Chapter 2

Rachael climbed into her SUV and barreled out of the parking lot, hoping the estimate on her phone of how long it would take her to get to Newkirk Street was off. Normally, she would’ve left ten minutes earlier because she hated being late and liked to give herself plenty of time. But those damn characters hadn’t been so cooperative today.

Trying not to think about her story, Rachael let her mind wander back to college. She turned on her blinker and changed lanes, thinking about her good friend Ebony and wondering if she’d left the office yet. She’d probably change into sneakers and walk the half-mile to Karella’s knowing Ebony and her need to make sure she got her steps in every day. Rachael smirked. If only some of that willingness to exercise had worn off on her when they were college roommates.

Ebony Gibbons had been one of Rachael’s closest friends since they’d met in an accounting class their freshman year and decided to be roommates from their sophomore year until they both graduated with bachelors in accounting from the University of Maryland.The outgoing Ebony had taken Rachael under her wing even before they’d moved in together, making sure Rachael got a taste of all college life had to offer, and when Ebony had gotten a paid internship at Merek and Merek her senior year, she’d managed to get Rachael a position, too, which eventually led to them both being hired as junior accountants right out of college. While Ebony thrived under the high pressure Frank and Joe Merek kept on their employees, Rachael had floundered out of the gates, realizing about four years too late she’d picked the wrong major. Though she was good at math, she had never been passionate about it like Ebony, but had let her parents insistence that accounting was a financially sound choice sway her thinking. She’d always wished she’d chosen something where she was allowed to be more creative.

With five minutes to spare before she’d be late, Rachael turned onto Newkirk. The restaurant was still a few blocks away. She prayed the lights would be cooperative.

Almost from the start of her official, full-time, salaried employment at Merek and Merek, Rachael had spent her days dreaming of getting out from under the brothers’ thumbs. Instead of focusing on her work, she’d spent most of her time daydreaming about vampires and witches, creating her own worlds in her mind in order to escape the one she found herself in on a daily basis. Any time she had a chance, she’d secretly write on the story while her coworkers were either busily working on accounts for the firm or out to lunch. While Rachael’s accounting skills were enough to get her by, for the most part, she was the type of employee that never excelled and seemed to skate by with the bare minimum. Her slacking was never enough to get her fired, but she wasn’t exactly a stand-out either. In the meantime, Ebony had made it out of the ranks of junior accountant to her own office with a secretary in just two years and was poised to become an officer of the company before she hit thirty.

And that had been when Rachael decided it was time for a change.

Not that she didn’t love her friend or that she wasn’t happy for her. She was ecstatic that Ebony was doing so well. But Rachael longed for a job that gave her the same satisfaction she saw on Ebony’s face whenever she figured out a particularly difficult problem. Rachael needed work that lit her face the way that she’d witnessed Ebony beam about a payroll spreadsheet calculated correctly or an earnings report with precise trends.

So Rachael had decided to take the story she’d been working on for years in her spare time and make the plunge into web novel writing, praying she’d somehow manage to earn enough money to quit Merek and Merek.

It hadn’t happened overnight, but it had happened, and now Rachael’s story was one of the most popular novels on the Internet. Thinking of that made her smile, and she was pretty sure her face was glowing as much as Ebony’s did when she was figuring out a budget issue.

Rachael glanced at the time but didn’t feel that bad seeing she was only five minutes late. Ebony would understand that worked had called, and she’d had to stay and finish.

She pulled her blue Infiniti QX60 into an empty parking spot in a lot just down from the cafe where she was meeting Ebony and checked her lipstick in the mirror. She’d dressed in a hurry since she’d nearly ran out of time, but she thought her black slacks and cute red top were appropriate, and she looked nice. “I wonder what Rachael the student would be wearing….” Shaking her head, she tried not to get lost in her fictional world and took a deep breath to clear her mind. Still, she couldn’t help but hope her characters would have something interesting to tell her tomorrow and that everyone would cooperate a little more than Jared and this new Rachael chick had today. Deciding her lipstick looked fine, she grabbed her bag and shoved her keys inside before she hopped out and clicked the lock.

Power walking wasn’t really her thing, so she sent Ebony a quick text to let her know she was there but it would take a minute for her to reach the restaurant. There was no doubt in Rachael’s mind that her friend had already gotten them a table. Ebony was never late.

She was busy, though, and easily distracted. So maybe she’d appreciate the fact that she’d have a chance to answer some work emails while she waited for her tardy friend. Or maybe she’d be royally pissed that Rachael was being so inconsiderate. She’d find out in a minute. Karella’s familiar blue and brown striped, canopied entryway came into view as she rounded a corner, hurrying her steps a bit so Ebony would at least assume she was trying to be there on time. They’d had lunch here hundreds of times in the two years they’d worked down the street at Merek and Merek together, but since Rachael had quit, they’d only had a chance to catch up a few times, so surely Ebony would be so happy to see her, she wouldn’t mind that she was a few minutes late.

The expression on her friend’s face said otherwise. Rachael stopped just inside the door, brushing her long, dark hair over her shoulder as she stared into narrowed brown eyes.

Ebony was sitting at a small, circular table in the middle of the restaurant, her legs crossed, foot swinging, a scowl on her face and her phone in her hand as if she were about to send a text. “You’re late.”

Gulping, Rachael took a few steps forward, wondering why in the world her friend was so upset. It was only five minutes…. “Sorry.”

Ebony huffed and put her phone down, and Rachael took a seat, praying this was not an indication of how the rest of lunch would go because if she wanted to be yelled at, she just would’ve stayed home with her characters.