The Allure of Julian Lefray (The Allure #1)(10)

Was he?



Josephine: I hadn’t noticed.

Lily: I’m so calling bullshit on that.

Josephine: Lalalala. Can’t hear you over the sound of my future calling. Oh, and it’s Vogue. I better take it.

Lily: You are so lame.



I pocketed my phone, pushed my shoulders back, and held my head high as I pulled open the door to the coffee shop. I couldn’t let Lily get into my head. I needed to get into business mode. I am Josephine, hear me roar.

The scent of roasting coffee overwhelmed me as I stepped into the shop. It was a small, intimate space. One wall had been left with exposed red brick and another was covered in shiplap wood. Mercury glass chandeliers hung overhead and two antique green velvet couches sat at the front of the shop for people to sit and wait for their coffee.

I kept walking, past the start of the coffee line, scanning the room for Julian. There was a small, secluded room in the back and when I stepped past the central brick archway, I spotted Julian at a table against the wall. My stomach dipped at the sight of him. He was dressed down compared to the tuxedo he’d worn for the gala, sporting a crisp white shirt, sans tie. The top button was undone and he’d rolled the sleeves to his elbows. He adjusted on his chair and reached down to smooth the thigh of his charcoal gray pants. I studied his hand and its placement on his thigh before he glanced up at the girl in front of me who was bee-lining for his table.

She giggled as she sat, saying something annoyingly cute, I’m sure. I was fifteen minutes early for our scheduled appointment and it appeared he wasn’t yet done with the interview before mine.

Why did that bother me so much?

I turned to move away, feeling like a weird voyeur just standing there and watching them, when Julian held up his hand.

“Just give us ten more minutes, Josephine,” he said with an apologetic smile.

Oh god, he saw me standing here.

I forced a polite nod and moved to join the coffee line. The entire time I waited for my vanilla latte I wondered just how much Julian could get away with when he used that apologetic smile of his. Those deep-set dimples. The genuine look in his hazel eyes. The man probably hadn’t heard the word “no” since he was five years old.

By the time I had my drink in hand, the seat across from Julian was empty and I made my way over. Was the girl before me qualified for the position? More qualified than me? Julian was typing away on his iPhone as I approached, but when he caught me out of the corner of his eye, he pocketed his phone and stood to pull out my chair for me.

“Why, thank you,” I joked.

He smiled.

“Sorry that interview ran a little overtime. I hope you weren’t waiting long,” he said, bending forward so that I could hear him over the background noise of the coffee shop.

My body was interpreting the entire situation wrong. The way he’d pulled my chair out and leaned in close so that we were only a small table away from each other. The way he scanned over my features before taking a sip of his coffee. My heart thought, “Wow this date is going well!” while my brain screamed at me to remember that this was a job interview.

“I’ll admit, I sort of thought I’d be the only applicant meeting you here today,” I said, unsure of where the honesty was coming from.

“Why would you think that?” he asked with a bemused smile.

I shrugged, glancing at the table beside us while I processed my answer. “I guess because this seems like kind of a strange place to conduct interviews.”

Julian frowned, scanning over the shop. “Ah, I admit, that’s my fault. Lorena was operating her business out of a dilapidated warehouse in Brooklyn. I had to decide whether to have you all drive out there and risk getting tetanus from a stray nail or line you all up outside of my hotel room.”

An image of him in his hotel room, sans suit, instantly jumped to the front of my thoughts. I pushed it aside and tried to ignore the hint of blush I knew was now very prominent across my cheeks.

“Well, for the record, my tetanus shot is current,” I said with a smile, still attempting to quell naked Julian thoughts.

He laughed and I took the opportunity to pull out my resume and slide it over to him.

“I read a few of your blog posts last night,” he offered before leaning back in his chair and studying me, completely ignoring my resume.

“Really?” I asked, shocked by his admission.

He nodded. “They were charming. Very real. I liked them.”

I don’t think my eyes could have been any wider.

“Wow.” I nodded, tucking his words away in my mind so I could extract them later when I needed a little pick-me-up. “Thank you.”

“Do you think your blogging would get in the way of this job?”

What?

“Oh. No! No. I write my posts at night and take my outfit photos on Saturday mornings. I’m very flexible.”

He nodded, seemingly pleased by my answer.

“Tell me a little bit about your background.”

I smiled. I loved talking about my home. Growing up in a small town in Texas made for quite a few interesting stories. I decided to leave out the cow tipping and bonfires in favor of my family life and college years.

“I loved it, but as soon as I could, I moved here.”

“So you came to New York a few years ago?”