Public Relations

by Brittany Anne

  Vanessa curled up on her couch and clicked on the television, planning to skip through the channels until she found something she could get lost in. Normally she’d be in bed by that hour, if she hadn’t totally overcompensated for her lack of sleep with ungodly amounts of caffeine throughout the day.

  So, late night it was.

  The blanket beside her was calling her name, so she grabbed for it. A knock at the door made her jump.

  It was ten o’clock at night. She was in her pajamas. Who would be knocking on her door?

  The knock came again.

  Vanessa slowly stood and tiptoed to the door, looking out the peephole and taking in a sharp inhale when she saw Jared Walker standing there.

  She pulled back from the door.

  What was he doing there?

  Vanessa was in her damn pajamas. And not the sexy kind. No, they were the veg-out-on-the-sofa-eating-ice-cream-straight-from-the-tub kind.

  Who cared? She didn’t need to impress the man standing outside.

  But dammit, she wanted to.

  With a sigh, she surrendered, unlocking the door and pulling it open. Jared stood there in light blue jeans and a gray t-shirt. It took her back for a moment— she’d never seen him in casual wear.

  For some reason, he looked a thousand times sexier like that. Maybe because it was new. Or maybe because it was a part of him that the world rarely saw.

  And there she was, able to enjoy it.

  “Are you going to invite me in?” he asked. He held up a bag in his hand. “I brought goodies.”

  She rolled her eyes, but couldn’t help but smile, then moved to the side to let him in. His eyes swept around the apartment, lingering on each wall before moving to the next. “Huh. I just realized I didn’t really bother to look around the last time I was here.”

  The corners of Vanessa’s lips raised. “Yeah,” she muttered, thinking about the last time he was there. “We were both a little distracted. Sorry you didn’t get the tour.”

  Jared turned to her and flashed that sexy smile of his, and she felt butterflies flutter around her stomach.

  The apartment was small and cozy, with a nice little kitchen nook that took up the back third of the room. All the walls and floors were gray and black, so Vanessa had done her best to sprinkle color throughout the place.

  Jared’s eyes caught the television, the blanket on the couch, and her freshly made tea sitting on the coffee table. He walked to the couch and plopped down right where she’d been sitting, then set his bag on the table and opened it up.

  “What’re we watching tonight?”

  Vanessa eyed her bedroom door and gave serious thought to running in there and changing. Instead, she gave in and walked over to the couch, sitting on the side opposite Jared. It was a small couch, so there wasn’t much space between them.

  “I didn’t decide, yet.” His unannounced arrival had interrupted her.

  Jared pulled out a pint of ice cream and set it on the table, then pulled out another that he placed next to it. “I didn’t know what your favorite was,” he said as he pulled out a third, “so I may have gone a little overboard.”

  Vanessa fell into laughter as he pulled out three more pints. “You could’ve asked,” she said between laughs.

  Jared grunted. “And ruin my surprise? Where’s the fun in that?”

  She shook her head and eyed the pints. When she spotted peanut butter cup swirl, she grabbed it, along with a plastic spoon. She was dressed appropriately, might as well pig out on her favorite, right?

  Jared raised an eyebrow. “Ah. Good choice. I should’ve known you’d pick that one.”

  “Oh?” she mused. “And why’s that?”

  He smirked as she put the first spoonful into her mouth. “Because that’s the one I picked for me.” She almost panicked, but he just laughed. “Guess we’re not all that different after all, huh?”

  A smile slowly spread across her face. “No. No, I guess we’re not.” Warmth flew between them as the moment lingered. “Do you wanna share it?” she finally asked, breaking the silence. Not even her veg-out pants could accommodate for an entire pint of peanut butter cup swirl, after all.

  Jared grabbed a spoon and stabbed it into the ice cream she held. “I’d love to.”

  Vanessa laughed and put the pint on the table. She gathered up the other ones and carried them over to the freezer, doing her best to fit them all in. It was a miracle, but she did it. Five pints of ice cream in her tiny little freezer. Luckily, it had been empty.

  When she walked back in, Jared was sprawled out across the couch, ice cream in one hand and remote in the other as he flipped through the channels.

  “I appreciate the ice cream, but I’m not totally sure what you’re doing here.”

  Jared’s gaze never left the screen. “It’s a Friday night. I felt like hanging out with my friend.”

  Vanessa fell to the cushion, facing him instead of the television. “Jared, I don’t-”

  He sat up, and in a split second his face was barely a foot from hers. “Vanessa, what are you so afraid of?”

  She opened her mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. Sighed. “I just don’t do well with things like this. Okay? That’s all there is to it.”

  “Nuh, uh.” Jared shook his head. He took a spoonful of ice cream in his mouth, then gestured toward her with the spoon. “There’s more to the story.”

  Hell, what did she have to lose? The poor guy had already seen her in her comfy pants. It couldn’t get much worse than that.

  “I’ve had three relationships in my life. The first was my highschool sweetheart. We went to college together. I thought we’d get married, but he always put off that talk.” He never wanted to talk to her about it, would get agitated if she brought it up. “Finally one day I got fed up and pushed the subject. He said I was boring, and he didn’t know if he wanted to spend his life with someone who bored him.”

  “And you told him to go fuck himself, right?” Jared’s stare on her face was too intense.

  She licked her lower lip. “I wish I did.” God, she’d spent so many nights wishing it had gone down that way. “I begged him to give me another chance, told him I’d change.” She pretended to be exciting, did things that sent her anxiety through the roof, went out of her way to prove she wasn’t a bore. Bought super expensive lingerie with the intentions of surprising him at his dorm, and… “I went to surprise him and found him naked with another woman.”

  Jared’s jaw flexed. He stayed silent.

  It made her skin crawl to think about how hard she’d tried to change herself for a man who didn’t love her. Who didn’t even respect her enough to dump her before hopping into bed with someone else.

  But the truth was, Vanessa couldn’t change herself. She couldn’t break out of her routines or ways of thinking. It wasn’t in her to be the fun girl. Not anymore.

  “After that, it was casual dating. Two almost got serious, but it just didn’t ever go anywhere.” She looked down at her hands and played with a string that hung from her pajama pants. “I think he was right. I think I am boring.”

  “Fuck that.” Jared’s voice made her jump. She hadn’t expected the venom that she heard. His hand rose to her cheek. Despite the anger painted across his features, his touch was gentle. “Fuck anyone who ever made you think you weren’t enough. Exactly as you are.”

  She sucked in a shaky breath. “Jared, it’s…”

  “No,” he said firmly. “Anything that asshole made you think about yourself? It’s garbage.”

  He said it with such conviction that she almost believed him. She wanted to believe him.

  “I was invited to a movie premiere party tonight, and I’m here, eating ice cream on your couch. That’s how exciting you are to me.” His thumb brushed against her cheek. “I’d choose you any day of the week. So don’t you dare go letting some asshole from your past scare you away from ever getting close to someone again.”

  All the air escaped her lungs and a sen
se of total warmth and comfort came over her. Her shoulders fell. Her hands stopped picking at the string. Her heart stopped pounding in her ears and returned to its rightful place in her chest.

  “Thank you,” she said. There were so many more things she should say, but she couldn’t find the words. “Thank you.”

  Jared grinned, then gave her a wink. He relaxed back into the couch and scooped another spoonful of ice cream. “So am I eating this all on my own, or what?”

  She smiled and inched closer, grabbing her spoon from the pint and bringing it to her lips.

  The smile never left her face.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Jared looked at the clock and couldn’t believe that it was nearly one in the morning. Between the ice cream, the stupid movies, and the banter between him and Vanessa, time had really flown by.

  She faced him on the couch, legs crossed in her cute little purple pajamas. Her hair was loose and wild. His mind kept drifting back to her story, to her former flame that called her boring, and Jared simply couldn’t wrap his head around it.

  How could anyone not be mesmerized by her? How could anyone be bored by a girl like Vanessa? She was caring, compassionate, intelligent, generous. She could be serious one moment and goofy another. She could put him in his place and leave him speechless with a few words.

  Yeah. Vanessa was not boring.

  “Our big fundraiser is in two weeks. Hard to believe how quickly it snuck up on us.”

  Jared smiled. “It’s gonna be great.” The kids and staff alike put so much damn work into the thing. They’d already sold two hundred tickets.

  “Thank you for renting out the event room for us. If it was left up to me, the thing would’ve been held in the school’s gym.” She rolled her eyes and giggled.

  He bit his cheek. “I’m happy to help.” He didn’t bother to tell her that he was close friends with the hotel owner. Or that he had a permanent room on the top floor. “It’ll be a great night.”

  The corners of Vanessa’s eyes crinkled when she smiled. Jared loved seeing it.

  Her eyes went down to her hands, which were playing with a string on her pants. She’d been doing it all night, everytime she felt things she didn’t want to deal with.

  When her eyes rose to his again, Jared could see exactly what she was running from.

  The same thing he’d been running from all night.

  Lust.

  “How can you be sitting in my cheap apartment eating ice cream with me when you’re a freaking billionaire?” she blurted out.

  He laughed out loud at the question, taken aback by it. “I grew up blue collar, I lived my life by the straps of my boots. This is all new.” He thought of the luxuries, the expectations, the assumptions. “A lot of it’s for show.” The limo, the bodyguards… it was more a way for him to make jobs for people who needed them than a necessity.

  “You really don’t strike me as the type.” She bit her lip, then licked it. “You seem so normal.”

  Jared leaned into the cushions of her couch. “I am normal.” Well, maybe not normal, but he wasn’t some snob. That was for sure. He knew how to get dirty. All too well. “If I could, I’d pack everything up. Go live out on a farm somewhere. Work the land. Build a family. Shut the rest of the world out.”

  He surprised himself by admitting that. It wasn’t a very Jared Walker thing of him to say… but it was a Jared thing. It was his dream from boyhood, only now that he had the means…

  “Why don’t you?”

  He lifted his shoulder and dropped it. “I realize there’s a whole world of people who need me. I can’t abandon them.”

  She placed her hand on his, and the warmth of it spread through his body. “You can help them and still help you.”

  Jared took her hand in his as his smile grew wider. “Maybe.”

  She inched closer to him. “No, really. You could do it up, make sure you have good internet connection. Leave Gavin in charge of the building and handle things remotely. Make appearances when necessary.” Her eyes lit up, those specks of gold he was coming to love dancing around in them. “You could totally make it work.”

  “What makes you so sure?”

  Her lower lip fell. “Well.” She shrugged, tilting her head to the side and sending her dark curls cascading over her shoulder. “I just am.”

  “Is it that hopeful little girl in you?” She squinted at him in confusion, but he just laughed. “The one who handed the CEO of a billion-dollar company business plans in a glittery folder?”

  Her hand flew to her mouth as she burst into laughter. “I didn’t know it would be you I was meeting with!” She playfully shoved his shoulder.

  A grunt escaped his throat. “Seriously though. Glitter?” His eyes swept over her apartment, noting the bright pinks, blues, and purples, the sparkling decor. Her work desk in her classroom had the same bright colors.

  “I heard somebody once say that you should treat kindness like glitter, and sprinkle it everywhere you go.” She relaxed more into the couch, her bent knee brushing against his thigh. “Maybe I just like things that sparkle.”

  Jared stared at her, taking in the beauty before him. Full pink lips that begged to be kissed, high cheekbones that were perfectly framed by her wild curls, and her eyes— it was her eyes that made him understand. Because damn, did they sparkle. And he absolutely could not look away.

  She bit her lip and blushed. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  He slowly shook his head and chuckled. “Vanessa Adams, you are so not boring.”

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Vanessa finished tying the laces on her work boots, then straightened her back and pulled down the hem of her shirt. She looked in the mirror and saw The Walker Foundation’s logo on her shirt, a smile slowly spreading across her lips as she thought of Jared’s reaction last time she’d worn a foundation shirt.

  I love seeing my name across your chest.

  She’d never admit it, but she might just like having his name on her.

  Today, she wore long sleeves, and, for the hell of it, she’d decided to leave her hair down.

  She picked up her glasses from the sink and slid them on, then skipped out of the bathroom, grabbed her bag, and headed out the door.

  It was a ten minute drive from her apartment to the office of Walker Enterprises. There, she’d be meeting with Jared’s staff, several coworkers, her students, their families, and whatever other volunteers showed up.

  One of their side projects was collecting nonperishables and other necessary items, and today was the day they’d be assembling those items into care packages and sending them off to those who needed them.

  Vanessa couldn’t believe the amount of donations they’d received, but with how involved the media had been in their project, it made sense. Still, it was going to take up their entire Sunday trying to put things together so they could send them out the following day.

  Originally, she planned on putting things together with a handful of students in her classroom.

  After seeing the sheer volume of donations, she’d asked Jared for his help. He happily offered his office and staff.

  She bit her lip to keep from smiling while thinking of Jared.

  Before her thoughts could get too far away from her, Vanessa pulled up to Walker Enterprises and turned into the parking garage. She lucked out with a spot close to the entrance, then locked her car and headed through the sliding glass doors.

  The office was alive with warm bodies hustling in every direction. Some carried boxes, some papers, some simply walked with a determined stare. She saw several of her students and recognized a few parents in the mix.

  Jared told her everyone would be there at eleven, and it was only half-past ten. She had no idea why everyone had gotten there so early.

  “Miss Adams, Mr. Walker is in the third floor conference room waiting for you,” said the front door secretary.

  Vanessa thanked her and headed for the stairs, climbing up to the third floor and r
ealizing quickly the whole thing was a conference room.

  The room was wide, filled with four large round tables that could easily sit 10 people each. Vanessa saw a corner of the room sectioned off with glass walls, a large oval table inside and six men standing around it, Jared being one of them.

  All four tables in the room were covered in supplies. She recognized her students running around in their foundation tees and said hellos as she headed to Jared.

  She stepped through the doorway as the men spoke.

  “With all this stuff? We could easily send out three hundred boxes. All fully packed.” Vanessa recognized the man who spoke as Kyle.

  “We could double that number if we make them smaller packages,” Gavin said. He stood with his arms crossed over his chest, the only man in the room wearing a suit instead of a foundation shirt and jeans.

  “No way. I’d rather send complete packages and have less than send half-assed ones just so I can tell the press we sent out a higher number.” Jared’s voice commanded authority and elicited calm all at the same time.

  Vanessa felt a chill roll down her spine. “Hey, guys.” Every head turned toward her. Jared’s face lost its hard edge when his eyes met hers. “I thought we weren’t meeting until 11?” That’s what Jared had told her.

  He chuckled. “I told everyone else ten.”

  “Why would you do that?” As the organizer, she should’ve been there at least a half-hour before everyone else.

  “To prove that the world wouldn’t fall apart if you took a break every once in awhile,” he smirked.

  She wanted to be upset, but looking around at the swarm of activity, the leadership of her students, the determination of everyone involved, she couldn’t be anything but proud. Her shoulders fell and she allowed herself to relax for a minute.

  “Vanessa, you’ve met Kyle and Gavin.” Both nodded in her direction. “This is James, Ryan, and Foster,” he pointed to each of the men that stood beside him. “James and Ryan are technology developers that work with Walker Enterprises, and Foster is the foundation’s grant writer. All three are helping us out today.”