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Ellie took a drink from her heavily sugared tea and then took a deep breath. “Fine,” she said, and picked up the phone.

Toby answered and Ellie felt a flood of relief.

“Hello, this is Ellie Baker? From the event planning company?”

“How could I forget someone who compliments my tie,” said Toby cheerfully. “What can I help you with? Do you need to talk to the big boss?”

Ellie considered this for a second, then dismissed the idea. She couldn’t bother the man with every tiny detail. “No, I just wanted to give you a quick update and you can pass it along.” Another deep breath. “Unfortunately, the Walthambridge Hoteldoesn’t have any availability for our dates, and we did find them a little… straight-edged for our tastes. But I don’t want anyone to panic.”

She did enough panicking for everyone at this point, Ellie thought grimly.

“We have plenty of other options and we’ll be settled on a venue within the next couple of weeks. Mr. Darlington will get final approval, of course.”

“Right,” Toby said, sounding as though this was all perfectly normal. “I’ll pass that along then. Thanks, Ellie.”

Ellie thanked him and put down the phone.

“There, see, not so bad,” Carys said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“Good job,” said Mo.

“When did I luck out getting people like you in my life,” said Ellie, already starting to feel better.

“Well, I’m getting paid for the privilege,” Mo said with a grin. “And Car gets the referrals, so I’m thinking we’re not exactly uninterested parties in this.”

Carys squeezed her arm. “Good people attract good people, and you’re a good person.”

“I attracted Jem,” said Ellie without thinking.

Carys pulled a face. “You’re going to have to talk to her, Mo’s right.”

“Since when have you agreed with Mo about anything?” Ellie asked.

She sighed and covered her face with her hands. They were right, it wasn’t like she could just walk away from the situation. And technically, she was Jem’s boss, at least to some degree. But the thought of just how much damage the woman could do if she wanted to frightened her.

She’d spent years building up this company, working side jobs until she could afford to party plan full time. And Jem could destroy it all in seconds if she felt like it.

“We’re right,” Mo said gently. “You need to talk to her.”

“Fine,” said Ellie, and she picked up her phone to text.

THE AFTERNOON WAS sunny but cool and Ellie hurried a little to keep warm, even though she didn’t want to get to the cafe any earlier than she really had to. So she stopped short when she reached the place.

Through the large plate glass window she could see that Jem was already there. She was sitting at a table, legs crossed, browsing through her phone with her perfect hair and her perfect clothes and her perfect everything.

Ellie felt a grip of something in her stomach. Maybe the honest truth was that she was jealous of Jem, of how easy she’d had things, of all that she had. But there was a little piece of her that felt like this was all a set-up in some way.

After all, why would someone like Jem be interested in someone like her? She’d come up to the bar on some kind of bet or something like that, Ellie didn’t know, and she didn’t really want to find out. But equally, she didn’t like being toyed with, and that was the impression that she got from Jem. She was like a cat with a mouse, playing, teasing, without realizing quite how serious the consequences were for the mouse involved.

Jem turned slightly until the sun caught in her hair and Ellie’s pulse quickened a little. She was attractive though, there was no denying that.

With a sigh, Ellie pulled herself together. This conversation was not likely to be a pleasant one. She rolled her shoulders and then walked into the cafe.

Chapter Thirteen

The problem was, Jem thought, as she sat and waited, that she wasn’t at all sure where she stood with Ellie.

In general, the world was divided into a very big group of people that she was above, and a very small group of people that she was below. And she knew how to behave appropriately with each of those groups. Ellie seemed to float back and forth between them until Jem didn’t really know what she was supposed to do.