Page 10 of Is It Casual Now?

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Jamie’s legs jiggled under the table as she sat, hands wrapped around the now cold coffee mug. She’d shown up early, which in hindsight seemed rather masochistic on her part.

After the encounter at the school, she had little faith in Siena showing up for their planned meeting. All morning, she had expected a phone call from her receptionist, telling her that Ms. Frazee would have to cancel their meeting indefinitely.

And yet, here she sat early for a meeting that might not even happen.

“Anything else I can help you with?” The waitress smiled, the curve of her lips an interesting flirtation. But Jamie didn’t react in kind.

“No, thanks.” She smiled, but she didn’t meet the waitress’s eyes or lean forward to use her best assets for the cause.

“Okay, well. If you need something, just give me a wave.”

“Absolutely.” The interaction was false, but one she had engaged in many times over the years.

This time it didn’t boost her up or flatter her. She knew waitresses flirted for tips—it’s what she’d done before she found the job at the paper. She shuddered at the idea of having to go back to being a waitress. If anyone would even hire her now.

No wonder the interaction didn’t hit the same as usual. Her livelihood currently rested in the hands of a woman she barely knew, except by reputation. But she knew what her hands and mouth felt like on her skin and inside of her.

“Damn it,” Jamie muttered as she crossed her legs under the table, not only stopping the jiggling motion but trying her best to minimize the pressure that was building between her thighs. She could already feel her own wetness and ached to relieve the tension before having to deal with this meeting.

Quickly, she leaned down and grabbed her phone from her bag and checked the time. She had five minutes. It wasn’t like she regularly masturbated in a public bathroom, but the cafe had their own stalls, and she needed as little pressure between her legs as possible. And this was just at the memory of Siena’s touch—what the hell was she going to be like when the woman actually showed up?

If she showed up…

As if summoned by her thoughts, Jamie felt eyes on her. More specifically, eyes on her cleavage as she moved back up into her seat proper.

“Oh Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” Jamie whispered.

Was Siena seriously wearing a vest?

Fuck!

Jamie jumped to her feet as Siena drew closer, trying to ease some of the discomfort that sitting had caused against her swelling clit.

“Siena, I honestly wasn’t sure if you would show,” Jamie rushed out the moment Siena was close enough for the words to be considered a private conversation.

“I’m a professional, Jamie, and this is a business meeting.” Siena’s words were crisp and to the point. She actually sounded exactly how Jamie would have imagined the famous Siena Frazee to sound. Before she’d eaten out Jamie’s pussy, that is.

“I didn’t mean to imply anything else. But the situation is quite… unusual.”

“Yes, it is.” Siena pointedly looked at the chair and then back up to Jamie. “Are we going to sit or have the meeting standing up?”

“Sit,” Jamie’s voice choked out. She forced a small cough to clear her throat and tried again. “Please, take a seat.”

Siena nodded and slid into the chair with ease.

They waited for the waitress to return. Jamie noted that she didn’t bother flirting with Siena. Relief washed over her at knowing the waitress didn’t flirt with everyone. It should have given her a confidence boost. Not relief.

Because the relief wasn’t about the waitress.

No! That couldn’t be right. What could she possibly be relieved about then?

Jamie’s breath hitched for a moment as she watched their interaction. She hadn’t even noticed the waitress’s dimples earlier. She had always been a sucker for dimples. But even now, noting their attraction, she still felt nothing toward the waitress.

She turned to watch Siena finish her order.

Fuck, no.

A mix of emotions she refused to analyze swirled in her chest.

Nope.

This wasn’t happening.

“Are you having another coffee?” The waitress turned that flirty full-beamed smile back to Jamie.

Not a single flutter washed over her. It was just the stress of it all. Of course it was. And Siena caused a reaction because three orgasms in an hour would do that to a woman.

“I’ll have another coffee, thanks. ”

“Of course, cutie.”

Jamie felt her cheeks flush, and from the corner of her eye, she saw Siena’s amused smirk and raised eyebrows.

“Now that that charming display of hormones is over, we need to get down to business.”

“What?” Very articulate, Jamie mentally scolded herself.

“Business. I believe we have an interview to organize?”

“Organize?” For God’s sake, she needed to up her game before Siena wrote her off as a moron. “I was under the impression this would be the interview.”

“I believe a change of circumstances is in order.”

“Seriously?” Jamie knew she should bite her tongue, hold back her frustration and annoyance, but being around Siena made that impossible. It had from the very moment she’d approached her in the tapas bar on that fateful night. Not that she could genuinely find herself regretting it.

“It’ll be in the best interest of all involved. “

“Except for me!” Jamie sounded like a petulant child, and she knew it. But she’d had enough of this crap. Living on tenterhooks for days had already done a number on her.

“Including you.”

“Yeah, right.” At least Jamie found herself able to relax as she leaned back in her chair and the waitress returned with their drinks.

“Thank you.” Siena smiled and gave the waitress a nod. The waitress looked startled for a moment before returning the smile.

“Look.” Jamie sat forward again as she added sugar to her coffee. “I don’t even like this job, but I need it. Thanks to you and your friends staging a harassment tag team on my boss, I’m going to lose it if I don’t get this interview with you.”

“You don’t like your job?” Siena looked so startled by the confession that Jamie burst out laughing before she could stop herself .

“You look like this is a strange thing.”

“It is.”

“Maybe for you.” Jamie stirred her coffee, unable to completely process the idea that someone could love the job they were actually getting paid to do. “But most people in my world get paid to do jobs they don’t like because bills have to be paid and passions don’t pay the rent.”

“And writing a trashy celeb column is your passion?” Siena sneered.

“It’s not.” The heat rose up Jamie’s neck and covered her face. She would look like a beet, but she no longer cared. How dare this woman sneer at her? Just because she’d given her mind-blowing sex didn’t mean she knew Jamie. Not at all. That comment made that perfectly clear.

“Then what’s your passion?”

“My blog isn’t a trashy celeb column.” Jamie’s words were hard, and she threw them out like javelins. She noted Siena’s sharp jerk back in her seat, but she didn’t care.

Okay, she cared. She cared more than she wanted to and that was an entirely different problem all together. One that was pissing her off even as she refused to examine it.

“Have you even bothered to read any of my blogs all the way through? Or did you just read the parts that affected you?” Damn it, why did she have to get all defensive now?

Siena’s stern face fell away, and for a split second, Jamie saw the woman she had picked up at the tapas bar. But just as quickly, she vanished again. The same feeling of abandonment washed over Jamie as it had when she had stepped out of the shower.

Jamie didn’t wait for Siena to verbally respond. The look was enough for her to go off of. “Maybe if you did, you wouldn’t be so quick to call it trash.”

The silence spoke volumes as Jamie slumped in her chair, sipping her coffee .

“What is it you’re actually passionate about then?” Siena ever-so-slowly lifted her coffee mug to her lips, those perfectly shaped lips that could—nope. Jamie had to focus.

“About the power of role models. About having someone who’s like you, someone who’s brave and in the spotlight when the rest of the world makes you feel so very alone.”

Siena nodded, a small sad smile on her face. She set her mug down, and the silence between them was deafening. Jamie just needed her to speak with that fire and rage she’d witnessed in the classroom. Not this calm, cool, and aloof professional that she was already despising. “I think you’ll like my alternative plan to interviewing me.”

Jamie looked up, eyes narrowed, but didn’t say anything. She wouldn’t beg. She wouldn’t ask. If Siena wanted to tell her, she would have to do it on her own.

“What if I let you have an exclusive interview with Bunny and Piper?”

Jamie instantly regretted taking the mouthful of coffee as it sprayed out of her mouth, and she choked on the dislodged liquid. As the coughing fit ended, she opened her mouth to apologize until the sound of soft laughter reached her ears. She looked up and saw Siena, her Siena , smiling back.

When Siena caught her gaze, she quickly covered her mouth with those long slender fingers.

“Oh God, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

“But it felt a little good after my blog post about managers?” Jamie smiled, letting Siena know that it wasn’t out of anger or defense that she brought this up. Jamie couldn’t deny her own surprise at bringing up the elephant in the room.

“Maybe a little bit.” Siena looked sheepish, and Jamie wanted to kiss those lips.

No, she did not. She did. But she couldn’t.

This was business, and Siena had made that more than clear the moment she’d stepped through the door. She didn’t realize she had a smile on her face while Siena helped her clean up the mess from her coughing fit, enjoying the comfortable silence of the act until she sat back down and noticed Siena examining her with an expression she hadn’t seen before.

“What?” She asked as her smile turned into something more self-conscious.

“Nothing.” Siena shook her head and flicked her eyes away.

But there was no denying the coloring that brushed her cheeks.

Jamie would make it easier on Siena. After all, this was for the sake of her job. A job she didn’t even like.

But I do like having somewhere to sleep and food to eat. She hushed the contentious voice in her head and pushed on.

“Why would you give me an exclusive interview with your top clients?” Jamie’s fingers shook slightly while she asked. Was she looking a gift horse in the mouth? Would Siena take the offer back? She wanted to say yes, but it didn’t make any sense to her.

“Because,” Siena paused as though weighing which words to use. “Despite the shitstorms you’ve created for me when you pose questions about their lives, you’ve never directly said something that you couldn’t prove.”

Jamie’s mouth might have fallen open. She couldn’t be sure. Her entire face felt numb from Siena’s words.

It was true. She would never knowingly publish a lie. Posing theories was one thing. And theories she knew were true on good authority but didn’t have actual proof of was the line she had been determined not to cross.

Jamie wasn’t stupid. She knew people took from her blog what they wanted, knowing that the question wouldn’t be posed if there weren’t some genuine possibility of it being the truth. And it was a thin line at times. But despite what everyone thought, and her own desire to get her name out in the world, she did have some semblance of integrity.

“Are you interested in the interview?” Siena’s brows were knitted together, concern flashing across those dark pools Jamie would happily get lost in.

Jamie shook her head to get rid of the idea.

“You aren’t interested?” The concern turned quickly into anger.

“Oh yes! No.” Jamie never got this flustered. The Siena effect had her in a world of confusion. “I would love to interview them.”

“Okay?” Weariness crossed Siena’s eyes, and Jamie wondered how anyone could write about the cold businesslike manner of this manager.

“I’m just blown away.”

“There will be conditions about the interview. But you’ll get an exclusive two-on-one with Bunny and Piper once I approve the questions you intend to ask. And those will be the only questions you’re allowed to ask.”

“Approve the questions?” Jamie’s heart sank. “So this’ll be more like a press conference in the form of an interview?”

“No.” Siena’s mask, the one that was all cold and businesslike, had returned, and Jamie’s chest ached with longing to find the real Siena beneath once more.

“But you aren’t going to let me ask anything about their private lives, are you?”

“The focus will be on their music.”

Jamie nodded.

“Do you still want the interview?”

“Yes.”

“Send through the questions, and I’ll be in touch shortly to go through them.” Siena moved her coffee to the corner of the table, the liquid sloshing toward the top rim. Jamie was entranced for a brief second, her brain working quickly to try and catch up with everything that had just happened.

“Fine.” Jamie wanted to say no. But she didn’t want to lose her job.

No.

She didn’t want to never see this woman again.

Damn it. So much for a no-strings-attached one-night stand.

“Just call me Pinocchio,” she muttered to herself as she watched Siena saunter out of the cafe.

She was in trouble.

And she wasn’t talking about her job.