Chapter 24

TWENTY-FOUR

SOPHIE

Seven days had passed since Ella spent her first night at Sophie’s, six days since Ella met Sophie’s closest friends, two days since they spent all night in bed eating snacks in between marathon sex sessions, and one day since Sophie knew Ella was the one she wanted to be with.

Returning to work was both hard and not hard. Sophie adjusted back to working life and withheld from making out with her girlfriend in the breakroom. She did, however, sneak quick kisses in the elevator, soft swipes of hands when getting water, a nudge of the knee under their desks. At Sophie’s insistence, she and Ella had an awkward, grown-up, career-setting birds-and-bees conversation with George on Sunday, about how to handle their relationship. “No hanky-panky in the office, otherwise we should be good. You’re not a manager, so no need to bring in HR.”

Ella may have groaned at the words “hanky-panky,” but Sophie found them somewhat endearing. George—endearing. Who knew?

“Hey, were you CC’d on the email from legal?” Sophie asked Ella a few hours into their Friday morning.

Ella scrolled through her email with a twisted mouth and pushed up her frames. “No, I don’t think so.”

“Here, I’ll forward it to you. They need to make the slightest tweak to the copy, but the latest version was already sent to Devil’s.” Sophie clicked on the mouse. “It’s not enough for us to interrupt DD’s and let them know, but we’ll want to double-check before we return the final assets that we include the message.”

“Got it.” Ella scribbled a note, then frowned. “Are we worried Devil’s hasn’t gotten back to us yet?”

Yes. But as the leader of this project, girlfriend or not, Sophie needed to remain calm for everyone, including Ella. “Nah. It’ll be fine.”

But it wasn’t fine. Devil’s Doughnuts was supposed to get back to them yesterday morning. Ideally even the day before. They were now over twenty-four hours late, and with this tight of a turnaround time, every single minute counted. Not always, but most often when clients didn’t come back within the time frame with a resounding “love it!”, it usually meant they didn’t love it. And depending on the level of changes requested…

She shook her head. Yes, she wanted to go on the cruise so badly, but this was more than getting a paid vacation. This was proving she could lead this level of campaign. This was making sure her four other colleagues also got the cruise. This was showing Malcolm he was justified in promoting her, and showing the team that all their hard work had paid off.

As the afternoon rolled around, Sophie’s anxiety increased. She lunatic-level refreshed her emails, sent DMs to the senior PM, walked by and whispered to the creative lead, and finally knocked on Malcolm’s door. “So, when do I push the panic button?”

Malcolm rolled his wrist. “It’s a little after two. Why don’t we give it, say, one more hour and then let’s schedule a sync.” He tapped his thumbs on the side of his chair. “I think you and Ella could use a break. I saw her yawning earlier, and you’re a wound-up ball of stress.”

“No, I’m not.” His deadpan stare cracked her defiance. “Okay, fine, I am. Just a little, though.”

His corner lip lifted in a sly smirk. “Besides, I bet you and Ella would like some alone time.”

Her face beamed red. “What? No. I mean, huh? Grrr. How did you know?”

“Please.” He huffed and pushed up the sleeves to his button-down. “I’ve been working with you for six years. You’d be surprised at how observant I am.”

“ Really? ”

“No.” He laughed. “Unlike most of you in this place, I don’t get involved with the gossip. However , George told me and asked me to double-check his thinking whether HR had to be notified. Spoiler alert—you’re good.”

Whew . Not that she was really worried, but it freed up a little mental space to not have a potential pink slip hovering over her. She rounded the corner where Ella yawned again, and a tinge of guilt flew through her. They already worked hard during the day. And now, as delicious as it was, they worked hard at night. Since the sex seal broke over the weekend, they had not come up for air. Maybe tonight she’d see if movie and cuddle time would be sufficient.

“Hey.” Sophie pulled up behind Ella. “Want to take a walk? Grab a coffee and a raspberry drink?”

Ella locked her screen in a millisecond and stood. “More than anything. I need some non-fluorescent light before my eyes bleed.”

Outside the building, the partial cloudy day was perfect. Sophie loved the sun, of course, and she missed it in the winter. But when spring hit along with full sun several days in a row, her body overheated. She locked hands with Ella and strolled, rolling her neck.

“You doing okay?” Ella squeezed her hand.

“Yeah.” Sophie tugged open the door to the nearest coffee joint. “I’m just feeling a little itchy, you know. Just want to hear from the partners.”

“We will,” Ella said with a confidence that Sophie was lacking. After they put in the order and moved to the pickup spot, Ella kissed Sophie on the cheek. “We got this. At least from everything you’ve taught me, we’ve done as much as possible. It’ll be good.”

“How can you be so calm?” Sophie grinned, but it was true. Ella seemed unaffected, which sounded heavenly. The timeline was already aggressive, and now, Sophie felt like she was verging on suffocation.

“You have a lot more riding on this than me. That cruise is within touching distance for you, and you deserve it.” Ella thanked the barista for the raspberry lemonade. “Besides, my dad’s the boss and no one has the balls to yell at me.”

“You are terrible.” Sophie laughed and picked up her coffee.

Ella pulled the straw to her lips and sipped. “When I started this job, I was so anxious, so desperate to show I had earned my place. And I still want to do a good job, of course. But that fear is gone. The team is much nicer than I ever thought. And I probably don’t tell you this enough, but you’re an amazing teacher.”

Sophie’s insides warmed. How did she get so lucky? For years, her goal was to train. Her other goal was to have an amazing, stable relationship. She now had both, and if she wasn’t so damn tired, she might click her heels together Gene Kelly-style as they crossed the sidewalk toward the office. “And you are the perfect girlfriend.”

“I kind of am, aren’t I?” Ella grinned and kissed the top of Sophie’s shoulder.

They’d wandered nearly a full city block when Sophie checked the time. Forty-five minutes was good enough for a break. She was going to head back in and send a client-friendly, but stern, email to Devil’s, warning them they were in danger of not executing this campaign in time.

Words, traffic, and pedestrians passed by as she composed the email in her head. Firm warning, grave warning, critical warning, wait… no, this was a friendly reminder. So caught up on the words, Sophie barely noticed the faces blurring in front of her. A full moment passed for the face in front of her to blink into focus.

Holy shit. The one-night-stand woman was walking toward Sophie and Ella. She’d changed slightly in the last year—she now had short cropped pink hair, instead of a dark red, but everything else looked the same. Oh Christ, should she say something? Sophie was the one who’d slipped out that night before the woman woke up, a total dick move on reflection. Maybe she wouldn’t remember her. Besides, what would she say? “Ella, meet hot one-night-stand woman, sorry we never actually exchanged names. Woman, meet my girlfriend.” Nope, she was going to pull the oblivious Seattle card trick and pretend she was so distracted in her thoughts that she didn’t see her.

Sophie peeked up from the sidewalk and accidentally made eye contact. The woman’s gaze locked with Sophie’s and she approached Sophie and Ella. Double shit. Ugh. They absolutely did not need to engage. Sophie wanted to bolt.

“Well, if this isn’t awkward as fuck,” the woman said in a clipped tone, with a smirk rising.

A million words swirled in Sophie’s mind about how to explain who this woman was. She turned to Ella, ready to be as vague as possible until they could talk later, and time shifted into slow motion. Traffic sounds and weaving bike riders whizzing by muddled in the background as Ella’s face morphed from joyful to a frozen scowl. Red, angry stripes flashed up Ella’s neck and Sophie’s stomach rolled in response.

“Good to see you again, Ella.” The woman crossed her arms with an amused grin and turned to Sophie. “I guess good to see you, too.”

No… Wait, what? Sophie’s heartbeat thudded so loud in her ear that she felt dizzy.

Ella’s gaze flickered between the woman and Sophie. “Jasmine,” she whispered. Finally, she straightened her shoulders and firmed her jaw. “Can’t say the same for you.”