To Color Your Life

"No, that won't go. I'm working tomorrow," Emily immediately turned on protective mode.

The last thing on Earth she'd do would be to introduce her grandma to this guy!

Knowing the elderly lady, Hayes was sure: if Justin Evans scrambles granny's brains and that's it! Emily won't notice standing at the altar in her wedding dress!

Not that she was against such an outcome...

Hayes, stop it! Your thoughts are dragging you in the wrong direction again! Emily mentally drove away silly fantasies, ready to paint pictures of a happy future in her head.

She has worn enough of the rose glasses in her in past relationships.

The question was different - what did Evans want?

The man showed a clear interest, but limited himself to only hints, without specific words and actions.

Either he was playing, or he didn't want to scare her away. Emily was not strong in her assessment of male psychology. She wasn't going to ask the question directly again.

"Work isn't a problem," Evans poked on his phone, "Gregor already knows you have a day off tomorrow. Maybe some tea?"

What do you mean, tea?! This boss was getting more shameless with every passing minute!

"Mr. Evans, you can't do that!" she protested, forgetting about the recent shameful moment, "You can't give me a day off just like that! Do you have any idea how it looks from the outside?"

The man stretched lazily. For the head of a well-known magazine with a large staff, he looked too relaxed. Like a cat happy with life, which was well-fed, got scratched behind his ears and now was going to take a nap.

"Miss Hayes, don't worry. Isn't this a great reason to kill two birds with one stone? Your grandma will be calm about your privacy, and your privacy will not be attacked by the next potential fiances."

Hmm, if you look from this side, then for Emily there were some advantages, the girl thought.

"And about the day off - no one will say anything. Joyce already got herself one. In what way are you worse? I did not say, but on the set you were damn attractive. I'm sure when the next issue comes out, the Pharaoh will be burried in heaps of the messages asking who this beauty is. I think you have a chance to beat even Bradley in the rankings." The man clicked his tongue, a sneer slid across his lips.

"What's his rating?" somehow Emily's combination of rating and beating became alarming. This arrogant brute will definitely not be held back like Gregor.

"He's the number one Pharaoh model," Evans grimaced at the mention of Bradley.

"Oh, then that explains a lot," the girl said thoughtfully. The guy, apparently, has become a star and knows no boundaries.

But what the hell was he picking on her? They saw each other a couple of times, and both times he was talking complete nonsense!

"Did he tell you something?" the boss leaned forward and looked closely into the girl's eyes, "Hmm, I see that he did. It looks like the educational measures didn't work on him," the man muttered under his breath, but Emily heard the phrase.

Justin leaned closer and whispered, "I did. But nothing that he doesn't deserve himself."

Emily swallowed. Something unfamiliar flashed in the man's gaze for a second. A chill ran down her spine, which made her want to shiver.

It is better not to be the enemy of this person. She did not know what price the guy paid for his misconduct in front of the boss, but the girl did not want to aggravate the situation. Especially if she was the cause of this confusion.

"Mr. Evans, it may sound like nonsense what I am about to say, but you should know," she, too, lowered her voice to a whisper. There was no false interest in the man's eyes.

"I'm in the spotlight, Miss Hayes."

Emily took a breath, "I think Bradley has a crush on you."

Evans paused for a moment, digesting what he heard, "Excuse me, what?"

What? Male models very often work for their team. Yes, and Kelly said that there were fellow employees who had hots for the boss. In art circles, such preferences are common.

"I think Bradley is jealous of your attention to my persona, so he is spreading rumors about my pregnancy," Emily concluded with a triumphant air, as if she had solved Fermat's theorem or some other mystery of humanity.

"Wait a second," the man straightened and reached for a bottle of water. Hayes saw him bite his lips, holding back his emotions. Was this news so shocking to him?

Evans took a couple of sips and gave the girl a strange look, "So Bradley is jealous? Of me? To you?" With every word, his smile grew wider and wider.

"Well ... yeah," Emily nodded, not so sure of her assumption anymore.

Justin chuckled and burst into loud laughter. More precisely, it was an unrestrained cackle that could be clearly heard outside the office.

"Ahaha, Miss Hayes, you are quite a character," the man calmed down after a couple of minutes and brushed away the tears in his eyes,

"Damn, I should have recorded your serious look on video and showed it to Catherine."

"And what does she have to do with it?" Emily now had no idea what to think.

"Everything!" Justin let out a slow breath, trying to contain the chuckles escaping from his chest. "Now I even feel a little sorry for Bradley. The guy is suffering out of nothing."

"Will you finally explain yourself?!"

Evans clicked his tongue and looked at Emily with a grin, "Who Bradley is jealous of is Catherine. He chased after her for a year so that she agreed to start dating him."

"So are they dating? Stop! And then what have I to do with it?" the girl was surprised.

The boss shook his head as if he were talking to an unintelligent child, "Miss Hayes, you are not at all interested in life and gossip about other people, are you?"

Emily frowned, "Of course not. Why do I need it? If I do not communicate with a person, I don't need to know about his personal life. And if I communicate, I can draw conclusions about this person myself."

Since childhood, she did not like all this gossip and conversations behind her back. As a child, she many times heard other people discussing her grandmother behind her eyes, as soon as she stepped aside. Such hypocrisy was disgusting.

"Hmm, then I'm so damn lucky to be your boyfriend."

"Fake boyfriend," she corrected.

"Temporarily fake boyfriend," added the boss.

Hell, how do you understand this? Is he going to TEMPORARILY be a fake boyfriend or temporarily be a FAKE boyfriend?

"So what about Catherine and Bradley?" Emily turned the conversation back on track, as the boss's gaze evoked the wrong thoughts that were worth having when the two were in a closed room.

She wrapped herself tighter in his jacket and changed her position so as not to shine with the slit on the skirt. Next to this man, she constantly forgot how she looked and what she was saying!

It was as if he was revealing her old features and habits that Emily had covered for so many years with a thick layer of restraint and correctness, and doing so with a surgical precision.

"Catherine is a lesbian," Evans said right off the bat, but when he saw the girl's shocked face, he immediately corrected, "More precisely, she is bisexual. She doesn't care who to build relationships with - with boys or girls. But she prefers girls more."

"Oh, now I understand."

You understand nothing, Hayes! This Bradley is definitely a dumbass, since he decided that there was something between her and Catherine!

"Catherine and I are just colleagues. She is a nice and cool girl. Very attractive. I would even say sexy," Emily began to understand why the spectacular blonde caused such conflicting emotions. "But I'm not interested in girls."

"But Bradley doesn't know about it," the boss chuckled, "You are Joyce's clear favorites, so he is afraid that she will trade him for you."

"Can she?" such a turn of events would be too weird, even for Emily. "Oh, I mean purely hypothetically," she added, noticing how Evans's gaze grew heavy and gaiety faded from his face.

"Then she'll be fired," he snapped, "Purely hypothetically, of course."

Emily looked down at the table and shoved the first food into her mouth to hide her smile.

Yes, she was not strong in male psychology, but she was not a fool not to notice the obvious. Not only Bradley was jealous in this situation.

Maybe she should have a closer chat with Catherine? As far as Emily knew Joyce, she would be only too happy to pull the nerves of two peacocks.

It seems that she is starting to like working for Pharaoh more and more!

A knock on the door distracted her from the insidious plan that was beginning to grow in her head.

"Come in," the boss replied.

"Mr. Evans, a package was delivered here from the department. There are some pieces of clothing. Female clothing," the secretary reported dryly and Emily felt a you-know-who's gaze trying to drill a hole on the back of her head.

Eh, it's a pity that she was sitting with her back to the door. She really wanted to see Stephanie's distorted face.

"Give it to Miss Hayes and you can be free," Justin didn't even look up as he was answering the message on the phone.

The secretary slammed her heels to the couch and, stone-faced, laid the package next to Hayes.

"Thanks, Stephanie," Emily gave the girl a kind smile. She so wanted to add 'and you can be free'.

Stephanie lifted her neat little nose and silently walked out of the office.

Emily had never considered herself a bitch, but this Cerberus in a skirt infuriated her more and more each time. She wondered, why?

"Are these my things? Thank you," she was delighted, digging into the package. It's great that I don't have to go back to the department in this provocative outfit!

"Yeah, I thought you'd be more comfortable that way," Justin put his phone aside. "See how considerate your boyfriend is, Miss Hayes."

"Fake boyfriend, Mr. Evans."

The boss didn't react to her little remark, as if her opinion didn't matter. "If you are done with your lunch, change your clothes."

"Here?" Emily was taken aback.

"If you want to take our relationship, amendment: fake relationship, to a new level, then you can start getting changed here, Miss Hayes," he chuckled and slowly walked his gaze from her chest, along her skirt and down to her ankles, "But better there," the man pointed out to the door of the second room where they were last time. "My endurance is not limitless, you know. And you are constantly testing it."

The boss's hundred-megawatt smile burned her cheeks with a bright blush. Emily grabbed a bag of things, jumped off the couch, and in a second disappeared behind the next door.

She suddenly realized that she doesn't want to pull this cat by the mustache.

Pulling his jacket off her shoulders, it came to her mind that tomorrow she would not only have to get into his car and introduce him to her grandmother but also pretend to be a happy couple in love.

And she'd have to do that in such a way that a professional actress would believe in it!

Something clearly went wrong in her life.

And it seems she was beginning to like it.