Love Bug (The Prescotts Book 3) by Tara Wyatt (electric book reader .TXT) 📗

some of the tension. She wasn’t going to stand around and let herself get sucked into a worry spiral. She’d go make herself a coffee, stretch her legs, work off some of the adrenaline still pumping through her. Grabbing her employee badge, she started off down the hallway toward the employee lounge, where people often took their breaks, got coffee and hung out in between working.

As she approached the employee lounge, she heard several voices coming from inside. She smiled, knowing that talking with her colleagues would distract her. But her steps faltered and slowed when she heard her name.

“…pretty convenient that Willa’s beta test led to her hooking up with Max,” said a female voice belonging to a woman named Mia Willa had thought was her friend. “I mean, come on. In what universe does a man like that end up with Willa?”

Willa pressed her back against the wall outside the employee lounge, knowing she should leave. She should just turn around and walk back to her desk and not listen to any of it. But her feet felt glued to the carpet, and she swallowed hard, holding her breath so she could hear what was being said.

“I know, right?” Another female voice, this one belonging to a woman named Krista. “But look how it’s working out for her. She’s dating Max—somehow, God—she’s the one who got to do that Times interview, and Max backed Willa’s project as our next priority in the meeting last week, even though it’s a totally dumb idea.”

Willa stared at the carpet, her chin trembling slightly. A wave of dizziness rocked her and she clenched and unclenched her fists, trying to anchor herself.

“Must be nice to be fucking the boss and get everything handed to you,” said a third woman, Cindy, who Willa had never really liked. “I mean…I just don’t get it. She’s a mousy little shrimp who’s so annoyingly nice. That’s got to be fake, right? No one is that nice.”

“No, definitely not,” agreed Krista. “She’s faking it for sure.”

“Although I’m sure she doesn’t have to fake anything with Max,” said Mia. “That man is sex on a stick. Good Lord, the things I’d do to him.”

“It makes me so sad that Willa’s playing him the way she is,” said Krista. “He could do so much better than her. It’s pathetic, really.”

“You guys,” said Cindy, dropping her voice and forcing Willa to inch closer to the door so she could hear. “Do you think she, like, manipulated the matches?”

“I wouldn’t put it past her,” said Mia. “Who knows what she’s capable of? She’s so fake. And like I said, they make no sense as a couple. There’s no way that a man like Max chooses Willa of his own free will. She has to have manipulated him or something. Convinced him that they were meant to be with a high compatibility rating. Although how she seduced him is beyond me.”

“Right?” said Cindy, indignation dripping from her voice. “No tits, no ass, personality like a piece of cardboard, and somehow she ends up fucking Max Prescott. I don’t get it.”

“I hope she’s grateful that someone who looks like Max can even get it up for her,” said Krista. “It’s just so infuriating. She’s not good enough for him. He deserves so much better. He probably has no idea she’s just a money grubbing, manipulative little whore. Poor Max.”

They all murmured in agreement and Willa managed to push herself off the wall and start back to her office, pressing a fist to her mouth. As soon as she reached her office, she closed the door and sat down behind her desk, her body feeling as though it were crumpling in on itself, shrinking into something cold and hard. Something ugly and shriveled.

Was that what everyone thought about her? That she was using Max, manipulating him for her own gain? That she’d somehow blinded him to the fact that he was way out of her league? That any kindness she paid anyone was phony and manipulative?

Echoes of the interview came back to her, and she sunk down deeper in her chair, spinning to face the window. Was that how the world saw her and Max, as totally mismatched? That she’d tricked him into dating her and that was the only logical explanation?

Her chest hitched and she reached for her phone. Maybe she’d been naïve to think she could date her boss and everyone would just be cool with it. But this was a step farther than being annoyed that she was dating Max. It wasn’t just gossip that she’d overheard. They hated her. Hated.

Phone in hand, she scrolled to the group chat with Lauren, Theo, Kayla, Brandon, and Dori. She noticed someone—three guesses who—had renamed it “Brandon and Friends.”

Willa: SOS. I repeat, SOS

Dori: What’s wrong? BTW, I’m so glad you’re still alive. I don’t think I’ve even seen you in…5 days now?

Willa: I’m sorry, Dor. I’ve been at Max’s. I’m a crappy friend.

Dori: Um, first of all, you’re not, so stop that right now. And second, I LOOOOOOVVEEEE having this gorgeous apartment all to myself. So don’t feel bad. Enjoy your sexy boyfriend.

Dori: Second, what’s wrong?

Brandon: What’s up?

Theo: Everything okay?

Willa: No, not really. I’m having a craptastic morning.

Lauren: Oh no! Craptastic how?

Willa: So I had that interview with the Times this morning and it was going great until the very end when she basically accused me of rigging the beta test so I’d deliberately get matched with Max and implied that I was using my relationship with him for some kind of professional advantage.

Kayla: What? That’s bullshit! I hope you threw her out of your office.

Willa: That was right at the end of the interview, so we were already done. And then I went to the employee lounge to get myself a coffee, distract myself—because I was freaking out that I’d somehow messed things up—and I overheard three of my co-workers talking about me.

Lauren: Oh, honey. That reporter sounds like she was just fishing for