Selena was only half-listening as Todd went through her agenda for the day and gave her a rundown of everything she needed to know. He was reading through her phone messages when he finally caught her attention.

“Oh, and that massage therapist guy, Hunter, called.” Even though Todd’s voice had been monotone, he had said the magic buzzwords that made Selena snap to attention.

“He did?” She asked with more enthusiasm in her voice than she intended. She tried rather unsuccessfully to tone it down when she asked, “What did he want?”

Todd was already narrowing his perceptive green eyes at her. “You like him!” He accused jovially, already enjoying himself.

“No,” Selena scoffed, trying to sound believable. “We just had a very awkward moment, thanks to YOU.” She glared pointedly at her assistant, who held up his hands in mock surrender.

“Excuse me for having a life,” he defended his decision to leave the office without telling her goodbye. “I figured you’d be in here working half the night away. I couldn’t have known you were sleeping on the job.”

She narrowed her gaze at him in response to his somewhat accurate accusation. As much as she wanted to blame him for what had happened, she knew it was as much her fault as anyone’s. Besides, she cherished her friendship with Todd and enjoyed their easy banter with one another. No one else stood up to her like he did. It was refreshing to have someone around who would tell her when she was being ridiculous.

Her glare at him had already morphed into a smile. “Are you going to tell me what he wanted?” She threw the wadded up napkin from her morning bagel in his direction.

“Oh, assistant abuse!” He pretended to be outraged by her tossed napkin.

“Tell me what he wanted, or I’m going to throw this stapler at you,” she teased him.

“Again?” He gave it right back to her.

She couldn’t help chuckling at him, but she was dying to know why Hunter had called. “Tell me!” she demanded.

“Okay, okay.” Todd finally gave in. “He wanted to suggest that you come into his tattoo parlor to get your daiths pierced.”

“My what?!?” She raised her dark, perfectly shaped brows at him, even as she processed the interesting tidbit that Hunter had a tattoo studio.

“Your daiths,” Todd pronounced the word slowly and loudly. “It’s this part of your ear,” he pinched a section of the cartilage on the inner fold of her ear.

“Ouch!” she snapped, pulling back from him. “Why would I want to do that?”

“It’s supposed to help with migraines,” Todd explained.

She leaned her head to the side and lightly squeezed the area of her ear that Todd had just pinched. “How would that help?” She felt skeptical, but would be willing to try about anything to get rid of the mind-numbing migraines that debilitated her on a regular basis.

“It’s something to do with pressure points or acupuncture or some other mumbo jumbo. I don’t know all of the specifics… look it up on Google.”

“I thought you were my Google,” she teased him as he turned to leave.

She was already looking up daith piercings on her computer, so she didn’t even bother to respond when Todd mumbled, “I’m your everything else,” on his way out of her office.

Ten minutes later, she buzzed the intercom for her assistant. “Make me an appointment with Hunter for daith piercing,” she ordered into the phone, without preamble. They spoke to each other several times each hour, so neither bothered with the usual pleasantries after their first discussion of the day.

“I don’t think he does them himself,” Todd informed her, before adding, “but I’ll get you an appointment at his studio.”

“I want Hunter to do it,” she specified, trying to make it sound like she would only accept the best, even though she was uncertain if Hunter even knew how to do daith piercings. He was the owner of the facility, so he must know how, right?

“I’ll take care of it,” Todd responded in his all-business tone.

“Thank you,” she used the same professional, snippiness that he had suddenly adopted. As soon as they hung up, she stood and began pacing her office.

She wasn’t sure whether she was more nervous about having two holes poked in her head or seeing Hunter again.