"Stone, I don't know if this is such a good idea. Plus we'll have to fill in Ezekiel . . . ."
"Yeah, but he'll go along with it. Probably will think it's hilarious. All of the others will be local hires, won't know the difference."
"What about our badges?"
"I asked Charlene when you were filling out your paperwork. The visitor badges will only have our names on them. And I don't think she really paid attention to who was who when we introduced ourselves. We'll just swap badges."
"I don't know if I can do this, Stone."
"Please Flynn, she already thinks you're me. It'll be easier. And maybe it'll be so awkward in person that it'll be easier to break it off.
Flynn sighed. "Jacob . . . ."
"Look, it's only gonna be for three weeks. I'll take both shifts in residence and you can have my shift over in Boston in the Egypt one. I know you've been dyin' to have it. I'll break up with her after you leave and you won't have to deal with the aftermath."
Flynn sighed. "But you will."
"I know, but it's my mess. Please Flynn."
"I think you're making a big mistake, but alright, fine. For you."
"Thank you Flynn."
"Wait, run this by me again? You want me to pretend to be you as long as they're here?"
"Yes."
"But how will we do our jobs? We can't do each other's."
"That's not a problem, Jacob doesn't know what I do. So I can present myself as liaison and you can be the pr director. I'll be working with them most of the time, you'll hardly have to interact with them. And we can head people off before they use our names. And our badges only have our titles on the outside."
"But I can't . . .won't Jacob know I'm not you?"
"We never really discussed personal things, honestly. Just art and science and well, so you won't have to worry about messing up personal details. Just be you. You won't have to see them much."
"Well, I mean . . .won't Jacob want to take you to dinner or something? You're kinda dating."
"Right, well I mean . . . ."
Eve shook her head. "Well, he is good looking. I like a man who wears a bow tie."
"Eve . . . ."
"What? You want to break up with him anyway, right?"
Cassandra sighed. "Yeah, I guess so."
"So hey, it won't hurt me to have dinner with a nice man. And okay, then you break up with him after he goes home and no one is the wiser, right?"
"Yeah."
"By the way," Eve said as they made their way toward the stairs. "The other one is really good looking. Maybe you could hit it off with him and problem solved."
Cassandra shook her head, but as they got closer, she did notice the shorter of the two men looked a little shy. Kinda how she felt right now. But when he looked up she almost gasped at his eyes. The kind of blue she could get lost in for days. And while he'd been looking at Eve (and really who wouldn't), he suddenly met her eyes and she swore he gasped too.
The two sets of people were staring at each other for a few moments, Cassandra noticing Jacob was staring at Eve with admiration. Of course he was, he thought she was the one he was in a relationship with. And Eve was doing a very good job of looking love struck herself. Which annoyed Cassandra more than she wanted to admit. She swallowed hard against her heart break.
And then the man whose name she didn't know spoke. "Hi, we're from the Metropolitan Foundation. I'm um," he cleared his throat. "I'm Flynn Carsen and this is Jacob Stone."
"Cassandra . . . ." Jacob said looking at Eve.
Eve broke into one of her most charming smiles. "I feel like I should hug you, but maybe it's not a good time. Why didn't you tell me you were coming?"
"I wanted it to be a surprise."
Cassandra did a really good job of pretending to be surprised. "You two know each other?"
"Yeah, what's up with that?" asked the man who said his name was Flynn, also looking confused.
"Oh, she's the one I told you about Flynn." Jacob said.
"Oh right, the girl on the Internet."
"Oh, so this is the guy . . . ."Cassandra said. Then cleared her throat. "Anyway, I'm Eve Baird, I'll be your liaison from the museum. And this is Cassandra Cillian, she's our pr director."
"Nice to meet ya Cassandra and Eve," said the shorter man, his accent sounding a bit Texan to Cassandra's ears.
He went to shake Eve's hand and he looked a little puzzled afterward. Which she wondered if she looked the same way as she shook Jacob's hand. And felt absolutely nothing. No spark, no nothing. There was nothing between them at all. And that made her heart break even more.
But then she shook Flynn's hand. And his blue eyes flew to hers, he had to have felt it too because he quickly took his hand back. It was like a little current between them. What she'd expected from Jacob, she felt from this man she didn't know at all.
Jacob and Eve were now chatting as if they'd known each other forever. And it was starting to really annoy Cassandra. She'd gotten herself into this mess, but Eve didn't have to play her part so perfectly.
Stone was boiling. Flynn had been so reluctant to do this, but now he was laying on the charm with Cassandra. And Cassandra was falling for it hook, line and sinker. And the worst part was that Jacob realized now that she and he didn't even have the tiniest bit of spark. Nothing. Nothing at all when he touched her.
Shouldn't lovers feel something when they touched? Even if they'd never really been lovers. Now he knew how Henry VIII felt when Anne of Cleves innocently didn't understand his overtures.
But the redhead. Now there was someone interesting, when he'd touched her, he'd certainly felt something. Even though she was currently glaring at their respective co-workers. She probably wanted to get to work. And he actually did too.
"Why don't you and I get started and we'll leave the lovebirds alone for a little bit?" He asked her kindly.
She looked relieved. Which seemed like an odd thing to him, but maybe she was just uncomfortable with the show and wanted to get to work.
"Sounds great, now exactly where did you want the wall?"
Jacob was having a far better time than he had expected. Cassandra had left a while ago to get back to her job, having made plans with Flynn for dinner that night. Jacob had thought he'd have to coach Flynn but they seemed smitten. Which should have hurt. It was supposed to hurt.
But instead he found himself captivated by the pretty redheaded Eve. She was everything he'd thought Cassandra was. And she had a laugh that was a delight to hear. It was like he'd known her all his life. And although she'd seemed almost annoyed when she'd first met them as soon as she was away from Flynn, she'd turned into this ray of sunshine. Odd, his friend usually made people happy but apparently he rubbed Eve the wrong way.
Maybe Chicago wasn't such a bad idea after all. Flynn could keep Cassandra occupied and he'd get to know Eve better.
Cassandra was really enjoying Flynn's company. She'd initially hated the way Eve and Jacob had seemed to immediately click. And she'd bristled when they'd made dinner plans. But as she thought about it, Jacob just wasn't working for her. In person he seemed sweet, but not really her style. A bit too bouncy, a bit too exhausting. And there had been no spark, no attraction at all.
Her annoyance with his clicking with her friend seemed to make him rub her the wrong way. This man that she'd only a couple of weeks ago had thought herself in love with.
Maybe Eve had been right the whole time. She'd just been fooling herself.
Now Flynn . . . he was soft spoken, maybe a bit shy. But his beautiful eyes had depth and intelligence. And when he talked to her, he maintained eye contact. He was fascinating and he seemed fascinated by her.
Whereas Jacob only had eyes for Eve. Which she supposed made sense. He thought she was the one he'd been talking to for so very long.
But shouldn't lovers know each other no matter what?
And why was her heart suddenly drawing her toward the other man?
Which is why when Flynn came over and asked her if she wanted to go to dinner since his co-worker was now suddenly occupied, she said yes.