Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 102781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
I had plans to hit the gym on my way home tonight—to avoid running into Andrew in the morning—so I cleaned up my desk at a reasonable hour and packed files to work on for the Star Studios campaign afterward. I grabbed the revised Bianchi art and copy to drop off at Bennett’s office as I passed on my way out. Only my hands were full, and right before getting to his door, a few of the papers from the top of the pile fell. I bent to pick them up and overheard Bennett talking.
“I’m not angry. This is just my face ever since Annalise arrived.”
We’d had our share of arguments and name calling, but that was between us, and it’d felt more like a game of cat and mouse—not truly insulting, even when we were flinging insults at each other. But him talking shit about me to someone else felt worse than if he’d said that same thing to my face, for some reason.
“She seems nice enough to me,” a man’s voice said. I thought it could’ve been Jim Falcon. “Smart, too.”
That made me feel a little bit better.
“Sort of a shame you had to meet the way you did, in competition for the same job and all. If you’d met at a bar, I think the two of you would have hit it off.”
“She’s not my type,” Bennett snapped.
Yesterday, I was beautiful. Today, I wasn’t his type. I wanted to be annoyed, but instead all I felt was hurt.
“Yeah. Guess you’re right. Smart, nice, and beautiful…what man would want that shit?”
Thanks, Jim!
“Fuck off, Falcon.” Bennett’s voice turned terse. “If I’d met her in a bar, I’d have kept my distance after spending three minutes with her. Trust me.”
I’d never actually been in a fistfight, yet I suddenly knew what a punch in the gut felt like. My insides felt a hollow pain. What had I been thinking? Allowing myself to believe his drunken words were a confession of feelings of some sort and more than incoherent drivel? Worse, I’d let myself start to think that beneath the arrogant Beast was some sort of misunderstood Prince Charming.
Sometimes a beast is just a beast, no matter how many layers you peel back.
The sound of footsteps snapped me out of my momentary pity party. I turned around and started to walk in the other direction. Jim had moved closer to the door, so I could still hear him as I put distance between us.
“It’s been a while. Let’s do happy hour Friday night. We’ll find you someone mean, ugly, and stupid to drag you out of this mood.”
***
The hot-and-cold relationship I had with Bennett took a turn into the tundra by midweek. Only this time it was me doing the instigating.
Jonas had assigned the second account the board planned to judge us on, Billings Media, and we were both in the thick of working on early drafts of our separate Star campaigns. Near the end of our weekly meeting, I mentioned to Jonas that I had an appointment scheduled for next week with one of the VPs from Star. I knew that would piss Bennett off. He glared at me, but said nothing, and I ignored him and continued talking to the boss.
When Tobias had originally offered to look at any early designs, I’d assumed both Bennett and I would take him up on it. But that was back when I was an idiot who thought the playing field should be fair so the true better person could win.
After the crap Bennett pulled in L.A., and overhearing how he really felt about me, I no longer had any doubt that the better person was going to win—me.
I’d just returned to my office and picked up the phone to return some calls, when Bennett barged in without knocking.
“The door was shut because I’m busy.”
He took an exaggerated look around my neat office. “Don’t look busy to me.”
I sighed. “I need to make some calls. What do you want, Bennett?”
“Flying to L.A. for a lunch? Let me guess, you’re meeting at a hotel?”
“Screw you.”
He glared at me. “No, thanks. I told you, I don’t like to share. Certainly not with Toby boy.”
I stood. “Did you come into my office for any reason other than to pick a fight?”
“Your friend Tobias isn’t taking my calls. Is that your doing?”
Tobias hadn’t even mentioned that Bennett had called. “Absolutely not.”
“I walked over while Marina happened to be making your flight reservations the other day. That’s the only reason I even knew you’d decided to go see your friend. Nice teamwork, by the way. I’d almost fallen for your we’re one team bullshit. When the invite was extended for them to take a sneak peek at our work, I assumed it was a company invitation…not a personal Annalise invitation.”