Chapter 54

I immediately raised my hand to cover my mouth. I cringed when I felt Arthur’s lips make contact with the back of my hand. This was something that I would not easily get out of.

As he removed his lips, I slowly lowered my hand. I watched as his eyes opened and color flooded his cheeks.

“I am so sorry,” Arthur offered before I could say anything. “I got caught up in the moment. I was just so excited for you and let it get the better of me, that’s all.”

My heart ached for him. The poor man was so embarrassed.

“It’s all right,” I said, smiling slightly. “It happens to all of us.”

He smiled back, but I could see that it didn’t reach his eyes.

“We best get to work,” he said. He motioned toward the table. “After you, my little fan.”

That night after all my appointments, I couldn’t stop thinking about my almost-kiss with Arthur. I could still feel his lips on the back of my hand, like an awkward reminder of how close we had come to kissing. He wasn’t bad looking or anything—quite the opposite—but with how much he looked like my dead brothers and the fact that he was my boss, it wasn’t territory that I wanted to cross into.

After getting home and settling in for the night, I decided to video chat with Lily. This was just too weird not to tell her about.

“Hello?” she asked, slightly groggily.

“Hi Lily, it’s me,” I said. I noticed her bedhead and laughed. “Were you sleeping?”

“Just a little catnap. It’s exhausting to be this influential, don’t you think?”

“Tell me about it. I’ve had more than my fair share of fires to put out just at my level of influencer, and I’m nowhere near your status.”

“Yeah, I saw how you handled the Freyja crap. Great job.”

“Thanks, but I can’t take all the credit. It was Arthur’s idea to go public with it.”

“Of course, it was. Leave it to him to know how to handle a scandal.”

I bit my lip.

“Speaking of Arthur and scandals…you can keep a secret, right?”

Lily cocked her brow at me.

“You’ve known me for how long and you’re asking me this?”

“I just have to be sure.”

“Why? Did he kiss you or something?”

I blushed and looked away from the phone.

“Oh my God, he kissed you, didn’t he?”

“No! Well, yes, but no. He tried to, but I put my hand up so that he couldn’t.”

Lily laughed.

“Woah, Anna, you little vixen! You just have all the boys after you, don’t you?”

“No, I don’t. He said that he just got overly excited for me, that’s all.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, I’m sure that he kisses everyone when he gets ‘overly excited’ for them. Come on, Anna, you’re smarter than that.”

“Well, that’s kind of why I called you. I wanted to know what you thought of the whole situation.”

“You’re going to have to give me a bit more information than this. Has he done anything besides try to kiss you?”

I took a moment to try and remember all of my interactions with Arthur.

“Well, he’s been very encouraging of me and really nice to me, even when he’s been stricter towards others. He’s also done things like take me to dinner and help me put my home gym together when I moved. Oh, and he offered to be my fake boyfriend when I started having all those issues with Bob, Julia, and the whole ‘love triangle’ scandal.”

Lily practically choked on her own snort.

“Well, he couldn’t be more obvious if he were trying. That boy is in love with you, Anna.”

I shook my head emphatically.

“Honestly, Lily, you need to stop assuming that every boy who’s nice to me is in love with me—”

“And you need to stop denying that these love-smitten boys are in love with you! Barnett isn’t being too subtle about his feelings given everything that he’s done for you, but when compared to Arthur, he’s downright coy!”

“What are you talking about?”

“Think about what you just told me: He’s nicer to you than he is to others, he does nice things for you, and he even offered to be your ‘fake’ boyfriend. That’s without mentioning that he tried to kiss you today. He has all but asked you out.”

I was at a loss for words. Hearing all of that coming from someone else, it did seem pretty obvious what Arthur’s intentions were.

“But he’s my boss, my client, Lily.”

“And since when has that mattered? Love knows no such labels.”

“He could have so many better people than me—”

“Better people than you? Give me a break. I’m not in the mood for your self-deprecating attitude.”

I sighed.

“It’s the truth. He’s richer, is more attractive, and has more influence than I do. There are plenty of better people throwing themselves at him.”

“That doesn’t change whether he has feelings for you or not, and I’m telling you that Arthur has feelings for you.”

No, there was no way that Arthur Stardust, my most influential styling client, had feelings for me, but I didn’t have the energy to argue it any further.

The next day was the first time I dreaded going into work since…well, since I started styling. I wasn’t sure how I was going to tell Arthur what I had to tell him. The last time that I spoke the truth about something like this, I lost Barnett as a friend.

I gave myself a pep talk on the way to the office. By the time I made it up to Arthur’s office, I was confident enough to talk to him—at least, that’s what I kept telling myself.

When Arthur saw me, he smiled and waved me over, though there seemed to be a bit of hesitation to his movements. I waved back and approached him.

“Hi Arthur,” I said as I set my bags on the table. “How are you doing today?”

“I’m good, I’m doing good. How are you?”

He was nervous, I could tell. I was, too, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. Hopefully, I wasn’t letting it on too obviously, either.

“I’m fine. I wanted to talk to you, actually.”

He started fidgeting with the edges of his suit. He wouldn’t look me in the eye.

“Oh? What about?”

“About yesterday, and how you tried to…kiss me.”

I could hear him swallow.

“I told you, I just got a little overly excited, that’s all.”

“I know, I know. I only wanted to tell you that I didn’t want it to ruin our friendship or anything.”

“Me either.”

“Good, good. I think the best way for that to happen is if we act as though it never happened.”

Arthur glanced at me for a moment. He bit his lower lip and seemed to be resisting saying something. Then he returned his gaze to the edges of his suit as he continued to mess with them.

“I agree. That would be the best way for us to move forward without ruining our friendship or our professional relationship.”

He seemed…disappointed, somehow, but at least he wasn’t storming off like Barnett. I wasn’t sure what was going on with him, but I might be able to keep this friendship from falling apart.

I closed the gap between us and placed my hand on his forearm.

“I’m glad. Our friendship means a lot to me.”

Arthur looked from my hand on his arm to my eyes. He gave me a tight-lipped smile.

“Me, too.”