A-Hole to A-List (PR Girls & Instalove 1)

He nodded enthusiastically. “Compartmentalizing. I get it. I do it all the time. Time blocking your phases of stress and focus.”

“Exactly.”

“I’m not going to tell Andrew that we talked,” Terry said quickly. “And I’m not going to tell him that I told you, but I’m pretty sure he’s already in love with you.”

My eyes fell closed as I took a breath. “That’s something else to think about tomorrow. Thanks.”

“Have a great day,” he said brightly, rushing to the door and blocking the keypad from my view with his body as he tapped in the code.

Jumping into my car, I raced home to change, then to the office to read up on everything I would need to do tonight to make sure that Andrew ended up looking like A-list material for all of the event’s media coverage, and the star of the VIP room.

Somehow, I had to do this without picturing those dark eyes, that sculpted jawline. Without thinking of his hands on me. Without thinking of his lips on mine, or his deep, raspy voice.

If he was really in love with me, and I was pushing him away because I was terrified and didn’t think I was good enough, did that make me the real asshole?

12

_____

Andrew

All my life, I’ve taken whatever I wanted, but now that I’ve taken Jenna, I feel that I’ve ruined everything. Sleeping with her hadn’t felt rushed. It felt perfect. It was obvious that she enjoyed herself.

So what did I do wrong? Should I have waited until we’d been on a few official dates?

I went to the office and sent the parcels exactly as Jenna had instructed. I appreciated how completely thorough she was, even instructing me to use a thick black pen to fill out the addresses with confident block printing.

It felt like every single thing she did for our company was methodical and carefully thought out. Maybe that was the problem – I wasn’t the guy she would have chosen for herself. Maybe us hooking up really was just circumstantial, with both of us blowing off some steam.

I didn’t think for a split second that was actually true. She felt things for me, I was sure of it. It might not quite be love yet, but there was a definite spark.

After I shipped the parcels, I checked in with Terry to make sure he was keeping busy, and not stressing about tonight. The green light was on outside his workroom door, which was open for once.

“Hi,” he said cheerfully as he saw my head peer in the doorway. “Come on in.”

I sat down beside him, breathing in the fragrance of the Earl Grey tea that steamed on his desk.

“Did the press releases go out this morning?” he asked.

“Yes. The gaming and tech world will know what we’re up to now. How do you feel about that?”

He shook his head. “No feelings. Just random thoughts.”

“Like what?”

He was quiet for a moment, drumming his fingers on his knee.

“If you’re still worried about someone leaking the information early, don’t,” I said. “ Everyone will receive their parcels and press releases at noon, just like we scheduled.”

He just looked at me, cocking his head.

“You don’t really think that Jenna is a spy or something?” I asked.

He actually laughed out loud. “No. I made that up so that you two would spend more time together.”

I sputtered in shock, “Are you serious?”

I couldn’t believe it. Terry had never done anything devious in his life. It didn’t even occur to me that he was able to lie.