*Comes out of hiding* Ohhh hey guys… sooo I really wanted to write but I haven't had time because well EIGHTH GRADE SUCKS! I have been really busy with homework and important projects they give us and everything. So I decided since I am on break I am going to crank out as many chapter as possible for you guys because well I love you guys! Thanks everyone who reviewed and everything! This chapter is your CHRISTMAS PRESANT and if you don't celebrate Christmas well it's a just a chapter then… So enjoy!

OH AND I DO NOT OWN GALLAGHER GIRLS SERIES AND THE SPEED DATING BOOK :P BUT I DO WANT THEM FOR CHRISTMAS…

OH AND THE COVER FOR THIS STORY IS NOW ON MY PROFILE UNDER FALLING INTO PLACE PICTURES!

RECAP:

"Are you kidding? I crashed three times, lost control once and I'm pretty sure I made a yellow car blow up."

"Sounds like a good day on the track to me," Nick said with a toothy grin a lot of women seemed to go for.

Cammie laughed as though Nick was the funniest guy in NASCAR. He has to be a few years younger than she was. Nick didn't seem to mind, though. In fact, Zach might have to remind his fellow driver to find his own woman before the night got much older...

Cammie woke to the sound of moaning. Unfortunately, she was the one doing the moaning

She'd drunk champagne at the wedding and then has a beer while playing that video game. She was definitely what people referred to as a cheap drunk. Maybe she ought to winnow that list of "never dones" before embarking on too many more first.

Underneath her pounding head and slightly rocky stomach was a feeling of persistent euphoria, however. Last night she'd been the kind of women she admired. Strong, adventurous—Zach Goode had called her kick-ass.

She quite liked that view of herself. Of course, in the racing world, being kick-ass was no doubt a good thing. In the actuarial world, she wasn't so sure.

No one in history had ever refused the Sharpened Pencil Award. It had felt like the right thing to do when she'd stared right at Josh and his pregnant girlfriend and realized how incredibly blind she'd been, but had she gone too far?

She rolled out of bed, showered and dressed. Today she was going home. Back to her life, her job, and the humiliating reality of facing her ex-fiancée's new love growing rounder every day with his child.

To think that twenty-four hours ago everything had been so different. She's still been blindly engaged, arrogant enough to think she deserved the Sharpened Pencil and had never met a NASCAR driver in her life.

Zach. What an extraordinary date he'd turned out to be. Sexy, funny, gorgeous. Aloof. She suspected he was an easy man on the surface and one it was very difficult to really get to know. He'd helped make sure she got her key when they returned to the hotel in the wee hours, and he'd given her a brief but scrumptious kiss outside her door.

She hoped he hadn't left Charlotte yet. She wanted to say goodbye.

She could phone him but—no. She should thank him in person for the fun she'd had last night. As she reached her hotel room door, someone knocked on it.

Her pulse jumped. Zach? Was he thinking of her as she was thinking of him?

When she opened the door, her regional manager, Abby Solomon, was standing there. With her was the VP of human resources, Patricia Buckingham.

"Oh," she said in a surprise. "Hello. Would you like to come in?"

"If it's convenient."

"Of course"

It felt very strange to have two of the muckety-mucks from her company in her hotel room. She wished more than ever she'd passed on that beer last night. She had a feeling a clear head was going to be called for.

"Sorry to barge in on you like this, Cameron," Abby said. She was a beautiful woman, strong with an attitude who kept her desk so clean that dust didn't dare settle.

Patricia was a genteel British woman with an athletic build. She had thick lips and a ready laugh.

"That's all right." She glanced around. There were two chairs at a small table under the window, and a third chair at the small desk where her computer sat. "Please sit down."

She carried the chair from the desk closer to the table.

"Thank you. We would have liked a more conventional meeting space but—" Patricia raised her hands "—we gave up all our meeting rooms. And we wanted privacy."

"Really, it's fine." She was all packed since they were leaving today, so the room was as impersonal as any meeting space if they all turned their backs to the bed.

"Well." Abby was obviously the designated speaker at this meeting and she seemed as though she wasn't sure where to begin.

Her churning stomach now had nothing to do with alcohol.

"Cameron, you speech last night was a, um, surprise to all of us. I…we…those of us in senior management had a meeting this morning, in person and conference call. We agreed that your speech—you behavior, in fact—was inappropriate."

Her feeling of being a kick-ass woman began to dissipate faster than snow beneath a blowtorch. "Perhaps you're right. I admit I didn't intend to say what I did. I should have taken more time to think it over."

"Yes," Patricia agreed. "You should've."

"As I'm sure you realize," she said, "Josh Abrams and I—"

"Yes, indeed. A very distressing situation. Josh came to us last night, very upset. He held nothing back. We want you to know Cameron, he was candid that his relationship with made you very emotional."

Anger swept through her like a brush fire. "He broke our engagement less than an hour before the banquet. I wasn't very emotional. I was betrayed, angry, and heartbroken."

"The situation, as I'm sure you can understand, is untenable. We simply cannot have these kind of personal dramas affecting our work."

"Of course not," she agreed. "I assure you that I will do my job, as I always have, with the utmost professional integrity. However, I have been blind not to see what was going on under my nose. It was the lack of perspicacity in myself which made me refuse that award. It wouldn't have been right to accept it."

"Nevertheless, your speech publicly embarrassed our company and one of our senior employees."

"An employee who has been humiliating me for months behind my back." She had to stay calm, she reminded herself even as her voice shook.

"Cameron." Abby went for the avuncular tone. She supposed Abby thought she had a right to treat her like a child. "I've known you a long time and believe you've got a wonderful future ahead of you."

"Oh, good." She breathed out. "I thought for a second there you were going to fire me."

Abby cleared her throat and looked at the blank table as though searching for something to straighten or tidy. "Of course not. However, we are a respected firm. We cannot allow people involved personally to affect the workplace."

"Then you might want to separate Josh and Dee Dee."

"We're moving to Payroll. She's accepted the new position."

"Where are you moving me? The mail room?"

Patricia spoke up. This obviously her leg of the dog and pony show. "We're transferring you to the branch office in Burnsville. You'll be assistant branch manager."

She blinked. "That's a storefront insurance office that isn't even open yet. I'm not an insurance clerk. I'm an actuary."

"I'm sorry, Cameron, but we think this is for the best. As you point out, the Burnsville location won't be viable for a few months. We're offering you a three-month stress leave. When you return to work you'll report to the Burnsville office."

"Stress leave?" She stared from one to the other. "You think I need a stress leave?"

The silence was so think she heard Patricia's shoes scrape the carpet as he shifted.

"And Josh?"

"He'll remain where he is. We feel we've solved the problem."

"But Josh was the problem"

"This isn't open to discussion, Cameron. The decision has been made."

She looked from one to the other; unable to believe what she was hearing. Josh kept his job, and the two women he'd been involved with got demoted? She was sent off on a stress leave for three months? "What if I refuse?"

"Your position has been relocated to Burnsville. You have no job in the Chaska office."

All those years. All that training. The hours she'd put in, the loyalty she'd felt for the company. It was so blatantly unfair, sexist and wrong that she felt like screaming. An outburst that would only confirm their obvious conclusion that she was too emotional.

"So you're demoting me."

"Not at all. This is an excellent opportunity to learn another part of the business. Consider it a sideways promotion."

She wanted to tell them to take their measly sideways promotion and shove it sideways. But she had Twenty-one years of good-girl behavior against one short night as a rebel.

There was no contest.

ZACH! (AHHH)

Zach was looking for a missing sock when his cell phone rang.

"Zach?" the soft voice of his ex-wife greeted him.

"Macey? Aren't you supposed to be on honeymoon?"

"Honestly, Zach, you never listen to a word I say" He'd heard that line often enough when they were married. "Our plane doesn't leave until Thursday."

"Right." There was a pause. Since he was the ex-husband, asking about her wedding night didn't seem appropriate, although he couldn't think of anything more inappropriate that her calling him on her first morning married to another guy.

"What's up?"

"I wanted to tell you how happy I am that you've found someone special. At first I thought she was awful, but then I saw you two kissing and I could tell that you and Cammie are totally in love." Her voice lowered. "It's the only thing that made me go through that ceremony last night. If you're happy in love, then maybe I can find it, too."

Oh great. He and Macey had, had a pretty wretched marriage, all told. Between the yelling and the scenes, her being in love with the excitement of what he did and then freaking out before every race, there'd been little peace. Then there was the issue of her being a spoiled little rich girl and him being an equally spoiled rich boy. They hadn't stood a chance.

Still, he harbored a stubborn affection for Macey. She was flighty and spoiled, but she was also sweet. When she'd said she wanted a divorce, he'd felt nothing but relief. It took him month to realize that when she'd thrown those words at him she'd been loving the drama and expected him to talk her out of leaving. In the three marriages between, she still hadn't given up on getting back together. He was fairly certain that she was drawn to the excitement of his world, but what she really craved was stability. He also wished she'd figure out soon that she didn't love him anymore than he loved her.

However, to blow her off would be like kicking a little Persian kitten for scratching up the upholstery. He couldn't do it.

Macey's biggest problem was that she was born a fool for romance.

Being a three-time loser at marriage hadn't dampened her sentimental notions an iota. Usually her starry-eyed romantic routine irritated him, but in the case of him and Cammie, he was glad Macey had decided to see true love where none existed. Cammie might not be a real actress, but she'd ended up doing a good job last night of acting crazy for him.

"I am telling you, Macy, that woman means the world to me. Like you mean the world to Preston."

"I know. I'm so happy for you. She seemed really slutty at first, but maybe that's the kind of woman you need," his ex-wife said with no irony that he could detect.

"Yeah, well, it might be a good idea to stop calling her a slut. I don't think she appreciated it."

"I guess it was prewedding jitters. Look, honey, if she's going to be part of your life, she's going to be part of mine. Put her on the phone, will you? I want to apologize."

"Um, she's in the bathroom right now."

"Oh. You're not just saying that are you? Because if she's right there and doesn't want to speak to me, well, I'll have to drive over there and apologize in person."

"No. No! Don't do that."

"But she'll be at the race tomorrow. I'm bound to see her. I want everything smoothed out now. You know how I am. I worry."

"You're going to the race?" What was wrong with Preston that he couldn't grab his wife and get the pair of them on their honeymoon like a normal couple?

"Sure. You're in town. I'm in town. Why wouldn't I go?"

"Because you're on your honeymoon," he reminded her,

"That's silly. Preston loves racing. We're all from the same town. We should support each other."

Oh like that was going to happen.

"Let me talk to her, Zach"

"The shower's still running. I should warn you that she's a bit of a clean freak. Once she gets in that shower, I swear she shampoos her toenails. She'll be a good few minutes yet."

"Okay. I'll talk to you until she comes out." She sighed. "Wasn't that a beautiful wedding?"

In Zach's top ten things he hated discussing, "beautiful wedding" would make the top three. "Sure was. Where's Preston? Shouldn't you two be makin' babies or something?"

"I sent him off to the jewelry store to get my wedding ring made smaller."

"Why didn't you go with him?"

"Because I wanted to talk to you and Cammie without him listening in, that's why. He thinks I'm having a facial."

"You're a spoiled brat, you know that?"

"Of course I know it, and so does Preston. He'd do anything for me."

"He's a fool."

There was a short pause. "You're not going to make me mad enough to hang up on you so quiet trying. Is Cammie out of the shower yet?"

He grabbed his room card and stuck it in his pocket before slipping out of his hotel room and into the hall.

"She's singing the 'Hallelujah Chorus,' so that means she's shaving her legs. She's almost done."

"Good. So, did you think the ceremony was too short? I didn't want to make too big a deal of it, being it was my fourth wedding and all."

Two hundred guest and enough candles to light up outer space wasn't a big deal? "No," he said. "I thought it was perfect."

From long experience, he knew he could make mmm-hmm noises periodically and Macey would keep talking. Right now she was going on about twinkle lights. Twinkle lights! "Mmm-hmm."

He banged on Cammie's door, hoping she'd still be there.

"Who is it?" he heard a minute later, in a tone that sounded as though she were expecting a firing squad.

"Honey," he said, loud enough for her to hear him through the hotel door, "Macey is on the phone. She wants to talk to you."

A beat passed.

"Honey?"

The door opened.

He blinked. "Cammie?" He'd barely have recognized the women standing in front of him. She was dressed in a dirt-colored suit with a turtleneck color of mould underneath. Her shoes were the flat kind favored by old women with bad knees. He hair was neat and her posture stiff. What had happened to last night's women?

Even her eyes changed. Last night, they'd been sparkly and daring; this morning, they looked far too old for a young women.

"What is it?" he asked, forgetting for the moment why he was there. He felt an impulse to wrap her in his arms. If anyone had ever needed a hug, it was Cammie.

She shook her head. "Is there something I can do for you?"

Right. The phone. "Macey wants to speak to you."

"She does?"

He nodded. He didn't have the heart to tell this model of propriety that Macey was about to apologize for calling her slutty. He simply handed over the phone.

She hesitated and he mouthed, "Please?"

"Hello?"

MERRY CHRISTMAS GUYS!

THAT'S IT! SORRY I'LL HAVE THE NEXT CHAPTER UP SOON BUT REVIEW AND REMEMBER THAT THE COVER FOR THIS STORY IS ON MY PROFILE! LOVE YOU ALL!

~KRISTINA