Free Love, Technically by Lynne Silver Page A

don’t think it’s a good idea to date the CEO. What if it didn’t work out? You’d still have to see him around the office.”
    Sydney shrugged. “I guess. And he’s probably not my type, anyway. But that kind of wealth is anybody’s type.”
    Michelle frowned at the callous statement and tried to concentrate on filing the papers. She’d never admit it to Sydney, but it was boring as all get-out. Maybe once Casey and Victoria returned, things would get more interesting. Or maybe it was boring because all she could think about since getting the flowers was calling Sark to say thank you. She’d prefer to thank him in person with some more of their steamy kisses, but they’d have to settle for the phone for now.
    As the day progressed, she saw that while Sydney could talk marketing strategy with Casey, she seemed unwilling to do things she considered beneath her. It was Michelle who spent an hour in the mailroom dealing with a postage issue, and Michelle who learned the marketing database and entered eleven billion names into the program. She didn’t know if she was setting herself up to play a lesser role in the marketing team by being willing to do the more menial labor, but she couldn’t compete with Sydney, who was throwing out terms like ROI and SWOT analysis.
    ROI ? What was that? She wished she could talk it over with a friend, but Sark was away and she hadn’t spoken to Eve since the night in the club. Eve hadn’t said a word about Sark in the car ride home from the club other than to say she approved. She owed Eve a visit to say she was on this floor now. When she got a break she’d walk across the fourth floor to say hi.
    Long after the sun stopped shining through the office windows, Casey shut down her computer and said good-bye. “It’s seven o’clock, Michelle. Go home.”
    “It is?” Michelle looked up, startled. After the mind-numbing database entry, Casey had asked her to read through the current marketing plan and make some changes to a PowerPoint presentation. She’d gotten sucked into making each slide perfect, knowing that Casey or maybe even Noah Frellish would be showing the slides to customers. Normally in the call center, she’d known the time to the minute, but here she’d let three hours slide without tracking it. “Good night, Casey.” She saw that Sydney was still at her desk.
    As soon as Casey was out of sight, Sydney clicked off her computer. “Oh, thank goodness. I thought we’d never get out of here. I’m meeting friends for drinks and I don’t want to be late.”
    “I don’t think we’re required to stay as long as Casey does. Victoria went home a while back, didn’t she?”
    “Yes, but she’s about to pop out a baby. And I couldn’t leave while you were still here. How bad would that look?” she said, but with a smile.
    “Sorry. I didn’t mean to make you late.”
    “You didn’t.” Sydney pushed an arm into her coat. “Do you want to come for drinks? We’re heading to Henri’s.”
    Like she knew where that was. “Uh, no thanks. I have plans with a friend in the graphics department,” she said, more than ready to show off her amazing floral bouquet and tell Eve about her first day on the new job.
    …
    “Henri’s, huh?” Eve laughed as she tilted a longneck beer into her mouth. “Good thing you came to find me. One drink there would’ve set you back a paycheck.”
    “For real?”
    “And without Sark footing the bill, we need to stick to places like these.”
    “Don’t say stuff like that. I’m not with Sark for his money. I didn’t even know he had it. I guess his stock options are worth a lot, huh?”
    Eve gave her an odd look. “You’re funny,” she said. “It’s one of the reasons I like you. Sark’s money doesn’t affect your opinion of him.”
    “I miss him,” Michelle admitted. “Especially today, starting the new job and having perfect Sydney throwing out marketing words like it was a foreign language. I couldn’t keep up