“No, don’t get upset! I was kidding. I’m the only one who knows, and I promise I won’t tell her. And you know Noah Douglas won’t, so we’re good.”

“To be fair, the Noah thing was personal. It wasn’t about business.”

“What do you mean?”

“Uh, he’s interested in you. He asked you out.”

I could feel my eyebrows fly up my forehead. “What! He did not.”

“Yes, he did. He was inviting you to that party, and you cut him off and then shot him down. After he was all gallant and returned your clutch to you. Which is something he absolutely did not have to do.”

My heart started pounding fast. Was she right? I mentally reviewed what he’d said. He had never actually asked me to go. Shelby was reading into the situation. I couldn’t let myself believe that she might be right. Time to put my defenses back up. It didn’t matter how hot Noah Douglas was—nothing was happening and I wasn’t going to buy into the fantasy. That was much more her thing than mine. I was the pragmatic realist here.

“People can be polite without ulterior motives. Plus, he was already on a date. With a very beautiful woman.”

She waved her hand dismissively. “You know as well as I do half of the ‘relationships’ in this town are just showmances arranged by their respective PR teams. He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would ask a girl out if he was on a date with another one.”

“You don’t know anything about him.”

“Neither do you. Which is why you should get to know him when he calls you.”

I wanted to roll my eyes. “He’s not going to call me. That’s just something you say when somebody forces you to take a business card.”

“Noah Douglas is going to call you.”

“No, he’s not. Tonight did not go well.”

“He is.”

“He is not going to call me.”

He totally called me.

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FOUR

A week after the awards show, I was on my couch enjoying the second movie in the Duel of the Fae trilogy. Halfway through a box popped up on my screen.

ARE YOU STILL WATCHING?

“Yes, InstaFlicks, I’m still watching. I don’t need your judgment on my movie consumption,” I muttered. I clicked the “Yes” button. If they were going to question my life choices, they should create something that would appear in my fridge and ask, “Do you really want to eat that?” It would be much more helpful. Or remind me to take a shower.

My phone rang, and I picked it up to look at the screen. It said RESTRICTED. Before I started my business, I wouldn’t have answered it, but now I couldn’t afford to miss out on any potential clients.