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“I wasn’t desperate,” I said immediately. “You were simply the best candidate for the job.”

She let out a snort. “We both know that’s not true. I was definitely not qualified for this job.”

That was true. She hadn’t been completely qualified. But then I had been desperate enough to give her an interview and something about her had made me say yes.

I waved my hand. “A moot point. You’re hired now.”

“You’re stuck with me, Eloise Roth,” she said, picking up her coffee. My stomach did a slow somersault when she used my first and last name together like that.

My sandwich was getting cold, but I couldn’t stop looking at her. “Seems that way, Cadence.”

* * *

I pushed myself back from my desk with a groan.

“What is it?” Cadence yanked off her headphones. I didn’t know how she always heard me with those things on and her music up.

“They sent me the cover concepts for the next book and I can’t decide which one I like. I’m not normally this indecisive, but I think I’ve looked at them so long that my brain can’t even see them anymore. They all look the same.”

I rubbed my eyes and sighed.

“Well, I don’t know much about anything, but I do have a new set of eyeballs. Want me to take a look?”

It wasn’t the worst idea.

“Sure,” I said. Instead of just forwarding her the email, I moved my laptop a little, gesturing for her to come to me.

Cadence popped up from her desk and leaned down next to me, bracing her arms on the surface. I caught a hint of her shampoo, which was something sweet like coconut and vanilla. It made me think of desserts and my mouth started to water a little bit.

I remembered what the hell we were supposed to be doing when she tilted the computer closer so she could see and then started scrolling. There were four options, all pretty similar, but with different fonts and slightly different images and colors.

As I watched her, Cadence squinted at the covers and minimized the window so she could see all four at once.

“What’s the book about?” she asked, and I told her.

She took that information in and then clicked the button to print the page.

“We’re going to try this a few different ways,” she said, going to the printer to get the pages. She’d put one cover on each page. Before I knew what was happening, she had taped each one to my wall, all in a row.

“Okay, close your eyes.” I did as she said and waited.

“Now, open.” I did and the covers were still there, with Cadence standing beside them.

I blew out a breath. “I still don’t know.”

She nodded, unperturbed. “Close your eyes again.”

I did for a second time, except there was a bunch of rustling. She told me to open and I found that all but one of the covers had been removed.

“Tell me the first three things you think of when you see this cover. Don’t think too much.”

She had her notepad and pen ready.

“Ah, okay,” I said, squinting at the cover. “Um, vacation, soft, elegant.”

Cadence nodded and then repeated the process with the other three covers. It was immediately obvious that I did not prefer the third cover, so Cadence dramatically ripped it up and threw it on the floor.

“Now tell me the thing you like the most about each of these.” For one it was the font style and color, for another it was the composition, for the other it was the colors.