“That’s where you’re staying?” His voice was all rough, and I would absolutely not try to figure out why. I nodded while I grabbed my purse, ready to stand up. Being in this small space with Theo wasn’t helping matters and I needed like a two-day-long time-out to get my head straight before I had to face a whole fucking month of being within touching distance of that eight-pack all day. My nerves were already shot and we hadn’t even started.

“None of your business, Theo.” I walked out, without another word.

“Did you know about this?” I whisper-screamed as I breezed into Julia’s office.

“Know about what?” Julia asked, her eyes wide as I paced the small space in front of her desk. “The twins have been all hush-hush about this ‘new development’, but no one knows what it is.”

José, whose office was right next door and only divided by a large glass wall, noticed my less than quiet arrival and hustled over to us.

“Why are you so tight? Did something happen with the renovation?”

I stopped my pacing before I wore tracks into the carpet in Julia’s office and stared up at the ceiling. “Looks like Streamflix wants to do some kind of documentary about the library renovation.”

“What?” José shrieked, his perfectly groomed eyebrows perched high on his forehead. “That’s amazing! Wait a minute...” His gleeful cheers cut off abruptly when he realized I was not as jubilant as a television opportunity warranted.

Julia beat him to the punch. “What’s the catch?”

I breathed in once, let the air puff up my lungs, then slowly let it out. I had to prepare myself to say it, because Julia knew me better than anyone and she would see, she would know, probably before I did exactly just how messed up this had me. Because Theo Ganas was here. In freaking Dallas. And we were going to work together.

“It’s not a full-on renovation show, but more like telling the story of the project and the community it’s for. You all will be interviewed too, but the main hosts will be me, as the designer, and a washed-up has-been as the ‘celebrity’ co-host.”

“Okay,” José urged, his hands clutched together in front of him, like a little kid waiting to rip into his birthday presents.

“It’s him.”

It took Julia a second, but whatever she saw on my face got her there.

“When you say him...” José inquired, looking between me and Julia, who now looked like a robot that had malfunctioned.

“My ex-boss, Theo Ganas,” I moaned, clutching my head in my hands.

“Doesn’t he run a huge company in the city?” I couldn’t help smirk at José’s the city. Like Manhattan was the only urban area that merited the word.

“What the fuck is happening?” my best friend yelped, her system apparently fully rebooted after the glitch my news caused.