Simon didn’t offer a greeting, opening instead with, “Eight thirty in the morning during the holiday. There’s no way this is on your own initiative.”

She sat down on a blue ottoman. “You’re very wise.”

“I never worked you over Christmas. I was the good boss.”

Jules snorted with laughter. “There are key differences between the two of you, yes.”

“Indeed. Do you regret all your life choices or just a few?”

She did, in fact, miss multiple things about working with Simon. This friendly banter was one of them. They’d started interacting when she was just an intern, and he’d been kind to her even then. She’d enjoyed having him as her supervisor. Compared to Vivian, he was just…easy.

“A few.” She sighed.

“Really?” He sounded surprised, plainly having expected her to deny everything.

“Nah, not really. Some days are just…” How could she even sum up her most recent days? “You know.”

“I do know. So why are you calling? Who has to jump to attention?”

“Vivian wants you to send her the applications you’ve approved for Lucia’s former position.”

“Huh. Okay. I’ll email them to her in a few minutes, but why didn’t she call me herself?”

“What?”

“You’re in New York too,” Simon said patiently. “Why did she call you and tell you to call me?”

Uh-oh. Today was the twenty-seventh, the day Jules was supposed to return to New York. “Actually, I’m…not sure.”

“Too early in the morning for you? Well, I hate to be the bad boss after all, but if I have to come into the office today, I’ll need you.”

“What?”

“No whining. I’ll buy you a nice lunch. Can you be here in an hour?”

“That’ll be a problem.” Her stomach squirmed at what Simon was no doubt about to say. “I’m not in New York.”

“Didn’t you say you were getting back in today?”

“Yeah, well, plans, uh, changed.”

“Great,” Simon said, clearly annoyed. “Of course you didn’t inform anybody else of this. I was counting on you to be here at least by tomorrow.”

“I’m sorry.” Jules fidgeted. “I couldn’t help it.”

“You better hope Vivian doesn’t find out,” Simon warned. “You’re not sticking to the game plan. She doesn’t like that.”

“She knows my plans changed,” Jules said, deciding that there was no point in trying to hide anything. Simon would know soon enough that she had been with Vivian in London against all logic and common sense. Everybody would. “She changed them for me.”

“She—oh. What?”

“I’m in London,” Jules admitted.

There was a long silence. The explanation sounded flimsy even to her as she added, “Her London PA got sick.”

“Really,” Simon said slowly. “And Vivian flew you over because there were no other personal assistants in London?”

“Um…not exactly.”

“Jesus Christ, Jules.”