“I can finish them,” he says. “I have to make a call into The Post anyway.”

“You’re making calls this late?”

“The media never sleeps,” he says.

“That’s a damn shame,” I say. “Sleeping is the best. I don’t do it enough.”

“That’s why you should go home and get a few hours.”

I decide to take this rare moment of compassion and run with it. “Don’t you dare think about calling me back here after I leave.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” he says as I put on my jacket. “Goodnight, Ms. Langley.”

“Sleep tight, Mr. McGowan.”

7

To: Loveridge & McGowan Employee Network

Cc: Ana Loveridge-Herrera, River McGowan

From: Olivia Langley

Subject: Christmas Crawl!

Gas up those sleighs for our first annual Christmas Crawl! Drink around the city tonight with your favorite—and least favorite—colleagues! Come for one stop or all five! It starts at 7:00 p.m. at Baker Street Lounge.

Yours truly,

O. Langley

Social Media Intern & Santa’s Executive Helper

Loveridge & McGowan International

98 W 52nd St, New York, NY 10019

[email protected]

* * *

Three lingerie models are pregaming a club opening with Shake Shack in my living room. They offer me cheesy fries and sips of their milkshakes. I’m living a fantasy I never realized I had.

“Have you guys ever been to the Ragnar Estate?”

“In East Hampton?” Paloma drags a fry through a glob of ketchup. “That place makes SoHo House look like a Comfort Inn.”

“It’s ridiculously exclusive,” Natasha adds. “You need, like, three recommendation letters, a DNA sample, and a background check to get on the property.”

“I worked with a photographer who said they confiscated her phone before she was allowed inside,” Anouk says.

Asher mentioned none of this.

“Okay, so I’m going there tomorrow,” I say.

Natasha chokes on her frozen hot chocolate. “Who are you sleeping with?”

“No one.” It comes out with an air of frustration that I didn’t know I felt. “It’s for work. I’m an intern at a publicity firm. I was invited by a client.”

And by client I mean I was invited by my boss’s ex-girlfriend who we’re trying to make jealous. We’re obviously not doing a very good job. She keeps inviting us places and hasn’t done anything in retaliation, like seductively brushing up against Asher or trying to lure him away from me. I really have to step up my clingy girlfriend game.

“I don’t know what to wear,” I tell them. “Because it’s formal, but not black-tie formal. And I don’t want to be underdressed, but I also don’t want to be overdressed. It’s all very stressful. I shouldn’t have agreed to go.”

“You never say no to the Ragnar Estate!” Paloma says. “Show me your closet.”