"You're going?" Emily, Juliette's best friend sang into the phone, her voice half terrified and half-amused after she'd been considerably updated. Juliette sighed, "I am." she was definite. Silence clouded them for a brief second, "So do I have to tell you, or is the word hooker ringing any bells." Emily laughed on the other end of the call, she always had a peculiar time for using humor. "I am not a Hooker! I am not gonna sleep with him for money." Juliette refuted quickly, trying to ignore images of him sleeping with her. "But you are getting paid?" Emily asked.
"Yep, he's doubling my salary," Juliette said recalling the email Blaze sent to her five minutes after she'd left his office. The figures shocked her and she'd requested that he lower the amount, she did want a raise but double what she made was too much. Blaze refuted by sending that she deserved the new figure promising that he had planned to give her a raise before she demanded it.
"Uh huh, so how are you not a hooker?" Her friend stifled a laugh over the phone. "Because, Em I'm not going to sleep with him, consider it an acting job." Juliette countered.
"Acting huh?" Emily asked.
"Why not, I've been meaning to explore other options." Juliette laughed, "Anyhow I wanted you to know that I'll be gone for a month, I leave tomorrow."
"So soon!" Emily whined, "I'll miss you Jewls. Anyhow, what are you packing?"
"I'll miss you too, but I'll keep in touch. What do you mean, packing?" Juliette was confused.
"I mean if you're gonna pack your normal clothes or if you're gonna dress and appear in the unflattering way you do when you go to work?" Emily asked, truly interested.
"My clothes, I'm not going to work, not conventionally anyway. I'll be myself if that's what you're asking." Juliette countered.
"So no severity and cold formalities right?" Emily asked but Juliette could hear the plea in her voice, and she laughed. "No I swear," she promised.
"Jewls, are you doing this because you still care about him?" Emily's voice was careful and soft. Juliette remembered when she first met Blaze, she'd thought that he wasn't real but a dream come true. The type of guy every woman dreamed about, she'd liked him, but he never paid any attention to her. And why would he? He always had a lot of women, never with one more than two weeks. They were all beautiful. Realizing she would never be the type of woman he'd give a second look to she'd abandoned her futile fantasy; she wasn't doing this because she still cared about him, but because he truly seemed to need her assistance. This was simply an employee who was in a position to help her boss.
'No, I don't, but I have this fear..." She trailed off.
"Which is what Jewls?" Emily asked, concern ringing through her voice.
"I fear I might be in a position to fall for him," She paused, inhaled deeply, and gave a shaky sigh. "again."