“Um, so here’s a funny thing that happened to me recently,” he continued. “The interior designer we’d hired to do our new office space quit on us, and we need someone to step in ASAP. It’s been a big fiasco.”

“Ugh, that’s terrible,” I replied, cringing at what a nightmare he must be dealing with. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“I know you’re busy with your own work stuff, but Lola was at my place last night with Perrine, my cousin—”

“Oh, I remember her,” I said with a chuckle.

“That’s right.” I heard him laugh softly through the phone. “Well, she mentioned that your schedule’s opened up, and I was wondering if you might be interested in meeting about the position.”

“Well, that…” I trailed off for a minute, processing. “That was not what I was expecting you to say.” Relief, joy, nervousness: a bunch of feelings burst inside me all at once.

“Is that a bad thing? I know it’s an insanely quick turnaround, so if you already have too much—”

“I would absolutely love to put some ideas together for you,” I said calmly, trying not to sound too eager. But inside I was screaming, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” My severance pay from Spayce was about to run out in a few weeks. God, I needed this. “I can have something to you in forty-eight hours.”

“Seriously?” He sounded both surprised and relieved.

I nodded confidently, even though he couldn’t see me. “One hundred percent.”

“Wow. Okay, thank you. Can you text me your email, and I’ll get this over to you, then?”

“Of course.” I was bouncing in my Vans, unable to control the excitement. “Oh. And, Hayes…”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry about that sugar comment from before,” I said. “I hope I didn’t offend you.”

“I promise you, I do eat sweet things,” he replied. There was a playfulness to his voice that hadn’t been there before, a slight purr that was undeniably sexy. “Occasionally.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” I said, smiling.

“Okay, well, we’ll have to eat dessert together sometime.”

“I’d love that!” Ugh. I sounded way too excited. Tone it down, Franny. Tone it down. “That’d be fun.”

“’Kay. Well, I’ll text that info.” Hayes’s voice shifted. Mr. All Business was back. “Thanks for considering this.”

“No, thank you. I appreciate you thinking of me.”

Everything out of my mouth felt weird and flirty, flying out of my lips before I even realized what I was saying.

“For the job,” I added.

“Of course. Talk soon.”

We hung up just as Cleo was maneuvering her way through the door with two coffee cups in hand.

“Well? How’s your crush?” she asked, passing over a cup.

I didn’t bother correcting her. “He’s good,” I said. “He wants to hire me? Maybe? To do the interior of his new office space.”