A Duke by Default (Reluctant Royals #2)(25)

Ledi: Um. I love Thabiso very much, but your boss could get it. Hold my crown. limbers up

Portia: What have I done to deserve this speedbump on the road to Project: New Portia?

Ledi: . . .

Ledi: Do you want the annotated list or the summary? I have to finish this thesis but I can find the time.

Portia:

Ledi:

Nya: Is everything else going okay, besides your boss being fine af?

Ledi: Nya, where are you picking up this lingo? You need to stop hanging out on Tumblr.

Nya: I can’t win. You made fun of me when I said a man steams my headwrap.?

Ledi: LOLOL

Portia: LMFAO

Ledi told them about the latest Thesoloian intrigue, something involving goat poop recycling, and her studies. Nya recounted her latest dates and the newest dating simulator game she’d found—Byronic Rogues from Mars. Portia gave them an update on the armory’s website and shared a bit about her deep dive into researching the building that housed the armory and the martial arts school. She was digging much deeper than she had to, but this was the kind of thing that excited her—random useless minutiae. People had assumed that her constant schooling was a way of avoiding reality—she couldn’t blame them, since her perennial studies had been paired with drinking and partying—but she mostly just really loved learning.

When their conversation petered out, she switched over from the messenger app to her social media; the little red notification bubble had a number in the hundreds and was ticking up as she watched.

Whoa.

She tapped into the notifications tab and began scrolling through the dozens of responses and shares.

@girlswithglasses @dideyedothat OMG, you maced him? Girl, how do you even still have a job??

@girlswithglasses @dideyedothat LMFAO Macing your boss on your first day? #internshipgoals

@girlswithglasses @dideyedothat This was hilarious! I can’t wait for the next update! (And I wouldn’t trust you with any swords either, beloved.)

@girlswithglasses @dideyedothat You need to get on that haggis. Just trust me on this.

@girlswithglasses @dideyedothat Ooo, is that your boss’s back in that selfie? I would spray him all right, but not with mace. #sorrynotsorry

Portia’s first post for GirlsWithGlasses’s adventure section had finally gone up and it was a huge success if her notifications were any indication.

She scrolled through the reaction GIFs, messages of encouragement, and people playfully dragging her after reading her account of her first days of her internship. She was still mortified, but turning the experience into something useful eased her embarrassment.

She switched over to the armory’s account and noted that their follower count had gone up by five hundred and it was still early in the day in the US.

Impressive, Reggie. Her sister’s site really was doing well, since that five hundred was likely a fraction of the people who’d read the post.

She scrolled through GIFs and chose an animated one of a large man struggling in vain to pull a sword from a stone. Hello new followers! Hope you enjoyed our apprentice’s post on @GirlsWithGlasses. Stick around, we have lots of exciting stuff coming your way soon! she typed out, then hit send.

Portia put the phone down and returned to the more mundane task before her—packing knives for shipping—but her mind was still on social media. She wasn’t exactly surprised that people were into her story. It had been funny. But she had underestimated just how many people would be into it. She’d sent the video of Tavish she’d finally gotten him to agree to with her second post. If her friends’ reactions in their group chat, and the people already ENHANCE-ing her selfie to try to get a glimpse at Tavish’s were any indication, it would do even better. She needed to put the finishing touches on the armory’s site before that post went up.

“Do you have a telekinetic power that allows you to pack the boxes while standing there and staring into space?” Tavish made his way across the office and dropped a box of finished knives onto the table in front of her.

She’d grown slightly used to the Jerk Lite version of Tavish, so she didn’t even flinch.

“Do you think it wise to annoy me before handing over a box of knives?” She smiled sweetly at him.

He huffed. “If you’re as good with a knife as you were with that spray, you’ll end up stabbing yourself, too, lass.”

Portia rolled her eyes at him. “Never gonna let me live that down, are you?”

“Nah.” His mouth quirked up the tiniest bit, as if his smile were struggling to lift the weight of his Portia-induced frown lines but couldn’t shoulder the impossible task.

“I wasn’t staring into space, anyway. I was working,” she said, pushing her curls back behind one ear. “I was trying to think of a new marketing strategy.”

“What strategy is that?” he asked, his brows knitting together. “The do chat on MySpace strategy?”

Portia gasped and bought her hand to her chest, feeling an actual jolt of shock at the anachronism. “MySpace? Really?”

He just stared at her.

She picked up her phone to open a social media app that wasn’t from the Mesozoic era. “Look. I wrote a blog post on my sister’s site—unlike me, she has her shit together, and her site is extremely popular. So all these people reblogged it and shared it on social media, then the armory got all these new followers, and . . .”