Something to Talk About(71)

“Evelyn!”

Ev grinned at her. “I had some vacation to use.” She shrugged. “And your birthday’s coming up.”

Jo hugged her again.

It was Jo’s biggest problem with fame, the lack of sincerity in the way other people treated you. For almost all her life, she was never sure what people’s motives were in their interactions with her. Evelyn up and flying across the country to spend a week with her, though, had nothing behind it. Jo would say it meant more than Evelyn realized, but Ev knew her well enough that that was probably not true.

“You really do basically have a guard dog out there,” Evelyn said. “She was bodily blocking me from entering your office. I thought she was going to tackle me.”

“Be nice to her,” Jo said.

“Yes, of course I’ll be nice to your girlfriend.”

Jo’s face flushed immediately. She felt like she was a teenager. “If you’ll remember, according to the tabloids, we broke up months ago.”

“If I remember, according to our conversation last night, you almost kissed three days ago,” Evelyn said.

Jo gave her a pleading look, and Evelyn laughed but didn’t push.

“So, you going to give me a tour of this place, or what?”

“I can’t believe this is your first time visiting,” Jo said, making no move to get off the couch and start the tour.

“I’m a terrible friend, I know,” Evelyn said. That was categorically not true. Before Jo could refute it, Evelyn continued, “But let’s focus on this tour thing. I have to meet Tate and decide if I want to beat him up for giving you so much trouble or if I want to help him.”

“Oh God, if you’re going to team up with him, I’m not introducing the two of you.”

She did, of course. She showed Evelyn to set, kept her quiet while they watched filming for a while, and then introduced her around on a break.

As soon as Tate shook her hand, he turned to Jo.

“Is she single?” he said in a faux whisper.

“She’s saving herself for Sam Allen,” Jo said without missing a beat.

Tate looked confused, and Emma’s brows furrowed, but Evelyn cackled. Jo didn’t care that no one else got the joke.

Having Evelyn there was probably not helping Jo’s relationship with Emma, who continued to keep her distance, but overall it was definitely helping Jo. It made her feel young, honestly, shut away in her office and giggling with her best friend. The fact that Evelyn loved her enough to board a plane just because Jo was upset over a girl helped, too.

“Why is she still out there?” Evelyn whispered. “It’s past five; when does she go home?”

“Oh,” Jo said. She hadn’t thought about it. “Emma!”

Evelyn’s eyes went wide, but Jo ignored her. Emma came to stand in the doorway.

“Yes, Ms. Jones?” she said.

“I’m all set here,” Jo said. “You can go home for the night. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Emma gave her a nod and offered a smile in Evelyn’s direction. “Have a good night.”

Evelyn waited a reasonable amount of time for Emma to get out of earshot before saying, “Does she not have regular hours? She doesn’t leave until you dismiss her?”

“Well, usually she checks in,” Jo said. “She probably didn’t want to interrupt us, or something.”

“Do you think she’ll be that submissive in bed, too?”

“Evelyn!” Jo snapped because, no, they were not going to talk about Emma like that. As though this whole thing weren’t inappropriate enough.

“I’m teasing,” Evelyn said. “C’mon. Let’s talk about this.”

“You don’t want to talk about it, you want to make fun of me.” Jo felt petulant.

“ā-Jo,” Evelyn said quietly. “I’m serious.”

Jo sighed. “What is there to say?”

“How are you feeling? How do you think she’s feeling? What do you want to do? What are the next steps for getting whatever it is that you want?”

The questions all seemed too big to fathom. What were the next steps? There were no steps. She couldn’t have what she wanted. Even if she could, she didn’t deserve it. What did she bring to a relationship? Money, fame, scrutiny. Nothing substantial.

“I’m feeling stupid,” Jo said. “I’m feeling like a cliché. Middle-aged boss and her assistant, how unique. It’s all made worse by the fact that the paparazzi seemed to figure it out before we did.”

Jo opened her desk drawer, rooted around under some folders to find the magazine with that first picture, and tossed it across her desk toward Evelyn.

“I used to look at this and wonder,” she admitted.

Evelyn looked at the picture for a moment.

“You’re allowed to want her,” she said.

“I’m not,” Jo said. “I’m not, Ev. She’s more than a decade younger than me and she’s my assistant. Talk about a predatory lesbian.”

“You’re not a predatory lesbian,” Evelyn insisted. “You’re not treating Emma like prey. You have feelings for her. You’re allowed to. You’re allowed to tell her that. Maybe not right now. But she’s going to stay on Innocents when you move on, right? Maybe tell her then. You’re allowed.”