The Best Is Yet to Come: Novella Bonus for Her Best Match (The Best Girls Book 0) by Tamie Dearen

said.
    “What’s that?” he asked, warily.
    “That I couldn’t stay with you when I knew you were in love with someone else.”
    “I’m not in love with her. I only just met her.”
    “Ahhh,” Alicia said, smiling smugly. “I knew it.”
    He covered his face with his hands, groaning at his indiscretion, but Alicia laughed.
    “Don’t worry, Steven. Your secret’s safe with me. I owe you one. I got a free boost in my ratings, even though you did a number on my ego.”
    “Seriously, Alicia. Any man would be crazy to turn you down.”
    She chuckled as she rose from her chair. “I’m just teasing. My ego’s fine.” She bent to kiss him on the cheek—a gentle, sisterly kiss. Then she moved her lips to whisper in his ear.
    “I’ll be around in case she turns you down.”
    And she was gone.
     
    As Steven walked alone to his waiting limousine, the cameras flashed and a reporter stuck a microphone in his face.
    “Mr. Gherring. You arrived with Alicia Esparza tonight. But now you’re leaving without her. Does that mean the two of you are no longer dating?”
    “That’s correct. We’re not dating.” He started to duck into the door of his car, but the reporter pressed him further.
    “Mr. Gherring. It’s going to be quite a contest. Who do you think will win the race?”
    He imagined the upcoming arrival of his new personal executive assistant, and couldn’t suppress a grin.
    “I will!”
     
     

From the Author
     
    I hope you enjoyed this short peek into the mind of Steven Gherring. Read on for a preview of Her Best Match , now free. It includes the entire job interview from Anne’s perspective!

Her Best Match
    (Excerpt)

Chapter One - Interview
     
    Anne tried vainl y to stop her knees from trembling, pushing on her legs with her hands. But her hands were shaking, too. Was it because the reception area was too cold? Or was it because her rivals were too intimidating? She shivered in her short-sleeved beige cotton blouse and straight brown linen skirt as she glanced around, sizing up the competition. What was she thinking when she agreed to this interview? She didn’t really stand a chance of landing this job. The room was filled with twenty-somethings. Nine other women and two men were vying for the same executive assistant position. Without exception, the other applicants were impeccably dressed in smart business attire and carrying leather attachés that stored their MacBooks, iPads, and iPhones. Somehow each one looked beautiful and confident, as if stepping out of the pages of some style magazine.
    She attempted to smooth her skirt, hopelessly creased from the long cab ride across Manhattan. Why had she chosen to wear linen, knowing how badly it wrinkled? But she knew the answer. When the recruiter called about an interview in two days’ time, she’d packed hurriedly, throwing in every skirt she owned—a total of three. Only after arriving at the hotel in New York, two hours before her appointment did she realize that only one skirt still fit her. And that one only barely.
    For the fifteen years since her husband died in an accident with a drunk driver, Anne Best had thrown herself into raising her two daughters. But once both daughters were out of the house and independent, she discovered she’d lost interest in ordinary activities. Activities like eating and shopping. So she had no alternative but to wear the linen skirt, which hung loosely on her hips and fell to an unflattering length just below her knees.
    She tried to look nonchalant while grabbing the yellow legal pad that was slipping from her lap. But when the pencil slipped from the pages of the pad and rolled across the floor, she cringed at the disdainful glances directed her way. Why didn’t she have some sort of briefcase like the others? To one particularly haughty glare, she returned a scalding look like she would give a misbehaving child in public. The girl gasped and quickly averted her eyes.
    At two o’clock on the dot, a