SASSY IN STILETTOS ARe version (10 page)

Miranda’s eyes twinkled. “You’re going to love
this. None other than Simon Jax. Apparently one of the producers used to date
him, and they’re still on friendly terms. I just can’t believe....”

Pain sliced through her heart. After all these
years, his name alone had the power to sting. As Miranda prattled on, Micha’s
stomach rolled. She tried to convince herself that this was a different Jax,
that she hadn’t agreed to interview and play cozy with the one man who had
destroyed her heart. Miranda kept saying words like “...groundbreaking...” and “innovative”
and “...personal...” But Micha couldn’t hear her over the roar in her skull.
Shit
. She had to get out of this. Screw Caleb and his
moving forward. Micha’s head swam, and her heart went full Kentucky Derby
status. If she wasn’t careful, she’d pass out. She had to get herself under
control.

Again, she focused on Caleb and his voice, using
him to steady herself.

It took her a second to realize Miranda had
stopped talking.

“Micha, are you all right? You look ashen. Do you
need some water?” Miranda stood, reaching for the glass carafe behind her on
the tray by the window.

She had to get out of here. Like now. She’d worry
about coming off as totally cray-cray later. If she could get to her office,
she could panic in peace. “Y-yeah, I’m fine. I’m running through interview
questions. You know me. Always working the angles. I’ll go look over the file
you sent.”

Once she left Miranda’s office, she wobbled on her
borrowed Louboutins. She’d had the shoes for a day now, and so far, they were
not the good luck charm the girls purported.

Making steadier progress back to her office, she
paused at Ryan’s desk to grab her mail. He stood when she came over.

“I don’t know what you did right, but can I have
some of that karma? There was another flower box delivered for you.”

Micha blinked and frowned at him, trying to make
sense of his words. “Was there a card this time?”

“Don’t know.” He shrugged and presented her with a
ribboned box. “These are wrapped.”

Caleb insisted he hadn’t been sending her flowers,
so if not him, then who? “Yeah, thanks.” She dragged herself into her office,
dropped into her chair, and leaned her head against her desk. “God, how did
things get so colossally fucked up?”

As there was no answer, she dropped the shoes by
her desk and shoved the mail aside. Most of it was junk anyway. She focused on
the box. Carefully, she untied the ribbon and pried open the cover.  The
fragrant scent of roses immediately filled the room. The color of the roses
were near black, and she frowned. She sniffed again. There was something else
too, like something too sickly sweet, like something over-ripened. The dark
blooms looked like death against the satin, white interior, and as she reached
for a stem, she had trouble dislodging it. She jostled the stems around to
release them from their tie. Then she saw it.

A scream bubbled out of her throat before her
conscious mind could even think to recall it.

Ryan came running in. “Micha, what is it?”

“Someone sent me a dead fucking rat!”

“So you didn’t sleep with Caleb?” Jaya asked with a
frown.

Micha shook her head and tried for levity. She
couldn’t shake the feeling from this morning no matter what she did. She
dragged her attention back to her friends. She’d been in need of some serious
girl time lately. “No, I didn’t. You jumped to that conclusion.” Though she’d
been
this
close.

“Well, you let me believe it.” Jaya sulked and
handed Ricca ten dollars out of her pocket.

Micha scowled. “You guys bet on me? Some friends.”

Ricca laughed. “No, honey, I bet on you. Jaya bet
against you. I said there was no way you’d sleep with Caleb. Never mind that
you guys have been sniffing around each other for years.”

Micha downed another shot of Patron and glared at
Jaya and Ricca. Both were seated Indian-style on her orange shag carpet,
staring at her with dark brown eyes. How the hell was she supposed to explain?
“I-I…” She sucked in a deep breath. There had to be an easier way.

Ricca slid Jaya a look. Great. Her friends would
be ready to commit her soon.

“So last night, when we were all running around
looking for Adele’s treasures—and very funny, Jaya, pairing me with Caleb like
that.”

Jaya shrugged. “Honey, that was all Adele. You
know that crazy woman loves nothing better than to interfere.”

“Tell me about it,” Ricca added. “But we’re not
talking about Adele, we’re talking about you.”

Right
. “So when the
lights went out, Caleb and I were in the elevator.”

Ricca and Jaya snapped glances at each other and
grinned. Well they wouldn’t be grinning for long.

“You guys saw my second meltdown of the night,
there was one before that, as soon as the lights went out.”

“I’m sorry, sweetie,” Jaya said. “If it’s any
consolation, Adele chewed out the night crew foreman for the power outage.”

Micha winced. Adele probably left the poor guy a
eunuch. “So when the lights went out, I freaked. And Caleb—he was so great to
me. He kept talking to me, and he held me. Completely calmed me down. So how do
I repay this kindness? I jump his bones.”

Ricca went slack jawed.

Jaya startled, but she spoke first. “I
knew
something had happened.”

Micha cleared her throat. Jaya and Ricca wore
broad grins. She shook her head. “Stop grinning like idiots, guys. It didn’t
end well.”

“Uh-oh, Micha, what did you say?” Ricca asked.

Micha bristled. “What makes you think I said
something? You know, just because I speak my mind doesn’t mean—” She stopped. “Fine,
usually I might have said something, but this time I didn’t. I—” She sagged. “I
wanted to be close to him. We were making out in the elevator, and I completely
forgot everything about where I was and anything else that was going on except
who was kissing me. The way he made me feel. I haven’t felt anything like that
before, so I got a little carried away. It’s like when people have been starved
nearly to death, when they finally get food, they overdo it and end up feeling
sick.”

“Did you throw up on him? Because I tell you,
speaking from experience, it’s not as bad as you might think.” Ricca nodded
enthusiastically.

Micha had to giggle when she recalled Ricca
getting piss drunk to go and confront Beckett about why he’d kissed her the
first time. Then promptly going vomitus interruptus. “No, I didn’t get sick, I
asked him to make love to me, shit, begged him to. And he wouldn’t.”

Ricca and Jaya exchanged glances. But neither of
them spoke.  Ricca’s brows furrowed like she was trying to work out a complex
puzzle. And Jaya, well she was no better, immediately picking up her glass and
taking the world’s longest drink. What the hell? Why were they both acting like
she was crazy? Her brows snapped down. “What is it, you two? Spit it out.”

Ricca immediately looked at her nails and jabbed
Jaya in the ribs with her elbow.

“Ouch,” Jaya muttered. She cleared her throat. “Apparently
I’ve been nominated to tell you that you’re beautiful.” She hesitated “And God
knows, you’re smart. And not to mention lethal, but, erm, you’re the dumbest
smart chick we know.”

Ricca shook her head. “Oh, no you don’t, Jaya. I
would not have said she was dumb.”

“Chicken shit,” Jaya muttered back.

“Wait, I’m the dumb one? He turned down perfectly
good—shit,
hot
sex. I’m incredible, and he turned
that down. Why would he do that? He’s been sniffing around me for years. I
finally say yeah, and he’s all ‘no thanks.’”

Jaya rolled her eyes. “If you can’t see he was
doing you a favor, then you have problems.”

“My idea of doing me a favor is called fucking me
on demand.”

“Yeah, and some guys would have, but difference
is, Caleb really cares about you. He’s been hot for you for years, but there
was no way he was going to take advantage.”

Micha tossed up her hands. “I was asking him to.”

Ricca reached across the coffee table and patted
her hand. “Yeah, but you were also having a freak out at the moment. He was
more concerned with your wellbeing, than getting a little pokey pokey.” She
smiled and nodded her head enthusiastically. “Though from what I’ve seen of his
abs, I can understand why you’d be in a hurry to get to the good stuff.”

Jaya barked out a laugh, and Micha’s jaw dropped. Sexual
innuendo was Micha’s mainstay, but Ricca did it with panache.

“Fuck, what am I going to do, you guys?”

Jaya shrugged. “About Caleb? That all depends on
you. You’re the toughest, strongest woman I know. He’s a great match for you. I
still don’t know why you won’t go out with him. You obviously want to, and that
poor man is crazy about you.”

Micha sniffed but didn’t answer. “I’m not
interested in a relationship.”

“So you keep saying,” Ricca said.

“I don’t even have time to deal with Caleb right
now. Shit’s hitting the fan at work. You know how I told you guys that the
magazine has been absorbed by WST Entertainment? Well, they want some on-air
personalities. Sort of a smarter E! Network or something.”

“So you’d be a producer?” Ricca asked.

“Interviewer. I still get to primarily stay on the
magazine, but they want me to do interviews with the big name stars and stuff.”

“That’s incredible!” Ricca squealed. “We know
someone famous. You really do belong in front of the camera, Micha.”

“Yeah, well, you haven’t heard who my first
interview is with.”

“Who?” Jaya asked.

“Simon Jax.”

In perfect cartoon parody, both their jaws dropped
at once, making it look like they’d rehearsed the scene.

“You’re shitting me!” Jaya said.

“How come you get all the sexy ones?” Ricca asked.
“Did you see that last movie where he was a spy and totally sparred with the
female assassin? Every time I see that, Beckett gets some.”

Micha chuckled. “You sure that’s not just you
unable to get enough of your man?”

A faint blush colored Ricca’s cheeks, making her
normally cinnamon skin glow.  “There’s that, but My,
Simon
Jax
. There is something about that fine piece of—”

“Ricca—” Micha blubbered.

Jaya howled. “I’m with Ricca.”

Micha rolled her eyes. “Maybe I should mention
that Simon Jax is my ex-boyfriend. He’s pretty much the reason I no longer do
relationships.” The reason she no longer gave anyone the power to wound her.

“Holy hell. Ricca and I don’t have a pair of shoes
for that kind of fuckeduptitude.”

“Yeah, I didn’t think so.”

Ricca stared at Micha. “When did you date him? And
why have you never mentioned him?”

“It was when I was in New York. We had a seriously
messy situation. I was in love, and I thought I wanted to marry him.” She
sipped her margarita. “Turns out my judgment was compromised.”

“So someone made you anti-love?” Jaya chewed her
bottom lip.

“I’m not anti-love. Love is great. But not for me.”

Jaya shook her head. “You know that’s ridiculous,
right? If you dated with a little purpose and stopped going after guys that
there’s no hope of a future with, maybe things would be different.”

“Let me guess, Caleb is future material?” Micha’s
brows rose.

“Well…” Jaya shrugged.

Micha scrubbed her face with her hands. “Thinking
about Caleb is not helping me right now. I’m sexually frustrated. Not to
mention, someone sent me flowers the other day, and I have no idea who.” She
kept the dead rat to herself. She didn’t need them going all amateur sleuth on
her. She’d already asked her building security to double check all packages
that came for her before sending them up. She wasn’t an idiot.

As part of her employment package, she’d made it
pretty clear that no one was ever to have access to her personnel information. So
no one could call and talk their way into her home address or phone number. She’d
been careful, now it looked like careful wouldn’t cut it. One more incident,
and she was off to the cops. It was entirely possible that she had another
random crazy in her life. Stranger things had happened.

“Caleb?” Jaya asked hopefully.

Micha shook her head. “He says no.”

“Maybe you have a secret admirer.”

In her world secret admirer amounted to crazy
stalker. “Doubtful. These days, I barely have time for admirers of any kind,
secret or otherwise.” She cleared her throat. “About Simon, there’s more.”

“How much more?” Ricca asked.

It was now or never. “When Simon and I were
together, he was married.” The mere recollection of how she’d found out was
enough to make her hands tremble.

Neither one of her friends spoke.

She sucked in a breath and continued. “I didn’t
know at the time until she confronted me at my office one day.”

Jaya whispered, “Oh shit.”

“It’s a whole convoluted story. She and Simon met
while working on-stage at this grotty little theater. No one even knew they
were married. Turns out she was more than a little unhinged, and she tried to
kill me.”

Micha looked up from her lap to find her friends
staring at her agog. Jaya’s mouth moved as if she was trying to talk, but no
words came out. Ricca’s hands trembled.

Not sure what else to say, Micha forged on. “I don’t
talk about it. It was a shitty time in my life, and I don’t like to go there.”

“Is this what has you so off?” Ricca whispered. “You’re
worried about her coming after you again?”

Micha exhaled. It was too much to hope that they
wouldn’t bring it up. “No. She’s locked up. The flowers have me a little nervous,
but not too worried. It’s something else that has me off center.”

They both pursed their lips and crossed their
arms.