Lila

She'd barely slept. Even gotten up early to take extra time over her hair and make up because she knew she was a wreck. She didn't feel tired, though. On the contrary, energy fizzed in her veins. She kept seeing images of Dane last night, telling her he admired her. Begging her not to quit.

​​

He was drunk! She kept reminding herself of that. He was drunk, so nothing that came out of his mouth could be trusted. She should forget it. All of it. It meant nothing. She'd known it was a bad idea to stay, and that had been proven.

But for a while there he was so open. A little voice in her head kept insisting. Just like when he did that press conference.

Lila pressed her lips together and rushed out of the building towards the office. Not because she wanted to see him sooner. But because she didn't know what else to do.

Had he been about to kiss her? Hug her? Give her a raise?

She didn't know, and it was driving her crazy. What she did know was, it hadn't ended well, and it was going to be an awkward morning. And if it stayed awkward, she was going to have to bring it up. They couldn't afford to avoid each other. Not right now. Not when they were finally making some progress.

The morning news had been a triumph. Dane's press conference was on every channel, and they were all choosing those moments when he'd gotten personal. When he was clearly emotional. The chat shows gushed over his heart. The gossip sites screamed about the Broken Prince who Protected Princesses. It literally couldn't have gone better.

And it was going to make a great distraction while they dug deeper on the other, darker side of this coin.

By the time she swung into the building, flashing her security card at the guards, who smiled, she was resolved.

She would be professional. She would be polite. She would not allow him to reduce her to fighting. If he was hungover, she'd give him the morning. Then she would go to his office and they would clear the air. And that would be that. Back to work. They had a safe word now. They'd get through it.

She nodded once to herself, ignoring the little voice that wanted to argue that there was more to talk about here than work. But she refused to hear it.

She and Tish crossed paths in the reception area, Tish's eyes bright as Lila bid her good morning. "Oh, there you are!" Tish said, hushed, turning to fall in step with Lila as she walked past the security guards—were there more of them today?—to her office.

"Yes, what's up?"

"Dane left a message for you, one second, let me find it."

Lila ignored how her heart raced at the sound of his name. She kept walking to the office, unlocked the door and led Tish inside.

The poor girl was carrying several files and a tablet. "I know it's here somewhere. I stuck it to the—ah! There it is."

As Lila walked to her desk and put her things on its top, Tish pulled out a post-it note and stuck it to the top of her computer.

It was in Dane's handwriting.

I won't be at the meeting. Found a contact that might be able to help.

Phone conference at 3pm sharp. In your office.

She frowned. He wanted her to have a phone conference in her office? So they could speak privately. Her cheeks flushed. "Thank you, Tish."

"No problem. And good job with Mr. Daniels. Did you hypnotize him or something yesterday? Do you know he brought me coffee this morning?"

Lila stopped staring at the note and stared at Tish instead. "Dane brought you coffee?"

Tish grinned. "The only other time he's ever done that is when it was my birthday, and I'm pretty sure he got the Receptionist, Chloe to do it. But, he also smiled at Tank, so he must be in a good mood?" Then she stopped, frowning. "Maybe he's just buttering us up so we'll be nice to him on his birthday this year?"

"He has a birthday?" As soon as the word were out of her mouth, Lila wanted to slap herself. What a stupid question. Of course he had a birthday.

Tish pressed her lips together like she was trying not to laugh. "Yes, but we do the same thing every year: He'll bring in donuts or something and tell us all we can go home an hour early. And we all sign a card that tells him he's a great boss. Then it's a normal day."

Lila frowned. "Sounds fun."

Tish shrugged. "At least we get donuts. Or sometimes muffins." Then she frowned too. "Except, it's on the 11th next month, which is a Sunday this year. So maybe not."

His birthday was in a few weeks? Lila filed that away for later examination. Right now she needed to get back to work. "So, Dane won't be here for our strategy meeting, can you tell Chris, Tonya, and Grant to come to my office instead of the conference room?"

"Sure," Tish said, then she gave a little wave and left.

Lila didn't even hear the door closed, she was too busy re-reading the note.

*****

Six hours later Lila was at the table in her office waiting for the conference phone at its center it to ring. She was tight and wound up, and couldn't figure out why. Things were finally turning their way. She'd heard no less than three different reporters cast doubt on Becky's story during the news. They were fielding dozens of requests for interviews from Dane. Even Chris was surprised by how positively they'd been received.

Tonya and Grant were busy in the conference room where Lila would return after this was done. Everything was finally starting to fall into place. But the conversation with Dane last night had left her shaky. This phone call was going to be interesting.

The phone rang and she jumped, then rolled her eyes at herself and hit the answer button.

"Lila here," she said.

"Hi, Lila," his deep voice sounded slightly distant. He must have been on his cellphone.

"Hey, how are you—"

"I've got a friend here because I wanted to run something by you," Dane interrupted. She was glad she hadn't gotten personal, but knowing they were going to have to ignore last night made her stumble.

"Oh. Okay, go ahead. What have you found."

"Well, I'll have Jonas here talk…"

Lila pulled out a notebook and focused as best she could, made notes that were helpful. Dane's friend was a great resource, but no matter what they discussed, what progress they made, she couldn't ignore the little echo in the back of her head that they needed to talk about what had happened. Get it out in the open. Make sure they were okay.

But he didn't leave any opening for it. Over an hour later when they were finally done arranging business, he still had his friend there when he said goodbye and hung up. She stared at the dead phone for a full minute, her stomach tingling.

Something was very wrong. But he hadn't been angry. Hadn't seemed irritated. He'd sounded…impersonal.

And she suddenly discovered that, somehow, that was worse.

.

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