“So, what do you think so far? How do you like it?” Lacey asked me as I set my glasses down to rub my eyes. I rolled my shoulders a few times as I considered my reply. My shoulders had become tense from leaning over the desk. I had a bad habit of sitting with my spine curled over as if I were the Hunchback of Notre Dame. I really needed to work on my posture.

“It’s been an interesting few hours, that’s for sure,” I said, recalling the phone incident that involved a certain billionaire.

“Things are never boring here. Come on, I’ll buy you lunch. Normally, we take new people out to lunch together as a big group, but things are so crazy today that we can’t really take the entire department.”

“It’s ok, I get it.”

“Well, that sucks for the rest of them, but count me in,” Maya said immediately as she removed her earbuds. I had thought she couldn’t hear us with the noise canceling earbuds on, but I had been wrong. I seemed to be wrong about a lot in Florida. She then paused and said to Lacey, “Lunch is on you, right?”

“Yes, you moocher.”

“I’m not a moocher, I’m an opportunist,” she said proudly. “And the opportunity to not have to pay for my own lunch sounds amazing.”

“She has a point,” I conceded.

Lacey shook her head. “Never agree with Maya, it’ll get you in a ton of trouble.”

“Trouble? Me?” Maya said.

From the little I’d learned about Maya, she was definitely trouble. She was a free-spirit with an opinion about everything that she shared with anyone who would listen.

Since there were only the three of us, we piled into Lacey’s Range Rover. We ended up going to a small, family-owned Thai restaurant that all the locals loved. From what Lacey told me, what it was missing in décor, it made up for in taste. I certainly hoped so since I’d never had Thai food before. Maya assured me everything would be delicious and, most importantly, cheap.

“So, what’s Magnus Deacon doing here?” was Maya’s first question as soon as we were done with ordering.

“What makes you think I know?” Lacey quipped, staring lustfully at a neighboring table at what appeared to be miso soup. She reached for her napkin and spread it across her lap before lining up her utensils. Clearly, she was stalling.

“Umm... you’re the boss’s wife. I’m pretty sure he tells you everything,” Maya said with a shrug.

Lacey made a noncommittal sound and Maya stared her down. Finally, Lacey stopped evading the question and held up her hands as if she were surrendering.

“Ok, ok. Maybe I know a little something.”

“Spill it,” Maya said, leaning in. I found myself doing the same. I didn’t know when I had become so nosey.

“I’ll tell you guys, but you have to act surprised at the meeting, ok? I don’t want Jude to think I’m completely untrustworthy when it comes to juicy secrets.”

“Hold on, you mean, he doesn’t already know that?” I joked.

She laughed and said, “Fine. Here’s the story in a nutshell. Brain Pain is having a celebrity edition. They’re asking pretty much B-list celebrities to select their favorite charity and partner with an employee from that charity to compete together on the show.”

“So? Are you saying that we’re Magnus Deacon’s favorite charity?”

She shrugged. “I guess so.”

“Did he go to school with Jude or something?” I asked.

She shrugged again. “I don’t think so. If anything, Oliver knows Magnus. Oliver knows everyone. I’m pretty sure he’s just doing a favor for Oliver. And that’s why he was here today. Jude wanted to give him a briefing on what we do here and other stuff.”

We all had questions and unfortunately tried to ask them at the same time.

“Ladies! Ladies! That’s all I know. I swear.”

Maya narrowed her eyes. “Are you sure?”

“I pinkie-promise. I know nothing else.”

“Fine,” she said huffily, then her eyes lit up. “But tell me the truth. Do you or do you not know who his partner will be?”

“I honestly have no clue. I think he’s hoping someone will volunteer.”

“Someone?” Maya said, giving Lacey a look of disbelief. “Trust me, Lacey, every woman in the world—on this entire spinning globe we call Earth, and maybe even some aliens from another planet—would volunteer to work with Magnus Deacon. He’s hot. Hotter than hot. I burn with lust just looking at him.”

“TMI,” Lacey said, rolling her eyes.

Maya ignored her and fanned herself. “I’m getting hot just thinking about being in his presence.”

“So am I,” I blurted and then was immediately embarrassed. My words were met with laughter, but I knew I was turning red. I reached for a glass and took a big sip of water. Where had that come from? I’d only spent a few hours with Maya, but clearly her bluntness was rubbing off on me.

“Girl, I don’t blame you. I was just talking about it with Lydia, our accountant, we were both saying how if we could find a way to spend some alone time with Magnus Deacon, we would definitely take it.”

“Lydia?” Lacey said dryly. “She’s very married.”

“So? A girl can dream,” Maya said, quickly coming to her friend’s defense.

“Lydia has five kids and is married to her high school sweetheart,” Lacey said for good measure.

“Hence why she needs this dream to become a reality. Her husband and kids are probably driving her crazy. I swear she arrives early at work just so she can have some peace and quiet.”

“I only have one, but I know what you mean. I barely remember my own name since I’m so sleep deprived. I can’t remember the last time I slept through the night. Sometimes I daydream about sleep. I used to daydream about having a better butt and now I daydream about just sitting on my butt doing nothing.” She quietened as she stared off at something we couldn’t see.

Maya snapped her fingers. “Earth to Lacey. Come in, Lacey. Wake up!”

Lacey shook her head as if to wake herself up. “I think I’m going to go take a nap in my car.”

She took the company credit card out her purse, tossed it on the table and said, “Lunch is on the company today. Don’t tell Jude that sometimes I sleep in my car or he’ll try to join me and his snoring is way too much for me to bear lately...”

“Your secret is safe with us,” Maya said. “Lydia has spent many days hiding from her kids in her minivan.”

“Maybe I should get a minivan,” Lacey said to herself.

“You don’t need a minivan. You only have one kid!” Maya laughed.

“Yeah, but if I had a minivan, I could just fold the seats down and sleep on them.”

“Good point,” Maya said sagely.

Lacey wished us a sleepy goodbye and headed out.

“So... who do you think will be paired with Magnus?” Maya asked.

I shook my head. “No clue. I just started today, so I’m not even sure who his choices are.”

“Good point. I think it’ll probably just be Magnus and Jude. I mean that makes the most sense. He’s the CEO.”

“Or maybe it will be Magnus and Aidan.”

Maya laughed. “Are you kidding me? Aidan would never agree to that. Anything that could possibly mean getting dirty is not Aidan’s style.”

Aidan was the chief of operations. He was very obsessively neat and professional. He was also no-nonsense. I’d only met him briefly, but from what I knew about him, I couldn’t picture him being up for a game show.

Our food arrived shortly after and I wasn’t disappointed.

“I think Pad Thai might be my new favorite dish.”

“I told you, everything here is delicious.”

I looked toward the parking lot and saw Lacey sleeping in her car. “Wow, she really did fall asleep. I guess we’ll need to take her order to go.”

We finished eating, gathered Lacey’s meal and left, talking about who would be the best pick for the game show.

Maya offered to drive, so Lacey moved to the backseat to catch a few more minutes of sleep which was apparently a hot commodity in her household now.

When we arrived, we were greeted by Jude who had a huge smile on his face. I swear, he smiled more than anyone I knew. Apparently, fatherhood and marriage suited him very well.

“Ladies, can you join us in the conference room in about ten minutes?”

“Sure,” we answered. We exchanged furtive looks with each other.

And then Jude looked confused. “Didn’t Lacey go with you all?”

“Yeah, she’s sleeping in her car.”

“Maya—”

“Damn. I can’t keep a secret either.”

Jude shrugged. “I took a nap in the car earlier. Her snoring is keeping me up at night. Don’t tell her I told you that.”

Maya and I looked at each other and snickered.

“Anyway, ten minutes?”

We nodded and headed in the direction of our shared office.

I wrapped up what I had been doing earlier and headed to the conference room with Maya. I was late apparently. Lacey was even already there, sitting next to Aidan whilst showing him pictures of Sebastian. Aidan smiled politely, but I could tell he wasn’t very impressed.

“Well, I’m sure by now that you’ve all heard the rumors,” Jude started without preamble.

“What rumors?” Maya asked innocently.

“Ha ha,” Jude said dryly. “You were probably the person responsible for starting them...”

“You have no proof!”

I giggled and Jude shook his head. “I’m pretty sure our rumor mill, also known as Maya, has filled you guys in on what’s going on. Most of it was probably made up in her mind, because we all know Maya has an active imagination—”

“Hey!” she protested.

Jude continued, ignoring her, “So first things first, we’ve been selected for Brain Pain’s charity episode.”

“Woo woop!” Lydia said making the rest of us laugh. She blushed. “Sorry. My eight-year-old does that whenever she knows we’re having hot dogs for dinner. She loves hot dogs.”

“Who doesn’t love a good hot dog?” Maya said.

Jude held up his hands. “Let’s try to stay focused people. Anyway, as part of the charity show, they’re going to pair one of you with a celebrity interested in our cause.”

“Magnus Deacon,” Maya purred.

“Yes,” Jude said with a long-suffering sigh. “Thanks, Maya, for messing up my big surprise.”

“What? Everyone saw him! It was pretty easy to put everything together.”

“She’s right, Jude,” said Lacey. “And you’ve been dropping hints and talking about it every day...”

“Whose side are you on?” Jude said.

“Sorry, honey... you’re terrible at surprises.”

“That’s not true. Remember your anniversary gift was a surprise.”

“Well—”

“Jude, let’s try to stay on task, shall we?” Aidan remarked dryly.

I wanted to laugh, but I bit my cheek to hold it back. Maya wasn’t so lucky, and Aidan shot her an annoyed look.

“Sorry,” she mumbled.

My phone beeped, and I looked down at it as Jude continued speaking. It was a text message from the girl I’d met on the plane, Violet. I made a mental note to check it later.

Maya raised her hand. “So how are you going to decide who gets paired with Magnus?”

“Well, that’s where Aidan’s nifty hat comes into use.”

“What?” Aidan was clearly never told that he was expected to play a role in all this.

“Everyone will get a piece of paper and a pencil and nominate someone to participate. This way it’s fair. The person with the most votes is the one who’ll work with Magnus,” Lacey explained.

“Can we nominate ourselves?” Maya asked. Aidan shot her a look and she mumbled, “Well, you can’t stop me from nominating myself.”

Jude handed out the little pieces of paper and I happily took mine and wrote Maya’s name on it. I’m sure she’d have a great time with Magnus.

Aidan removed his hat with a deep sigh and walked around collecting all the papers. “Lacey, you want to do the honors?”

“Sure,” she said.

She started counting the number of votes out loud.

“One vote for Maya.”

“Woohoo!” Maya shouted, shaking her arms in the air.

“Another vote for Maya...”

“Yes! That’s what’s up. I’m the best,” Maya said, much to Aidan’s consternation.

I giggled despite myself. Maya was hilarious.

“One vote for Lesli.”

I couldn’t help but smile but figured that vote had come from Lacey.

Votes for a few others were announced, but it was clear that Maya was the winner.

“Maya will be representing us. Congratulations, Maya,” Jude commended her.

She got up and started giving a speech as if it was an award ceremony. “I would like to thank all the little people—”

“Blah blah blah,” Aidan said cutting her off. “Let’s get back to work, people.”

We all returned to work and I felt a little disappointed that I hadn’t been selected, but I’m not sure what I had expected.

I got up to go to the bathroom and stopped at the vending machine on my way out. I bought some cookies and decided to get some air since it was such a beautiful day. There were picnic tables out front, I was happy to see. I sat down at the table and began snacking on my cookies with probably too much glee. I had a crazy high metabolism and I was always hungry.

“So, who’s the lucky winner?” asked a voice. I looked up to see Magnus standing there.

“Lucky winner?” I squeaked, not knowing what else to say. I couldn’t help but stare at him. He was hands down the hottest man I’d ever seen.

“Brain Pain? My partner?” he said, seating himself across from me.

I gulped hard, almost choked on my cookie and immediately starting coughing violently.

He got up quickly, wrapped his arms around my middle, pulled me up and attempted to do the Heimlich maneuver on me as my arms flailed in the air.

I continued coughing and was sputtering. “I’m fine,” I managed to gasp finally.

He kept trying to save me and I started hitting the flat of his palm on my back. “I’m fine,” I screeched.

“Sorry,” he said as he let go of me abruptly, allowing me to sink back down on the bench. “I thought you were choking.”

“You’re not supposed to perform the Heimlich maneuver on someone who’s coughing,” I said, outraged in order to get over my own humiliation.

“A thank you would have sufficed.”

“Thank you,” I snapped, and then narrowed my eyes. “Actually, I don’t have to thank you. You probably caused more trouble than help.”

“I tried to save your life.”

“I wasn’t dying.”

“You kids nowadays have no sense of gratitude.”

“Kids? You’re not much older than me.”

“Really? From the way you choked on a piece of cookie, I would guess you haven’t been around too long.”

I shot him a dirty look, but then couldn’t help but laugh. He was teasing me.

“Thanks for trying to kill me in order to save me.”

“You’re welcome.”

We sat there staring at each other until it became awkward for both of us.

“I’m not good at this,” he said with a disarming smile.

“Good at what?” I asked breathlessly, feeling ridiculous for being breathless in his presence.

“Making conversation with women.”

“I assure you, it’s no more complex than making conversation with men.” I tried to sound distant, as if the conversation didn’t matter to me at all. Inside I was beaming and yelling, “A desirable, sexy billionaire is chatting with me! Me! Nerdy me!”

He shook his head. “I wouldn’t say that. Women are more complicated. And if I say the wrong thing I’m either seen as a creeper or socially inept.”

“Well, are you?”

“Am I what?”

“A creeper?”

“Not that I know of,” he said with a little smile. “But I’ve heard I’m a little socially inept.”

“I’m sure that’s not true.”

“No, it probably is. I mean instead of asking you out on a date, I needlessly performed the Heimlich maneuver on you.”

“Ask me out?” I was confused and had to resist the urge to look around. Clearly, he wasn’t talking about asking me out? I hadn’t heard him right. Yeah. I was just imagining things. There’s no way Florida’s most eligible bachelor had just asked me out. I didn’t believe in Aliens, the Loch Ness Monster or Big Foot, so there was no way I believed a hottie billionaire was asking me out on a date. Actually, I had more of a chance of running into Bigfoot than being asked out by a billionaire, I thought to myself.

“You’re seeing someone?” he said, misunderstanding my silence. I was in shock, but I guess he thought I was trying to blow him off.

I found my voice. “No… I’m not seeing anyone. At the moment. But umm... you’re famous... I’m… not.” I instantly felt silly for my reply, but I’d been asked out literally twice in my life and not once was the person a hot billionaire. This was new territory. It was like seeing a unicorn. I just couldn’t believe this was happening to me.

He shook his head. “I’m not famous. I’m just rich.”

“Same thing.”

“Not really.”

I looked around. “Are there cameras around here or something? Am I being pranked? Did Jude put you up to this?

“Up to what?”

“This.”

He looked confused. “I’m pretty sure I’m asking you out on my own accord.”

“Cool story, but I’m not sure that I believe you.”

“What?”

I started to collect my things. I looked at the pack of cookies haplessly abandoned and sighed. My stomach growled loudly, and I tried to cough to cover up the sign of my hunger.

“Let me buy you lunch.”

“Um no. That’s ok.”

“I obviously interrupted your peace and quiet, it’s the least I can do.”

I didn’t want to sound like a pig, so I didn’t mention that I’d eaten less than a few hours ago. I grabbed my pack of cookies, murmured no thank you and turned to walk out. He kept pace with me. “Did I do something to offend you?”

“What? No. I just... you know, I’m a normal person. You’re a rich, famous person.”

“That’s a weird reason to not go out with someone.”

“Not to me.” I stopped and turned to face him.

His brown eyes studied mine and part of me desperately did want to say yes, but for what reason? It would just be a date that would go nowhere. We lived in different worlds. He was rich. I was broke. He was famous. I was unknown. I couldn’t think of one reason why he’d be interested in me unless it was just for sex. I mean, I wanted adventure in my life, but I wasn’t interested in becoming a notch on some random billionaire’s bedpost. I knew any other woman probably would have jumped at the chance to date a billionaire, but I wasn’t like that. If life had taught me anything, it was that I was an anomaly.

“Listen, I’m flattered, but no. And Maya’s the winner. I’m sorry, but I have to get back to work.”

His eyes showed regret. “Well, let me give you my number in case you change your mind.”

Before he could do so, the door opened, and Jude and Maya appeared. Maya and Jude were talking, but upon seeing Magnus she stopped mid-conversation. Maya lit up at the sight of Magnus and made a beeline for us.

“Have fun,” I said furtively before walking away as Maya descended on us.

“Well, Magnus Deacon,” I heard her say as I walked away. “You, sir, are one lucky man because I am your partner.”

I couldn’t help but stifle a giggle as Magnus looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there.