Chapter Nine

The phone at my desk ran for the fifth time and I rolled my eyes.

"You better go get it," Stacy said.

"Yeah," I muttered in annoyance.

How popular could Jake get that they wouldn't stop nagging until they reached him? Scarlet's face popped into my head and I grimaced. Of course. She definitely would. Her and her botox face and fake chest and fake everything. But she ought to know Jake isn't even here today, since theyre married and all. Stalking over to my desk, I took deep breaths in and put, trying to calm my nerves.

"Hello?" I said sharply into the phone.

"Hey -"

"Mr. Marshall isn't here," I snapped.

The person on the other line laughed. "I'm not looking for Mr. Marshall."

Oh, this guy has got to be kidding me. He annoyed me all morning and it turns out he got the wrong number? Unbelievable.

"Sir, you got the wrong number," I fumed.

"You're so silly Jessica. I was looking for you."

I looked at the receiver then put it back to my ear. "Wait, who's this?"

"It's Anthony."

"Oh, hi Anthony."

I felt a slight annoyance at him. Though he seemed sweet, it was extremely irritating that he kept calling. I mean, if I didn't answer the phone the first three times you called, what makes you think I'll answer it if you call more?

"You seemed pretty angry before, is everything alright with Jake?" he asked lightly.

Feeling a bit tired, I pulled out my chair and sat down. "Why would you assume it's about Jake?"

"Just a hunch," he replied. There was something in his tone that told me it wasn't "just a hunch".

"Soooo, are you going to tell me?" he prodded on.

"No, it's nothing," I said. I had that really weird feeling. It was hard to describe, kinda like "this guy is being weird but I can't put my finger on it". At the same time, I've been having really confusing feelings what with Jake and all so I'm not entirely sure.

"Well, maybe another time," he said.

Maybe never. "Sure," I said as un-monotone as I could.

"Hey I was thinking, you wanna grab lunch with me?"

I looked at the clock on my desk. "I don't get off for another hour and I kinda have plans at lunch already."

I wasn't lying. I had an interview with US Weekly at 11:30, just in time for my lunch break. They called me the day before yesterday and I said yes immediately. Can you blame me? They're my favorite magazine and I'm not about to blow it for some photographer. Granted, he takes amazing photos but still...US Weekly.

"That's okay," Anthony chirped, breaking my train of thought. "I'm actually free now so we can meet up then I'll drop you off at wherever you're going to go."

"I'm busy." Now I was lying. I just spent the entire morning gossiping with Stacy and Jenna.

Anthony sighed. "Come on. Jake's not even there, how busy can you be?"

"I -"

"Don't lie to me Jessica, I hate liars," he continued. There was a threatening tone in his voice that made me want to say yes and just get it over with.

"Okay fine," I agreed reluctantly. "It's 10:30 now so I'll meet you in the cafe on the corner of Front Street and Fifth Avenue at 10:45."

"Alright. See you in 15!" he said happily and hung up.

I picked up my bag and phone. Sending Stacy a text telling her where I was going, I made my way to the elevator.

(a/n: don't you guys think I'm always talking about Jessica walking to the elevator? Haha)

Reading Stacy's reply, which was no doubt filled with all sorts of fanatical profanities about me and Anthony (ew), I accidentally bumped into Jake.

"Oh shoot, sorry," I said, taking a step back and almost falling.

Jake put his hands on my arms to steady me. It brought back the dreadfully pleasant feeling of our hug a few nights ago and I quickly shook his hands off.

"I'm going out to lunch now, but I won't be back until 1:45 ish," I said professionally.

"It's only 10:30," he said.

"Yeah but I had a clashing schedule, so I had to make time,"

I explained.

"Oh," Jake said a bit disappointed. "I was hoping to have lunch with you today but I guess we'll do it another time."

My heart fluttered at the thought. "Really? I could always cancel..."

Jake took a step back from me. "No, no. You go ahead and go to whatever plans you had. I'll call Scarlet."

Leave it up to Jake to ruin my mood within 10 minutes of talking to him. "Okay fine," I said angrily. "Anthony would be angry if I cancelled on him anyways." I gave him a smirk then walked past him.

"Wait, you're going to lunch with Anthony?" Jake called after me.

"See ya later," I sang, ignoring his question. I looked at him smugly until the elevator doors closed.

"Thanks for meeting me," Anthony said again.

We were sitting outside on the patio of the little cafe we agreed to meet at. Anthony was eating a hamburger while I was munching on some macarons.

I yawned, getting bored of our conversation. "It's really no problem."

"I appreciate you coming. I didn't want to trouble you," he babbled on.

If you really didn't want to trouble me, you wouldn't have practically made me come, I thought bitterly.

"So, what's up with you and Jake?" he asked casually.

My eyes snapped to him face and he gave me an innocent smile. "Nothing, why?" I asked slowly.

Anthony looked up at the sky. "You guys seem..."

I narrowed my eyes. "Seem what?"

"Like you're together," Anthony said, looking me dead in the eyes.

I narrowed my eyes even more, until they were tiny slits. "And what if we were?"

"Nothing," he shrugged. "Then I'd have a problem."

"Why would you have a problem?" I asked, taking a small bite of my macaron.

Anthony leaned forward, propping his arms up with his elbows against the table. His hands were folded underneath his chin. "Because I like you."

I nearly choked. "Excuse me?"

"Because I like you Jessica. And if you were with Jake, then that requires some extra work on my part," he said seriously.

I stared at him, I didn't know what to say so I said the first thing that came to mind. "You mean even if I was already dating Jake, you would still try to go after me?"

"After a while, no woman can resist me," he laughed.

"Um..." I gaped in disbelief. What a pig this guy was!

"Look, I'll show you right now. That lady behind us has been staring at me for the past couple of minutes."

Turning around, I saw a middle aged woman in a fancy suit sitting a few tables back, taking notes. When I made eye contact with her, she waved at me and smiled. Of course! She was the one from US Weekly that I was supposed to meet. It was weird that I told Anthony to meet me here when I was supposed to meet her here.

I glanced back at Anthony who had what I could only guess what he thought was an attractive smile on his face.

"I hate to break it to yeah, by she's looking at me," I said.

"You mean she's -"

"No," I snapped. "I mean she was the person I was supposed to meet at 11:30 and oh look, it's 11:34 so i gotta run."

"Okay..."

"Just tell the waiter to send my part of the bill to that table," I told him, putting the unfinished box of macarons in my bag.

"I'll pay, don't worry," he said quickly.

I stood up and grabbed my wallet from my bag. "Oh you really don't need to. Here I'll just give -"

"I'll pay," he urged. "The guy always pays on the first date."

"We're not -"

"Just go do whatever you're supposed to do," he said, cutting me off. Again.

"Fine," I said. Desperate to leave, I picked up my bag and walked over to the lady.

"Hey, sorry I'm a bit late," I apologized.

"It's okay," she said, giving me a knowing smile. "Let's get started shall we?"

I smiled at her. "Okay."

She took out a tape recorded and picked up her notebook from her lap. "So tell me a bit about yourself."

"Well," I said after a moment of thinking. "My name is Jessica Bryans..."

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