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I grinned. “Just against mine.”

She straightened her laptop on her desk. “I’ve told you that I’ll call you Cade if you want me to.”

No. I didn’t want her to. I liked that she was the only one who called me by my full name. My initial annoyance had morphed into something else that warmed my insides like eating a chocolate chip cookie right out of the oven.

“I like being Cadence with you,” I said and then realized how that sounded. I coughed and wished every embarrassing thought I’d ever had wasn’t instantly written on my skin for all to see.

Part of me almost lifted my notebook to hide my face. But then that would have drawn even more attention.

Across the desk from me, Eloise was quiet for a moment, those eyes lasering into me. Our gazes caught and held and if I didn’t know better, I would have said she was looking at me in the way that you look at someone you’re attracted to.

She wasn’t. I was just hoping that she would, creating fantasies in my mind that weren’t real.

Eloise was straight, first of all. And she was a glamorous bestselling romance goddess. Compared to her, I was nothing.

Her phone went off with a notification, making us both jump.

“We should—” I said at the same time she said, “I should—”

Both of us let out little trembling laughs and I rolled my chair back over to my desk and wished she couldn’t see how my blush had covered the back of my neck too.

* * *

“How about we go out for lunch today?” Eloise said during our morning break.

This was new, and completely unexpected.

“Oh, uh, sure,” I said, unable to figure out what was happening here. “Is there a special reason?”

She seemed hesitant to answer, ducking her head with the first hint of shyness I’d ever seen.

Adorable. It was adorable.

She held up one hand, as if she was trying to stall me from asking more questions. A pause. “Technically, it’s my birthday.”

I jumped up and almost knocked my chair over. “It’s your birthday? Wait, how did I not know this already? I should have known this already.”

Why hadn’t I known? This was very basic information about her.

Eloise rolled her eyes. “Because I don’t really celebrate my birthday. Never have. No one in my life makes a big deal out of it because I asked them not to. So don’t make a big deal out of it.” She pointed her finger at me, as if that was going to do something.

I sat back down and had to collect my thoughts so I didn’t immediately start arguing with her about it.

Of course she didn’t have to celebrate her birthday if she didn’t want to, but to just let it go was intolerable.

“Fine. I won’t make a fuss. But you’re letting me buy you lunch. It’s the very least I can do. And we’re getting dessert. I know I have no grounds to order you to do anything, but, Eloise Roth, I am ordering you to let me treat you to lunch and dessert.”

I had no idea where my confidence had come from, but the minute her mouth dropped open in shock, it was worth it.

Eloise snapped her jaw closed and shook her head slowly.

“I knew you were trouble from the start.”

I grinned at her. “And yet you still hired me. And then gave me a contract. My only other rule about this lunch is that you get to pick where we go.”

That was probably going to cost me. I bet Eloise went to expensive places with executive chefs that had competed on TV shows and had won awards.

It was so obvious that she wanted to argue with me. That she wanted to say no. I stared at her with what I hoped was rigid determination. I wasn’t backing down from this.