Caleb found himself facing a cute, short blonde who was giving him a smile of sympathy. Actually, it might’ve been more like pity.

Fuck.

There went his hope that maybe that interaction hadn’t been as weird as he’d thought. Something gross and unsettling made him queasy as he attempted to return the pretty blonde’s smile. What was her name and who the hell was she?

Apparently she was his date for the work outing later.

Awesome.

Meanwhile, the woman he was sleeping with had just run away from him as if had the plague or something. Was it something he’d said? Had he done something wrong?

He’d seen her that morning and everything had been fine. What the hell had happened?

He had to talk to her, but first… His gaze moved back to the blonde and he realized she’d said something.

“Sorry, what was that?”

Her expression grew even more pitying.

Fuck, this could not be good. She was clearly friends with Kennedy. What did she know that he didn’t?

He’d find out, just as soon as he could chase after Kennedy without being a total ass. Quickly and unceremoniously he rattled off the details for the impromptu work outing after the shoot ended.

He was already heading toward the elevator when she replied. “Great, see you there.”

Yeah, great. He wasn’t sure what exactly had just happened but he was pretty sure his lover had just set him up on a date. With her friend.

This was so great.

He knocked on her office door but didn’t wait for a response before he let himself in. Time was of the essence since filming would start up again in twenty minutes. Hopefully that would be long enough to figure out what the hell had just happened down there.

Kennedy didn’t look shocked to see him. She just looked… hard. Weirdly distant, not just her usual reserve. “Can I help you?”

And now suddenly he was back to being just another intern. “Yeah, you can,” he said. “You can explain to me what’s going on.”

She folded her hands on the desk. “I don’t know what you mean.”

He crossed the room so he could see her better. Like hell she didn’t know what he meant. “Why were you acting so oddly down there?”

“Oddly? How so?”

There was something so off with her. She sounded like a robot.

And he looked like a clown. For the first time since taking off after her he remembered that he was still in that ridiculous clown costume and makeup as he stood here trying to figure out why he was suddenly in the doghouse. He was pretty sure he’d experienced more emasculating moments in his life, but at the moment he couldn’t think of one. “Kennedy, talk to me. What’s going on here?”

She shrugged. “There’s nothing going on here, Caleb, and I’d ask that you keep any personal issues outside the office.”

His jaw fell as he studied her. Who the hell was this person and what had she done with his Kennedy?

Well, not his Kennedy, but the Kennedy he’d come to know and love.

Well, not love love, obviously. That was just a saying. He didn’t love her.

Did he?

No. He couldn’t. She was all wrong for him. This was just a hookup.

So why the hell was he so bent out of shape that she’d set him up on a date?

Unless it wasn’t a date. Maybe she’d just wanted them to be friends. Maybe she wanted him to be friends with her friends because she liked him.

“Was there something work-related that you wished to discuss with me?” she asked, interrupting his inner dialogue that was making him more confused by the second.

Nothing in her attitude, tone, or expression led him to believe that she was currently so smitten with him that she desperately wanted him to hang out with her friend without her.

He was so freakin’ confused.

She stood behind her desk, her attention apparently captured by a stack of correspondence in her inbox. “Caleb, my calendar is packed today. If there’s nothing more you’d like to discuss, then I’d appreciate it if you could close the door behind you on your way out.”

On autopilot he found himself backing out of her office. He didn’t trust himself to speak even if he knew what to say.

Hell, he didn’t even know what he was feeling except blindsided. Physically he felt sick. And winded. Like he’d just run a marathon after eating several Big Macs.

It was not a pleasant sensation.

He closed the door behind him as she’d requested but he found himself standing there staring at the closed door for a full minute, waiting for her to open it again to apologize or tell him she’d been kidding.

She did not open the door and one minute later he was no closer to figuring out what the hell had just happened than when he’d first arrived.

But he couldn’t stand there forever and it was clear that whatever was going on with her, there was no way in hell she’d talk to him about it while at work. So he was left to wait and wonder.

But he couldn’t wait and wonder for long because after aimlessly wandering the office building for twenty minutes, it was time to go back to the studio to film the next segment.

He had to go be a happy-go-lucky clown.

Sweet.