“You don’t sound sure.”
“Cameron, I’ll fix this.”
He sat against the edge of his desk, crossing his arms over his chest. “I don’t want to see you hurt, that’s all. Your personal life is personal, of course. I just hope you know what you’re doing.”
And now I was disappointing him. Great. He’d been a mentor for me, had taken a chance by employing me, and I’d let him down.
“Obviously, I wasn’t anticipating this. Reid has never been photographed by paps. But I will fix this.”
I just needed a plan, damn it.
Cameron nodded thoughtfully. “Take the rest of the day off.”
“What? You never give us days off. Scandals don’t sleep, remember?”
The smile he gave me was a bit sad. Oh, yeah, that’s right. I had just become a scandal.
“You need time to cool off. Tomorrow morning, we can sit together and draw up a plan.”
“Okay.” I nodded, clasping my hands behind my bac
k so he wouldn’t see me twiddling my thumbs. “Okay.”
It was not okay, but I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t yet guess if this would impact the agency, and I think he couldn’t either. But I was grateful he’d given me the day off, because frankly, I had brain fog. My entire body became jittery. I was tapping a foot against the floor. This was slowly getting out of my control.
When I sat behind my desk, I couldn’t even draw a damn to-do list. I just stared into space, pen poised, unable to focus on a single coherent thought. So I set the pen down and grabbed my bag, grateful I had the green light to ditch the rest of the day.
I was shocked to see Reid waiting in front of the agency, pacing next to his car. He stopped when he saw me.
“What are you doing here?”
“Got in my car after we spoke. Didn’t want to call you in case you were still with your boss.”
“He said I should take the day off, but if you want to talk about the next steps—”
“I don’t give a fuck about the next steps. I want to know how you’re doing.”
“I’m honestly just.... I can’t even think. This hasn’t happened to me before.”
He opened the door for me. “In you go, beautiful. Let’s get out of here.”
I couldn’t find a single reason to say no, so I just climbed inside.
On the drive, I started to regain some of my focus, but still felt pretty beat up.
We were silent for the most part, until Reid asked, “Cheesecake? Ice cream?”
I laughed. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to find a quick fix to lift your mood.”
“Ah, and with your amazing powers of observation you noticed these two are a staple in my diet.”
“Something like that.”
“Well... I’ll never say no to sweets. No offense to your chefs at the hotel, but they don’t make the best cheesecake in town. That honor goes to Sweet Spot. Want to make a pit stop and grab some?”
He smiled wolfishly. “One step ahead of you, love. All you have to know is that it will be waiting for us at the hotel.”