Page 86 of Let's Kiss and Tell

“Close call earlier,” Jonah says, alluding to my latest story.

“And you were helpful until you weren’t!”

“What did I do?” Jonah puts a hand on his chest.

“Oh,it would make for good content,” I mimic him in a much lower voice.

“It would!” He laughs. “You’re really going to keep these stories PG?”

“I was going to…” I say. “But now I feel like a fraud if I don’t talk about my sex life. What if I lose my readers?”

“I don’t think you’ll lose readers,” Jonah muses. “But you’ll probably get unhappy ones. You write a sex column. It’s kind of expected at this point.”

I stomp my foot. “Ugh, you’re right.”

“Side note”—Jonah looks over to the inside of the brewery—“I really like Marsh.”

“Right?!” I get a little giddy hearing Jonah’s opinion. “It’s only been like two and a half weeks, but I’ve never worked with anyone like him before. He respects me. He thinks I’m a talented writer.”

“Because youarea talented writer,” Jonah says. “Don’t let that be the bar.”

“But there’s just something different about him. He’s shrewd, and really witty. He’s just someone that has his shit together, you know? Like that’s really cool—”

“Oh my god,” Jonah says slowly, enunciating every word.

I stop. “What?”

“You’re so into him,” he whispers.

“No…”

“Yes, you are! I know you, Luce,” he says, and then his demeanor switches. “How are you feeling? Does this all feel too complicated now?”

“It’s fine,” I respond, dismissing him. “We have an arrangement.”

“And he feels the same way?”

“Okay, well.” I brace myself. “We had a moment…We’ve kind of had multiple moments. But he always stops it before things go too far.” I think about this. Being turned down by a man on multiple occasions doesn’t look great on paper. “Maybe this is all just a moot point and he’s not even interested.”

“I think that just means herespectsyou and respects his job,”Jonah says. “He’s new to the company, he probably doesn’t want to risk it all for a piece of ass. No matter how nice that ass is.”

“I do have a nice ass,” I agree.

“He’s also friends with Nadia Lewis, right?” Jonah adds. “I’m sure that makes it complicated.”

“Out of curiosity…” I start, obviously only thinking of the hypothetical, “if anythingwereto happen between Marsh and me, how bad could that really be?”

“Is both of you losing your jobs pretty bad?”

That’s the answer I was dreading. “Do you think we’d actually lose our jobs?”

“Luce.” Jonah’s face immediately switches to looking concerned. “I don’t have to tell you that you can’t sleep with co-workers—”

“I know, I know.” I think about how years ago two people atThe Ruewere sleeping together for months. Hanna was an editor and Casey was a writer. During that time, Casey got all the top stories, and nobody knew why. It ended up becoming a huge conflict of interest, and both of them were fired.

“Also, you wouldn’t just be sleeping together,” Jonah reminds me. “You’re also using him for your columnandyou’re an expert for his feature. It’s too messy, girl. I like Marsh enough to know I don’t want him to lose his job. And you’re doing all of thisforyour job. Don’t let this be the reason you lose it.”

“Yeah.” I nod. “Yeah, you’re right.”