Dirty Sexy Alphas (Twenty Book Box Set) - Hannah Ford Page 0,221

in the way he moved—and in his lean muscles totally on display.

“Sophie’s still trying to find herself while working at a magazine. Right, Soph?”

“Something like that,” I said.

“So who were you out with tonight?” Ava Marie asked, eyeing me mischievously.

“No one,” I said, my instinct to lie growing stronger and easier each time. “I mean, it was that guy I met at the audition. Nobody special,” I added, rubbing my neck.

“Oh, yeah, the actor who wanted to run lines with you,” Ava Marie said. “Hey, that reminds me. Some of us are going to the drive-in some time next week if you want to join us. Bring your new actor boy.”

“A drive-in?” I asked. “Like, an actual drive-in?”

“Yeah, in Silver Lake. It’s super retro, really cool,” Ava Marie said. “I’m surprised more people don’t know about it but since you’re new to town and all…. Come with us. If your actor boy isn’t working out, I can set you up with someone.”

“As long as you don’t mind dancers,” Christian said. “That’s basically all we hang out with. Who are you thinking of?” he said to Ava Marie. “Reed?”

“No, Michael,” she said. “Reed is chasing after Monica. What do you say?” she asked me.

It wasn’t a bad idea. It would get me out to see the city and meeting new people. More importantly, it would get my mind off Leo. But I wasn’t sure that was what I wanted right then. I told her I’d think about it.

It was strange feeling like I wanted to remain faithful and exclusive to a man that was using me for sex, whom I was using to further my career. Beyond strange, it was actually kind of mortifying.

I went back to my room and typed up some notes about the evening with Leo to send to Kait—basically leaving the best part out—and when my head hit the pillow, I was out.

Since only a handful of people at Crush knew what I was working on—namely the girls in the City Living department, and Kait—the rest of the crew wanted to know what the new girl was working on. From their perspective, I wasn’t doing anything but coming into the office late and bleary-eyed most days.

My first all-staff meeting, which was a week after Seattle, consisted of the head of each department pitching ideas for the upcoming issue. We sat in the same conference room with a view of the Hollywood sign that I’d sat in on my first day.

Now it was time for everyone from all the magazine’s departments to pitch their ideas for the upcoming issue—the one that would have my Leo piece in it. Mel wanted to showcase leather for spring and Rebecca swore hair mousse was making a comeback. Jenny wanted to do a piece on open relationships, Susan wanted to write about toys that enhance oral and Liz had a story ready to go about the newest fitness craze.

I’d been so caught up in my Leo sexcapades that I’d long since forgotten about the list of ideas I had on my first day for my New Girl column. Once everyone had pitched, Pam, the managing editor, fixed her eyes on me and said, “How long before you jump in?”

My head snapped up and I got that panicked feeling of being caught in class without having read the assignment. “I have…um, ideas,” I said.

“So let’s hear them.”

I looked to Kait for help, since she hadn’t told me to work on anything other than my Leo story.

“Sophie?” Kait said, scribbling in her notebook. “The newbie go-getter. What have you got for us?”

I flipped nervously through my notebook, trying to find those ideas I’d written down for my first day—the ones Kait had no interest in hearing.

“It shouldn’t be that hard,” Pam said. “You are actually new in town. What have you been doing? Some other project got you too busy for the job you were hired to do?”

“No,” I said quickly, instinctively. Did she know about Leo? Kait said only our department knew about Leo. Was word spreading? Who else knew?

“So?” Pam pressed.

“Well,” I began, my mind racing to find something to grab hold of. “I heard about this amazing drive-in movie theater near Silver Lake.”

“A drive-in?” Kait asked, curious.

“How very ’50s,” Pam snickered.

“It’s supposed to be really cool,” I said. I’d looked it up online after Ava Marie told me about it. “They play classics, some from the ’50s,” I said to Pam, “and other old stuff from the ’80s and ’90s. Everything