Unarmed

Chapter 13

Chantelle's POV

I get to my office on Thursday to find a giant bouquet of red roses sitting on my desk.

For my love. Have a good day.

-Lucas

I clench the card to my chest as I sniff the flowers. Lucas and I have been together for three months and the time has flown by. Just last week, we celebrated New Year's together at his parents house. He's been working a lot more but I love him so much and little acts like these remind me of how much he loves me.

I sit behind my desk and fire up my computer to find 64 new emails. My eyes roll and I start answering them one by one.

An hour later, I come across an email from People Magazine.

Dear Ms. Bernard,

We are pleased to offer you a position at our new Seattle office as Assistant News Editor. People continues to grow and someone like you would be a valuable asset to our team.

Your benefits are as follows:

-Yearly salary of $250,000 and travel budget of $50,000 per trip

-401K

-Free health and dental care

-Office space

-Personal intern

-Free magazine subscription

My eyes are bugging out at the salary alone. That's more than twice what I make here at Cosmo. I keep reading.

We sincerely hope that you'll consider this offer. Please be in contact with us by June 1st with your response.

Jocelyn Noel

The first thing I do is call Lucas. As usual.

"Hello?" He answers the phone I know he was asleep. He's been working back to back night shifts since the New Year.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up," I say. "Should I call you back?"

"No, it's okay." He yawns. "What's up baby?"

I smile because his voice is so sexy. "I got a job offer from the People Magazine office in Seattle!"

"That's nice baby." He's trying to be excited but I can tell how sleepy he is.

"Yeah, they're offering me some nice benefits. And more than doubling my salary if I accept."

"Mmm. So ware blew ging tuk eet?"

"What?" I try to make out his mumbling but it's really hard to understand him.

"Are you going to take it?" he asks, clearer this time.

"I don't know," I sigh. "It's an amazing offer but I love Cosmo so much. I really don't know."

"Meebs juan tea bout it."

"HUH?!" I say loudly into the phone.

"Just think about it," Lucas whispers. I can tell he's about to fall asleep.

"Okay," I say, defeated. I thought he'd be a little more helpful. "And thank you for the flowers, love."

"Welcome."

I say goodbye but he's already asleep. As much as I love having a cop as a boyfriend, his work hours do make it a little hard to have good conversations.

I print the email out and stick it in my take home portfolio. I'll definitely have to think about this.