I’ve gotta say, Seb texted back almost immediately. Greg’s kind of blowing my mind right now.

Via bit her lip to keep from grinning like a giddy, flirty fool. Greg’s got game.

Then they were both laughing. Looking down at their phones, sure, but laughing together, even from across the table.

Seconds later, Via got another text, but it wasn’t from Seb. It was from Cat. Via raised her eyes to her colleague sitting on the other side of Sadie and opened the message.

I think he came here tonight for you.

Via’s breath caught in her throat and suddenly she felt a little ill. Flirting with Sebastian was one thing. Having her coworkers knowing and discussing it was a whole other bowl of soup. Via scooted her chair back and squeezed Sadie’s shoulder. “Just hitting the bathroom real quick.”

And then she was gone down the back hall and into the bathroom. She looked at herself in the mirror over the sink and almost groaned. She was pink-cheeked and messy-haired. Her lipstick was long gone, and her eye makeup was just a touch clumpier than she liked. She looked like a teenager who’d just gotten free tickets to a band she was dying to see. She looked like she’d just been kissed for the first time. She looked like—

The bathroom door swung open, and Cat strode in, chagrin in her eyes and both hands extended toward Via. “Oh, honey, I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”

Via held her hands out for Cat and let herself get swallowed up in a hug. “It’s okay.”

“No,” Cat said vehemently, pulling back from Via and squeezing her shoulders. “It’s not okay, I should have kept my big trap shut. None of that is my business.”

“No.” Via waved her hand. “There’s nothing there that could even be your business. There’s nothing.”

Cat paused. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that it’s nothing. There’s nothing there.”

Cat bit her lip and stepped back, crossing her arms and making her knee-length poncho sweater tuck in the middle. “I’m gonna say one thing, and then I’m gonna shut up forever, okay?”

“Okay.”

“It really seems like there’s something there.”

“Oh God.” Via turned to the sink and let cold water run out onto her hand. She touched her frigid fingers to the back of her neck. “I don’t want to be the object of gossip, Cat. I can’t do that. I don’t have the luxury. I have my apartment, my one friend, and this job. That’s it. No family, barely enough money to keep me afloat for a few months if I got fired. And that’s all. I already look like I’m about seventeen years old, everybody tells me. And I just can’t have a rumor destroy everything I’ve worked for.”

“Via, darlin’, I think you’re getting ahead of yourself. First of all, you’re young and hot, and so is he, and I’m sorry, but that’s the stuff that rumors are made of. All right? Gossip is not a sophisticated bitch. It takes the lowest hanging, most obvious fruit and waits for it to make a baby or divorce its wife, all right?”