“Maddie and I bonded over our favorite Jodie Foster movies. How she could pick Contact over The Brave One is beyond me, though.” Cooper grinned. “She didn’t try to hide her sexuality while she was at Living Ruff doing all her interviews, is what I’m getting at.”

Felicity frowned at the conversation leap. “I— Well, yes, I believe she’s gay. So?”

“Right. Good. I wasn’t sure if you knew, but I gathered she’s not keeping it a secret. Anyway, she kept getting all these texts from some new woman she was into. We all teased her a little about it, the way her face lit up whenever a new message arrived. I think it’s wonderful when someone’s head over in heels in love.”

Maddie was in love? How had Felicity not known this? “Did she say who she was seeing?”

“You really can’t see it?” Cooper asked, tone rising incredulously. “Your boss and Maddie?”

Felicity laughed. “That’s… You couldn’t be more wrong. Elena is not into the ladies, thank you very much. I’ve worked with her for years. I’d have seen it if she was.”

“Felicity, Elena takes Maddie as her plus-one to events.”

“Yes, and I already explained that. It was part of a contract Elena signed in order to publish a scoop Maddie had done. It was business for Elena. I think she’d have agreed to take Attila the Hun to events if it meant getting that exclusive.”

“Okay, but Elena kept in touch with her while she was away in Vietnam. She’s a busy woman. Your boss must have really missed her.”

“Friends do that, too, you know. Miss each other.” Felicity scowled.

“Elena’s moving all the way down to Sydney to live where Maddie lives because Maddie was unhappy here.”

“Because Elena has a beautiful home in Sydney! And she can edit her fashion magazines from anywhere.”

“And yet she chose somewhere far from her empire’s headquarters in the wrong time zone for most business deals?”

“So what? She’s the boss; she can do what she likes.”

“Felicity.” Cooper sounded exasperated now. “She keeps Maddie’s photo on her desk in the same place her ex-husband’s was.”

“Well, that’s just circumstantial nonsense,” Felicity said hotly. “You don’t know Elena. And I can tell you, she is completely, utterly, thoroughly straight.”

She couldn’t tell Cooper the rest. How her younger self had spent an embarrassing amount of time watching her boss for any signs of romantic interest in women while telling herself it was just admiration for an impressive businesswoman.

And the verdict? Nothing. Elena hadn’t given any of the beautiful models, photographers, or assistants that filled their world more than a cursory glance—no matter how refined, clever, or breathtaking. On the other hand, Elena had, on more than one occasion, asked Felicity to book her and her then-husband romantic weekend getaways.

And there was also no way in hell that Elena had ever had a discreet woman on the side, either. She knew her boss’s packed schedule inside and out. It simply wasn’t possible without Felicity seeing some signs.

Therefore she had long ago concluded that her boss was both straight and entirely unavailable—which had been such an odd thought at the time for someone who considered herself one hundred percent straight, too. She’d never prodded that weirdness too hard.

Of course, the day Felicity discovered her own bisexuality in the arms of a female colleague, a great many things had become clear.

Not that it mattered anymore. Her pathetic little crush was in the past. And as she’d just patiently explained to Cooper, Elena Bartell was utterly, thoroughly straight.

“And you wish that wasn’t the case,” Cooper concluded.

A chill went through her. “No.”

“Felicity.” Kindness laced Cooper’s are-you-kidding-me tone.

“No!” She folded her arms. “You don’t get it, do you? Fine, I admit I’ve found her attractive. In the past. But so what? The world’s full of people we find attractive who are unattainable. All I want in life is career success, and I can’t get that if I obsess about people I can’t have. So I told myself I wouldn’t think about Elena like that, and that’s what I’ve done. I moved on years ago. Frankly, I’m tired of this topic.”

Cooper nodded slowly. “I believe you. I do believe you think highly of her. I believe you are attracted to her. And I believe you when you say that’s something you’ve pushed out of your mind because that would distract you from the thing you care about most. Your career, right?”

“Yes.” Finally!

“Well, on that last point I get it. Workplace romances can be messy, even if both people are into each other. But one thing I’m sad about is how convinced you are that all you’re good for in this world is your career. Don’t you care about attaining other things beside that? Love? Family? Anything else?”

“No.” Felicity shook her head firmly.

“Never?”

“No.” She gave an even more adamant head shake this time.

“What if it just…happens? You fall hopelessly in love with someone? You can’t control that, surely.”

“Nothing’s more important than career.” She gave Cooper a pugnacious look. On this, no one could sway her.

“You really believe that, don’t you?”

“Certainly.”

“I believe you.” Cooper leaned back, her expression inscrutable.

Did Felicity detect a hint of sadness?

Cooper’s phone beeped, and she reached for it, opening a text. “I asked Mrs. B to tell me when Harvey came in. She reports he’s back at the office, asked where you were, and only settled in at his desk when she told him you’d gone out with me. He probably thinks we’re out for hours.”

“Sounds like it. Once more unto the breach?”

Cooper chuckled. “Shakespeare, right? I will miss your random classical references when this is all over.”

“And I’ll miss the fact that you actually find them impressive.”

* * *

Harvey did not look happy to see her, Felicity noted as she slid uninvited into the visitor’s chair opposite him.

“Ms. Simmons,” he said with a sigh, “I really am quite busy.” Harvey glanced over Felicity’s shoulder, and his eyebrows lifted. “Et tu, Dr. Cooper?”

“I’m an interested observer. It’s my program, after all.”

Harvey shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “Really, now’s not the best time. I have a meeting”—he waved to the door—“so if you’ll just—”

“You only just got here,” Felicity said. “You don’t have a meeting.”

He blinked at her through his glasses. “I’m really very sorry. I’d like you to reschedule.”

Felicity stared at him for a moment, wondering which way to play this: diplomacy or Rambo? Elena wanted the former. But if Felicity was ever to be taken seriously in her own right, not just because Elena had anointed her, then she needed to show initiative. She had to know when to ignore the rules. Time to shake the tree and see what fell out.