when he and Cady had even had time to speak since he’d been at her side again almost immediately after presenting the award.
Then again, it wasn’t as if she’d ever brought Cady up with him. For all he knew, she didn’t even know about Cady. Other than what Shelby had told her, and what Wally Hood’s articles had hinted at, it was true she didn’t know much about his history with her. Although she’d been dating Cory for weeks, she hadn’t been tempted to snoop. The way she caught him looking at her when they were together told her that no matter what anyone thought, his relationship with Cady was behind him.
She studied the photo of Cory and her from the article. The elated grin on her face also lit up her eyes, she noticed. It was a picture she wanted to frame.
Smiling, she closed her laptop and got up from the sofa, heading to the kitchen to make breakfast. While rummaging through her cupboards, her phone began to ring.
She dug her phone out of her purse and glanced at the screen. Cory.
“What, do you miss me already?” she greeted him.
“Like crazy,” he told her.
“Let me guess. You’re calling to tell me that you can’t wait to see me again later tonight?” Truth be told, she was counting the hours until she saw him again. Ending the night the way they just had could definitely get addicting.
“Mmm, I can never wait to see you, but I’m actually calling about tonight.” The regret she heard in his voice told her he was calling to cancel.
“Yeah?” She tried not to sound disappointed, even though she knew what was coming. She reminded herself that he had gone out of his way to reschedule times for listening to album track mixes when it had interfered with their plans a couple of times over the last few weeks, and he’d arranged band rehearsals on nights she had needed to work or had made other plans. With his band’s first single from their new album dropping soon and their album release date getting closer, she knew that inevitably, things would come up that he couldn’t avoid. Expecting to hear about a rehearsal or a mixing session, she waited for him to answer.
“I just found out a friend is in from out of town,” he said. “He’s getting together with some of our buddies tonight for a barbecue out in Orange County. I haven’t seen him in a long time, so I really think I should go to that.”
“Of course,” she said, trying to sound cheerful. “Go catch up with your friend.”
“I’d ask what you’re doing tomorrow, but I might crash out there tonight. If I do, I’m not sure what time I’ll get back before I have to get ready for my rehearsal tomorrow night. Can I make it up to you next week?”
“It’d better be good,” she teased.
“Always is. Thanks for being so cool about this.”
They talked for a few more minutes before hanging up, with Cory promising to call her after his rehearsal ended the next night.
I should probably use tonight to catch up on work, anyway, she told herself, pulling a frying pan out from a cupboard and setting it down on the stove. She walked over to the fridge and took out a block of cheese, a tomato, and a carton of eggs.
While she cooked herself an omelet, Emily made a mental plan of attack for what she wanted to accomplish before Monday morning. She’d been rushing through writing her Zeeked posts and her column for Sweltry lately, and she knew the quality of one or two of her more recent columns had suffered because of that. Marjorie hadn’t said a word about what she’d turned in, and Emily suspected her column traffic had a lot to do with it. When Marjorie had emailed her last week, she’d mentioned that page views for her new columns and even much older ones continued to grow by the day. Emily knew she could probably completely phone it in and would still see an increase in readers. Even so, she cringed when she re-read published work that wasn’t up to her usual standards.
She used a spatula to lift her omelet out of the pan and onto a plate, then grabbed a fork and brought her breakfast into the living room.
“Okay,” she said, opening her laptop again. “Let’s start with accessories.” She opened the search box in her web browser and began typing, settling in for