pictures of you leaving a club with Alexei Cristof last week when we went out for drinks! He is coiled around you like a snake! I don’t know how I missed him whisking you away from us!”
I’d kept his name out of my mouth. When asked if I was seeing someone, I’d said yes, but left it at that. I didn’t want to be treated any differently.
“And your best friend is marrying his brother!” He swiped on his phone and held up a picture of Ace and Carina leaving a small children’s boutique in upper Manhattan the day before. I didn’t follow gossip sites so I peered closer to his phone. She hadn’t told me they were planning babies or anything like that. Why were they at a baby store?
I pinched my lips together. “Yes, she is.”
“When were you going to tell us?” I pushed past him in the doorway and took a deep breath.
“Probably never,” I laughed. It sounded like a joke but it wasn’t. I didn’t want to use their names for connections. I didn’t want anyone here to think I’d gotten the job because of who I was sleeping with or who I was living with.
Lu met me down the hall, her big bag slung over her shoulder. “I’m done for the day and after looking through the work you did this morning, I would say you’re done for the day too.” She hooked her elbow with mine.
Tavon stayed on our heels. “Does no one else think it’s important that Audrey here is seeing Alexei Cristof?”
Lu rolled her eyes. “No one cares who she’s seeing. You’re just starstruck.”
Tavon’s mouth dropped open and he hung back as we walked out of the office floor and into the elevator. “I didn’t want anyone to know.”
She laughed and bumped her shoulder with mine. “Did you not realize you were being followed by paparazzi?”
“That picture he just showed me of Alexei all over me outside of the club was not taken by paparazzi. It was taken on a cheap phone camera.”
“I mean, they’re rich. How would you not know that someone would take your picture and post it somewhere?”
“There are lots of rich people I don’t know. I met Alexei and Ace and didn’t know who either of them were!” I pointed out.
“You practically live under a rock.”
“I don’t live under a rock anymore.”
“Anymore,” She booped me on the nose.
Lu took a bite out of her hot dog and did a little happy shimmy. “Do you have plans for this weekend?”
I hadn’t thought about it but I was sure Alexei had a few things planned for us. He mentioned something about a few fundraisers we needed to attend. I hadn’t realized when he said we would have our pictures taken that it would be paparazzi. I shivered. I would be in the press again.
“You look frightened,” Lu peered down at me with concern. “Just don’t read the tabloids. They have nothing good to say, okay? No point in getting worked up over what Tavon discovered.”
I ate my hot dog in silence and when we were finished with our lunch, I decided it was better to go home and get ready for my date with Alexei than worry about things out of my control.