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A group of guys wandered in and ordered drinks and one attempted to hit on Dom while I pretended to be looking at my laptop while watching. I’d seen this so many times before and it was satisfying every time. Since she did work on tips, she knew how to reject people in the smoothest way and they weren’t even aware it was happening. This time the guy didn’t take the hint (sometimes they didn’t) and kept going and then Dom broke out her stare and before I knew it, the guy was apologizing and moving away from the bar with the drinks and going back to his table.

“One of these days you’re really going to have to teach me how to do that,” I said when she came over to my side of the bar to see if I wanted another drink.

“It’s all in the attitude. And I’ve seen you hold your own. You don’t need my help.” That was true. Every now and then a man would try a line on me and I’d have to rebuff him. I almost never got recognized by men, which said a lot about their reading habits. The conversation never got far enough where I disclosed my identity, so I didn’t get to see their reaction to who I was.

“What is it about a woman alone in public that is such a magnet for certain kinds of guys?” I asked.

Dom laughed and leaned back against the counter. “When I figure that out, I’ll let you know.”

I huffed out a laugh and went back to my manuscript. I’d ended up using Cadence’s butterfly idea. I hadn’t told her yet, because who knew if it would make it into the final manuscript. A lot of things could change from the first draft to the last. Hell, I’d had to change character names before and that was a nightmare. You’d think you could just find and replace, but that didn’t always work.

The bar started to fill up and that was my cue to call a car and head home.

Dom said goodbye and told me not to be a stranger before I left. Not a bad Sunday night. I’d gotten a few words and I’d had a fantastic burger.

Not for the first time that weekend, I wondered what Cadence was doing. Was she reading more of my books? What did she think?

I rarely wondered what other people thought of my books, other than my team. It wasn’t productive and it didn’t serve any purpose. Reviews from readers were not for me. That wasn’t my space. Besides, I had so many of them at this point that they ran the gamut from glowing to brutal and what did that matter?

Cadence had said that she liked the ones she had read already. Her praise had thrilled me a little. The way that getting a good trade review still got to me. Even after this many years, having someone who mattered tell me that my books were good, that my writing was good, still gave me a rush.

Realizing that I wanted Cadence to like my books wasn’t pleasant. I didn’t want her opinions to matter to me that much. At least not her opinions on my books. She was a woman I’d met less than three weeks ago, and she did not get to have that kind of influence on me. No. That was not happening.

Thinking about Cadence was absolutely not allowed outside of work hours. And during work hours it was going to be strictly professional. Whatever she thought about my work didn’t matter.

It couldn’t matter.

* * *

Cadence’s third week passed quickly. It was a busy one for me, with podcast interviews, a virtual meeting with my publishing team and a million other things. I had a book coming out in five months, and things were going to start getting busy for the promotion. Tour and interviews and TV appearances and all that. I’d done it before, but the idea of doing all of that for two and a half weeks was making me pre-exhausted.

If Cadence was still working for me, she would be going with me. I had her book travel and tickets and everything, just in case. Her eyes had gone wide when I’d mentioned it, but I’d told her it was not for months and that she didn’t need to worry about it.

“A tour,” she said, when she’d seen the schedule. “I don’t…that’s a huge commitment.”

“I know,” I said when I could sense her panic. “It’s just in case. You don’t need to think about it now.” My voice was firmer than I intended, but it seemed to do the trick. She took a breath and nodded.

“Okay. Okay. Um, sorry. I’ll get back to work.” She put her headphones on and went back to her laptop, but I had the feeling our conversation wasn’t over.

* * *

Cadence

She had me book tickets. To go on tour with her. Like that was a thing that was completely fucking normal. I guess in her world, it was.

Not for me, though. Things like that didn’t happen to people like me. And I didn’t think that this job was going to work out. Five months was a long time and booking tickets with my name on them now seemed like a wild expense.

She assured me it was just in case, but shit. Even if she canceled everything, she might still have to pay fees.

Fuck. That unexpected situation threw me all off and made my head spin. What the fuck did I even know about going on a tour? Eloise was going to have her team with her, and I was going to be trailing behind looking lost. I wasn’t a total barbarian, but she had booked some really nice hotels and we would be flying first class. I’d wanted to argue with her about the plane tickets, but who was I to argue with her about how she spent her money?

The idea of the tour ignited a level of panic in my chest that hadn’t been this bad in a long time. I texted Hunter and Reid and told them that the three of us should hang out. Hunter offered her place and Reid said she’d be there since she had the night off.

I made it through the rest of the day with Eloise and then went immediately home to put on regular clothes and then walked to Hunter’s. My energy was frantic, and I needed to burn some of it off before I saw anyone.

“Hey, babe. What’s up?” Hunter asked when I walked in.

“She wants me to go on tour with her,” I said, holding up two bags with cake in them. I was going to need it.