Page 43 of Maneater (The Mavens #1)

Is this what I’ve been avoiding by working nonstop? This light, unpressured feeling in my chest? Or is it a Josie-specific reaction?

“The fucking universe?” Josie says, waving her hands in the air. “Who knows? Personally, I’m beginning to think the world hates us and doesn’t want us to fornicate.”

“Fornicate?” I ask with a choked laugh.

“That’s the proper term, Rowan,” Rory says primly, like I’m an idiot.

I just shake my head and widen my eyes, while lifting my hands in the air, the universal sign for I’m not touching that .

“So? She’s cool with it? Your boss?”

“I mean, I didn’t tell her about the fornication plans, but she said there’s no issue with you and me…” I try and think about how Annette worded it, and land on “spending time together.”

“Yeah, probably for the best to keep that part to yourself,” Josie says, patting my arm. I smile at her, then put one arm around her shoulders and use my other hand to tug her chair closer to mine before pressing a kiss into her hair, before the server comes by to ask about what we’d like .

“So, Rowan, do you have any brothers?” Rory asks after we place our lunch orders.

“No?” I ask more than I answer.

“Dammit,” Rory mumbles, and Josie lets out a laugh.

“Sisters?”

I shake my head. “Only child.”

“Where did you grow up?” she asks next.

“South Jersey, a small town called Ashford.”

Josie nods, and Rory looks like she’s taking very good notes in her head.

“Why does this feel like an interrogation?” I ask with a laugh.

“I mean, it kind of is. She’s my best friend, and I hold her well-being above all else. And men are…” She shakes her head like she’s disappointed in the species as a whole, and knowing the men I work with, I can’t fully blame her.

“That’s fair. Okay, what next?”

“Are you close to your parents?”

I look from one woman to the other, suddenly nervous. “If I say no, is it going to be a check in the negative?”

They look at one another, a silent conversation going on between each other before Josie responds.

“Is there a reason?”

I tip my head to the right before confessing.

“Yes and no. I’m an only child to two parents who had me later in life because it was what they were ‘supposed’ to do.

They enjoy working and traveling, and although I’m grateful I’m here and all, they probably shouldn’t have had a kid.

Once I was out of the house, they sold the house and left to travel. We see each other a few times a year.”

“Is that why you’re so close to your boss?”

“Close to his boss?” Rory asks in a questioning way.

“She’s more of a mentor to me,” I correct before she gets the wrong idea. “But…yes? I guess? She’s been pivotal in my career, and I share a lot with her. I wouldn’t be where I am right now without her.”

Josie and Rory look at one another, some silent conversation happening before Rory nods, and Josie smiles. I assume I passed the first round of interrogation when Rory seems to settle into her chair, grabbing her drink and taking a long sip. I turn to Josie then.

“So…you?”

“Me?” she asks.

“Close to your parents?”

Josie shrugs. “Close enough. Holidays and birthdays, a couple of dinners a year, but they live two states away, so it’s not too often. I travel a lot, obviously, and they…” There’s a moment of hesitation before she continues. “They don’t understand my job.”

“Influencing?”

She blinks for a moment, then nods, quicker than necessary.

“Yes. Exactly. It’s not a real job to them.”

Her answer is honest, but something about it is off, that same something that I can’t quite put my finger on.

“Okay, enough third degree,” Rory, who started the third degree, might I add, says.

“What’s your favorite Daydream resort, Rowan?

Josie and I were saying we absolutely want to visit another one sometime soon.

” My mind rolls through ideas, most of them of Josie and me at a resort together, neither of us working, before I answer.

We spend the next hour chatting, and I continue to get to know the women, Rory more than happy to spill her friend’s secrets, like how Josie is apparently amazing at darts and likes to con men out of money at bars playing it, or that once she snuck her way backstage at an Atlas Oaks concert and still keeps in touch with the lead singer’s wife because of it.

“Where are you going next?” I ask as our plates are taken away.

“Well, I am going to lie by the pool, because my tan is greatly lacking,” Rory says with a contented sigh. This one is crazy and wants to actually get things done. Then we have an urgent appointment at three.”

“Oh?” Josie rolls her eyes.

“I’m taking a yoga class on the beach. I’m not running a goddamn marathon. ”

“When’s that?” I ask, trying to think of how much time I can steal with her before my next meeting.

“One,” she says. I look at my watch, seeing it’s 12:30.

“I can walk you,” I say with a smile, thinking of what dark corners there are between here and the beach where the afternoon yoga classes take place.

“What a gentleman,” she says.

Rory rolls her eyes, seeming to already know where my mind is. “Yeah, real gentleman when he drags you into a corner to feel you up.” Rory laughs, and I wonder if I truly am that obvious.

“Rory,” Josie says with wide eyes, and Rory laughs.

Josie might like picking at me, but Rory likes picking on Josie, and it’s fun to watch. I realize then that her picking on me, poking and prodding and teasing, might have been her way of being into—or at least friendly with—me all along. It’s just her own strange brand of affection.

“All right, all right,” Rory says, standing and hefting her bag over her shoulder. “I’m out of here. Have fun, you two.”

And then it’s just Josie and me.